Georgia House approves amended budget, increases education funding
Georgia House approves bill to amend state budget
The amended budget would restore cuts made to public education in Georgia in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
ATLANTA - The Georgia House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the amended FY 2022 budget Friday.
The $29.9 billion spending plan includes $900 million in raises for state employees and public school teachers. The bill also fully restores the budget cuts made to education back in 2020.
"If you look at a snapshot in time of the last five years, four of those five years we have fully funded QBE," said state Rep. Terry England, R-Auburn, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
GEORGIA BUDGET CHANGES ADVANCE WITH PAY BOOSTS, TAX REBATES
QBE stands for Quality Basic Education, the formula Georgia has used to calculate education budgets since 1985.
State Rep. Donna McLeod, D-Lawrenceville, was one of only four lawmakers who voted against the budget, because she said it does not fully fund education at the level needed.
"That formula needs to be updated because the reason why it caught my attention was in the 2019-2020 session, Gwinnett County came to us afterwards--their lobbyist--and said they were still missing money for bus drivers and cafeteria workers," Rep. McLeod explained.

Rep. McLeod filed a bill in 2021 to create a pilot program to study an alternative funding mechanism in as many as six schools for four years.
Chairman England, however, said the state has gone back and examined the QBE formula several times since its adoption.
"We've looked at it. There's no better way that we can find in order to fund education in the state. The one question no one can ever answer is: what does it cost to educate a child? And that is a number that you're never going to get an answer on because no one truly knows," said Rep. England.
The budget now heads to the state senate for its review.
WATCH: FOX 5 NEWS LIVE COVERAGE
_____