Back in December, WakeEd and WCPSS released an Economic Impact Report for the Wake County Public School System. The report found “large and significant” positive impacts on the local economy.
Tax dollars invested in educating our students are not just dollars that disappear. The Wake County Public School System is a large employer with a total of 18,950 employees. Additionally, it is a growing system that is continually constructing new facilities.
Consider that WCPSS spending to pay salaries and build schools sets off a chain reaction of spending and re-spending in our county economy. Households and businesses receive funds and purchase products and services. That spending creates jobs and additional spending by business. And so on.
For example, every $1 spent and retained locally from the WCPSS operating budget results in $1.76 of Wake County spending. This results in an annual addition of $683 million in our local economy. Additionally, every WCPSS job is associated with another 0.34 Wake County jobs. This is an annual addition of 6,255 jobs.
WCPSS is a growing system. It builds and maintains many schools and associated structures. Over a five-year period from 2011-2015, every $1 spent and retained in the region by the capital budget results in $2.23 of Wake County spending. This is an addition of $584 million in our local economy. Further, every $1 million spent by the WCPSS capital budget results in 9.6 Wake County jobs. Over the same five-year period, this is an addition of 2,311 jobs.
Did you glaze over during the last few paragraphs? There are a lot of numbers there.
Even if math is not your thing, you can see that the numbers are not small.
