Supporters with UnifiEd, a local education advocacy nonprofit, leave the County Commission assembly room after the commission voted on the budget for the 2018 fiscal year. The budget was passed without a tax increase for public schools. UnifiEd supported the tax increase.Community efforts to increase school funding ended in disappointment late last month when the Hamilton County Commission approved its 2017-2018 budget.
Despite weeks of lobbying from parents and local advocates, the $691.5 million budget did not include a tax increase to fund the $24 million in additional needs identified by the Hamilton County Board of Education but not included in its proposed operating budget of $372.8 million.
If approved, the extra money would have been used to fund a variety of new teaching positions and programs, professional development stipends, technology updates and literacy support for low-performing schools, among other things.
“We’re extremely disappointed that [the commissioners] didn’t listen to their constituents,” said Natalie Cook, communication director for local nonprofit UnifiED, which supports public education.
With the help of the nonprofit, she said more than 2,100 people wrote their county representatives to ask for increased school funding, and more than 150 supporters crowded the June 21 commission meeting in a final attempt to sway the body’s decision.