The Public School Forum of North Carolina report says public school resources provided by the state’s ten highest wealth counties was over $59,000 more per classroom than the lowest spending counties. The study blamed a wide variation in property wealth across the state. It said the 25 wealthiest counties had nearly $1.5 million in real estate wealth available per child in the 2011-2012 school year compared to about $394,000 for the bottom 25 counties. The spending gap persists despite the poorest counties taxing at a rate about 43 cents higher than the wealthiest. The spending gap per student was $2280. The one thing high and low spending counties had in common… they both spent about $15 less per student from the prior year. I’m George Olsen.
George Olsen is a 1977 Havelock High School graduate. He received his B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Carolina in 1982 where he got his first taste of non-commercial radio working for their student station WUSC. After graduation he worked about five years in commercial radio before coming to work at Public Radio East where he has remained since outside of a nearly 3-year stint as jazz and operations coordinator at WUAL in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the early 1990s. On his return to eastern North Carolina he hosted classical music for Public Radio East before moving into the Morning Edition host position and now can be heard on All Things Considered. He also hosts and produces The Sound, five hours of Americana, Roots Rock and Contemporary Folk weekday evenings on PRE Public Radio East News & Ideas, and is a news and feature producer for Public Radio East.