Gaston County Schools has incurred staff layoffs, cuts to enrichment programs, and the prospect of school closures. The most significant issue that we see is under-resourcing of our local schools by state and county governments.
While nearby peer counties contribute an average of 22.4% of their general fund to education, Gaston County contributed 17.9% in 2025-2026, and has offered relatively flat funding to local schools in recent years despite significant increases in County revenue over the same period.
Another measure of prioritization is the amount of property tax revenue allocated to public education by a County. Gaston County contributes far less of local property tax revenue to schools than peer counties. While regional leaders like Union County contribute upwards of 48% of property tax revenue to education, Gaston County contributes closer to 25% of property tax revenue to education.
Test scores, learning rates, and overall academic performance measures reflect these investments. Union County Schools claimed the highest test scores in the state in 2025-26, while Gaston County's district-wide performance has fallen year-over-year since 2020.
In May 2026, the Gaston County Commissioners adopted a County contribution of $54 million to Gaston County Schools' FY27 operating budget -- only $500,000 more than the prior year's budget despite growing needs, rising inflation, and significant property tax increases. This funding allocation reflected $6.4 million less than the school board's modest operating budget request of $60.4 million.
According to the school superintendent's budget presentations, $6.8 million was deducted in 2025-26 from GCS for area charter schools, which skim funding from public education in North Carolina.
In July 2026, the County Commission voted to shore up the school budget by $5 million more, ignoring a request of $3.3 million for Exceptional Child (EC) services, a federally-mandated program that supports children with learning and developmental disabilities. Of the recent $5 million allocation, $600,000 will go to charter schools and the remaining $4.4 million is mostly obligated to match state personnel costs and keep W.B. Beam in Cherryville operational for the 26-27 school year.
Combined with prior year budget deficits, this ongoing under-resourcing of our local school system is resulting in reductions-in-force (RIFs) of teachers, administrators, counselors, district employees, and other critical staff that keep our schools running smoothly and children learning at their highest potential. Without appropriate staffing, our children will not enjoy the necessary services, academic success, enrichment or extracurricular activities that we want and expect for them.
At the state level, local property tax increases resulted in the removal of the County's "low wealth" status in September 2025, resulting in the reversal of $7.2 million in supplemental state funding during FY2026. This left our school system in the lurch after the budget year had already begun and funds already dedicated.
To further complicate local challenges, Gaston County Schools adopted a new statewide Oracle payroll system in 2021-22 that has malfunctioned for years, and created accounting headaches that led to another $2.8 million shortfall in the 25-26 school year.
Gaston County Schools hired an outside consultancy, Hurd Isenhour Lopez (HIL), to evaluate the impacts of the various funding shortfalls and the resulting report was released in Spring 2026. The HIL report names the Oracle system as part of the problem, in addition to COVID-era funding lapses, long-term under-funding by the County and State, and over-spending by the former Gaston County Schools administration.
The Gaston County Board of County Commissioners voted to infuse $10 million of emergency funding into the schools on March 24, 2026 to prevent immediate layoffs, however our schools have been underfunded for many years and the impacts are cumulative. While the Spring 2026 infusion prevented an immediate staffing crisis, there have been recent reductions-in-force (RIFs) of more than 200 positions.
These funding shortfalls have resulted in cuts to critical staff such as literacy and math interventionists, guidance counselors, librarians, school nurses, and teachers. Programs such as theater and arts have been cut wholesale from some schools, and school closures -- primarily in Cherryville -- have been proposed for the 2026-27 school year.
In addition to these local concerns, the state legislature in North Carolina has expanded the school voucher program, giving public funding to students who attend private and charter schools within our district. In the 2025-26 school year, this resulted in an immediate loss of $6.8 million from the Gaston County Schools' state budget allocation.
The impacts to Gaston County students' academic performance and learning rates can be seen in Stanford University's school effectiveness analysis (summarized graphically below). While nearby counties boast rising test scores and/or learning rates, Gaston County students are an average of one grade level behind, with the most apparent declines since 2021 when County funding began decreasing signficantly.
Gaston_Co_Educational_Opportunity_Project_Summary.pdfAs parents, grandparents, taxpayers, and advocates, we want the best for our children. We believe young people are our future and will be the economic drivers of our county and the region in the years to come. We want to see these recent declines in our school system turn around, and we want Gaston County students to have the best possible education in order to reach their highest potential. Below are our suggestions for how to get there.
Gaston County government fund schools at the requested $68 million for the 2026-27 school year by injecting additional money from the County's surplus funds or other departmental savings in order to stabilize our school system.
Gaston County staff, Gaston County Commissioners, Board of Education members, and Gaston County Schools staff formally adopt a meeting schedule for a combined task force that meets on an ongoing quarterly basis. We propose that these meetings be transparent, open to the public, and permanent in nature to improve cross-body collaboration.
We propose that the local school task force create an FY28 budget proposal prior to the FY28 County budget proceedings, publishing this proposal in advance of County budget meetings with full transparency and opportunities for public input.
We propose full funding of Gaston County Schools by the County government at our peer funding rate of 22% of the general fund (in FY26, that would have equated to $76 million of local dollars).
We ask that Gaston County and Gaston County Schools' elected and staff leadership create a 5-year plan for appropriately resourcing public education in Gaston County and incrementally increase funds (up to 22% in Year 5) to re-establish RIF'd teachers, support staff, enrichment programs, and academic success.
We expect Gaston County and Gaston County Schools to create an aspirational vision for educational success in our local public education system, and collaboratively monitor test scores, learning rates, and related metrics to ensure improvements in our schools' collective performance in tandem with full financial resourcing.
Based on regular monitoring, we expect targeted investment to boost student experience and success rates where and when necessary. This includes fully funding Exceptional Children (EC) programming to meet requirements of the federal IDEA Act.