Few organizations, public or private, could boast such a huge rate of revenue growth. And yet, school officials continue to complain that the system is cash-strapped. One contention often made in recent years, and the subject of a recent advertising campaign by the Wake Education Partnership, is that Wake schools are underfunded compared to their peers in North Carolina and elsewhere. But the data do not support this contention. First of all, comparing local funding in Wake County to school districts outside North Carolina is a pointless exercise.
States vary in how they allocate funding responsibility between local governments and the state.
In Virginia, local property taxes are the largest source of education dollars. In North Carolina, the state plays an overwhelming role. A meaningful analysis across borders must reflect total spending per pupil, not local spending alone. It must also include capital funding, since it is an integral and often costly part of the taxpayers' investment in education. Unfortunately, the Quality Matters 2001 study did not obtain capital funding data for Gwinnett and Fairfax.