ATLANTA – State Representative Jimmy Pruett (R-Eastman) recently announced that Telfair and Wheeler Counties will receive Sparsity Grants to supplement funds for educational programs and services. Telfair County will receive $43,900, and Wheeler County will receive $94,136 in Sparsity Grant funding.
“This funding will provide much needed support for our local schools in Telfair and Wheeler Counties,” said Rep. Pruett. “I would like to thank Governor Deal for recognizing the need for these funds in Telfair and Wheeler Counties and providing our school systems with these additional grants.”
Sparsity Grants are additional funds for school systems that, due to their sparse population, do not earn enough funds through the Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula to provide standard required educational programs and services. In Fiscal Year 2014, the Georgia Department of Education conducted a Sparsity Grant survey. The survey found that 22 additional systems qualify for Sparsity Grant funding. Therefore, the Fiscal Year 2015 budget included an additional $2.5 million for those systems through Sparsity Grants.
The Quality Basic Education funding formula accounts for the majority of education funding in Georgia. The formula considers population as one factor in its determination of how much money each county should receive for education. This created a large funding disparity between heavily populated counties and smaller counties, like Telfair and Wheeler.
Representative Jimmy Pruett represents the citizens of District 149, which includes all of Dodge, Telfair, and Wheeler counties, and portions of Laurens, and Jeff Davis counties. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 2006, and currently serves as the Chairman on the State Planning & Community Affairs Committee, and the Secretary on the Game, Fish, & Parks committees. He also serves on the Appropriations, Economic Development & Tourism, Health & Human Services, Industry and Labor, and MARTOC committees.
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