Did you know that a large chunk of your property taxes goes to education? Whether you have kids or not, you are paying for the education of hundreds of students in Wake County Public School System (WCPSS).
It could seem like a raw deal until you know that WCPSS actually makes your home more valuable – whether you have kids or not.
Over the summer WakeEd partnered with WCPSS to fund a detailed study on the economic impact of our local public schools in Wake County. In other words, we wanted to find out how the community benefits when we invest in education. The study was conducted by North Carolina State University economist Dr. Michael Walden and what he found exceeded our expectations.
The value of a WCPSS education has become such a hot commodity that property values are $11.2 billion higher than they would be otherwise. Yes, your home is worth more because of the strong schools in Wake. In addition, every $1 spent in the capital budget and retained in Wake County is multiplied by 123 percent in the community as workers spend money at other local businesses. We announced the complete results at a press conference at Paragon Bank earlier this month.
Financial investments in WCPSS are also returned to the county through savings in other publicly funded areas, such as prison, welfare and public healthcare. High school graduates are less likely to use these services which saves taxpayers roughly $600 million per graduating classes.
It’s easy to see how an investment in education benefits us all. And that’s just the quick overview. You can view the complete study and see an infographic and video of the results at https://www.wakeed.org/economicimpact. Tweet about the study using the hashtag #WakeImpact.
For more information on WCPSS and WakeEd are making a difference in the lives of Wake County citizens, visit http://wcpss.net and http://wakeed.org.
