The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to send a petition to the state legislature requesting reliable and adequate funding for N.C. schools.
The petition asks the N.C. General Assembly to provide enough funding to meet the needs and mandates of schools in the state and, in particular, the Triangle.
It states that although funding has increased for public schools, it has not increased at the same rate as the state's general fund, giving school districts a smaller portion of the state's budget.
"The state has been increasing the burden on the county," said board vice chairwoman Lisa Stuckey.
According to the resolution, the downward shift reduces the amount of resources available to the schools but does not reduce the responsibilities presented by mandated programs, including a need to hire more assistants to manage an increased number of classes.
And a downward shift in state funding increases schools' reliance on local funding, creating inadequacies across the state. Poorer areas tend to suffer when there is a heavy reliance on public funding, the petition states.
Inadequate funding hurts the entirety of the school budget - both the district's capital spending and its operational budget, the resolution stresses.
Capital spending pays for the maintenance and expansion of old facilities and the building of new ones, while money in the operational budget pays for resources such as teachers' salaries, supplies and after-school programs.
The process of apportioning capital spending to schools is being examined by the Orange County Board of Commissioners.
