Alleghany's local spending on schools is rated 91st in state

Alleghany County again received a low ranking for spending on public schools relative to financial resources, according to a recent statewide study. The Public School Forum of North Carolina, a non-profit organization based in Raleigh, ranked Alleghany 91st out of the state's 100 counties in relative effort in its 2002 local school finance study. The study is based on data from the 2000-01 school year.

County officials disagreed with the implications of the report for Alleghany and defended local school funding efforts.

The relative effort table listed Alleghany with $5,334 in revenue per ADM (average daily membership of the school system, that is, per pupil), based on the state's average property tax rate, with $2,078 in total spending per ADM. Alleghany thus spent 39.0 percent of revenue per pupil, compared to the state average of 57.3 percent. Alleghany's ADM, or enrollment, was 1,410 pupils.

Relative effort compares actual effort and ability to pay, the report states. Actual effort includes county appropriations for current expense, a six-year average capital outlay, capital reserves and interest on debt and, where appropriate, supplemental tax levies for schools.

Alleghany ranked number 23 in actual effort. The $2,078 in total spending per ADM included $937 current spending and $1,141 capital spending. Total 2000-01 current expense spending was listed at $1,321,450, with $1,608,818 in capital spending.

In actual effort with supplemental funding, Alleghany ranked 13th, with $1,104,358 in small county funding added, for $783 in additional spending per ADM.

Alleghany was number 13 in ability to pay, a measure of a county's per-pupil fiscal capacity to support public schools, based on revenue that would have been generated at the state average property tax rate of $0.599 per $100 valuation. Alleghany's average effective tax rate was $0.447.

The county was ninth in adjusted property valuations per pupil, with an adjusted tax base of $1,177,760,414, or $835,291 per ADM.

Alleghany's per capita income was listed at $25,413, 94.5 percent of the state average of $26,882.

In its synopsis of findings, the report stated, "The gap between school expenditures of the state's highest spending and bottom spending counties is the greatest it has been in the history of the Forum finance studies (since 1987)....The state's poorest counties continue to take on a greater tax burden in an effort to support public schools."

Commissioners React

Alleghany County Commissioner Patrick Woodie took issue with the report's low ranking of the county.

"They're looking at things from a standpoint of property taxes. They're not looking at the things small, rural counties don't get a return on, like sales taxes and fees. We have to fund a lot more with ad valorem taxes than a large urban county would," he said.

"Knowing our budget, what we go through, I find a report like this pretty distressing that suggests we're not meeting our obligation to our public schools. I think we have excellent public schools; I think their performance bears that out."

Woodie said the commissioners have worked closely with the Alleghany County Board of Education to meet the school system's needs.

Referring to the report's ranking of Alleghany among the upper echelon of the state's real-estate-wealthy counties, he said, "They're saying we're one of the most wealthy. We've been ranked as one of the 10 most economically distressed counties in the state of North Carolina.

"It boils down to statistics saying what you want them to say," Woodie said. "I question the way they do their study."

Commissioner J. Warren Taylor referred to renovation/construction projects at all four county schools within the last few years. "I feel like we have done a good job, I feel like we are making a conscientious effort to sufficiently fund our schools," Taylor said.

"With a small county like we are, sometimes these numbers don't really tell the story, and it's easy to get the wrong opinions about our efforts. Since we approved the additional one-half cent sales tax, we will be looking at additional funding for our schools this year."

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