Dr. Owens's Education Blog

On Monday (May 4) I went to the Atlanta School Board meeting and spoke against the tax allocation district (TAD) extension that the mayor's office is proposing. If you're not familiar with TADs, here's a good resource . In (relatively) short: when a TAD is created, they take a section of the city and freeze the amount of property taxes collected there. Anything collected above that amount--for the time period allotted--goes to Invest Atlanta for projects that (ideally) would revitalize the area and result in higher property tax collection than if nothing were done. That means that the city, county, and schools cannot use that future revenue. Proponents point to Atlantic Station as an example of TAD success. I would like to note that the Atlantic Station was allowed to expire. The mayor's office is proposing extending 8 TADs across the city to collect ~$5 billion to invest in neighborhoods. Atlanta Public Schools would have to forgo over $3 billion in future revenue if a...