Cobb County School Budget Tightened by increased living costs in Cobb County

There is a lot of debate surrounding the recent developments and the Cobb County School District. Lets take a deep dive into the $1,687,229,124 budget without the use of artificial intelligence.

Cobb Teacher Salaries utilize 63.8% of the school budget.

Source

Taking a look at the budget, we can all see that

Instruction (teachers and coaches) makes up 63.8% or $1,138,406,998
School Administration and General Administration make up 6.8% or $112,438,669
Student Transportation, Nutrition, Support, Maintenance, Pupil Services, and Community Services combine to 19.84% or $334,800,871

This puts the staff budget in the ballpark of ~90.44% for one of the United States’ top school districts. While the remaining budget goes to Improvement of Instructional Services(2.3%), Instructional Staff Training(0.6%), Educational Media Services(1.4%), and Utilize Fund Balance(5.5%)

Teacher Salaries rise with cost of living in Cobb County.

Sources:
Groceries & Insurance
Housing
Auto Expenses

Sources

These two charts clearly show the rising cost of living correlating with the Starter and Maximum Salary of Teaching positions.

Teachers who teach in Cobb County are likely to live in Cobb County with aspirations of home ownership in the community they help nurture.

As of the 2022–2023 school year, the Cobb County School District (CCSD) employed approximately 7,408 full-time classroom teachers. As of late 2024, corporations owned approximately 5,284 single-family rental homes in Cobb County, ranking it third for corporate ownership in Georgia behind Gwinnett and Henry counties

According to this article.

These numbers may indicate a market competition not only between corporations and the teachers, but also for families who look to settle and grow in our diverse and welcoming community.

Corporate-owned rental units are becoming a stark reality in the newly founded Cobb County City of Mableton, Georgia – Established in 2022. Massive complexes like the ones pictured below have popped up everywhere, offering “Preferred Employer” rental discounts and bonuses listed on their website.

Corporate Owned Rental Units starting at $2800/mo plus mandatory fees for a 1450sqft 2br 2.5ba townhome in Cobb County, Georgia

In 2024 alone, Corporations purchased roughly 350 acres of land in Cobb County, forever blocking the opportunity of affordable ownership and equity for teachers, staff, and parents alike via FHA, VA, or USDA loans.

“Cobb County has issued the most Multi-family permits out of the entire Atlanta area since 2006”, the School District published here. But the cost of living has only increased.

Georgia State University Researcher Professor Shelton shines some light on the situation.

Shelton said corporate landlords tend to have a lot of LLCs to protect themselves. In the core metro Atlanta counties in his study — Fulton, Clayton, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Cobb — the three largest landlord companies have more than 190 LLCs between them.

Professor Shelton Continues

“So that means these companies are able to get away with a lot more than they would have otherwise because there is no competition. They have essentially crowded out their competitors.”

“This is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before in America when it comes to the single-family rental market.”

The multi-family apartments pictured and linked in the example above add an estimated 395+330 units inside the borders of the school district, while only paying a combined $396,440 + $41,255 in school taxes in 2024 – at the same tax rate a citizen homeowner pays. That number covers a mere 7 Starter teacher salaries. But the situation is worse, “instruction” only accounts for 63.8% of the budget. So the numbers boil down to 1 teacher per 181 families within ~30 acres. This fact echoes the Cobb County School District’s repeated pleas for sustainable growth policies.

Editor’s Thoughts

We can all see the Cobb County School District budget primarily goes to the Teachers and Staff who make the CCSD one of the best in the nation, and that “affordable housing” is the dominant factor in the rising cost of living. Some people claim that the solution is more corporate owned rental properties, but it seems like the increase in corporate owned rental properties is correlating strongly with the increased cost of living, and demands higher teacher and staff salaries.

Sources used in this article: