With one legislative session over and the next about eight months away, Alabama lawmakers will spend time deciding whether to develop an entirely new school funding formula.
The House and Senate committees that oversee the Education Trust Fund, the state’s education budget, held a joint meeting Tuesday to begin discussions on possible changes to the current funding formula for K-12 public education.
“It’s been 30 years since we changed our education funding formula, and a lot has changed in the last 30 years,” Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, chairman of the Ways and Means Education Committee, said in a statement. of the House of Representatives. interview after the meeting. “We’re one of six states out of 50 that continue to fund the way we do, based on a resource model, so we’re looking at what other options we have that would better fit that.”
It is the first in a series of meetings aimed at providing members with education on the operation of the Alabama Foundation Program, a $4.6 billion program that provides funding for schools across the state.
Many states fund their schools using a student-based model, one that takes into account not only the number of students within a given school system, but also the makeup of the students, such as whether they are English language learners or have special needs.
Under Alabama’s current formula, in effect since 1995, the number of students creates a certain number of teaching units. That number of teaching units then becomes the basis for much of the funding.
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At a recent State Board of Education work session, state Superintendent Eric Mackey defined the school as a “hybrid program” rather than a true core program because those units are the basis of funding.
“You get what you get based on the number of units,” he said.
According to Allovue, Connecticut, Kansas, California, Tennessee, Maryland and Texas have adopted a weighted student funding formula in the last decade.
Members discussed not only the funding formula, but also the underfunding of schools in low-income communities with significant minority populations; the role of economic development incentives and their effect on school funding, and the lack of funding for students with special needs.
Kirk Fulford, deputy director of the Legislative Services Agency, provided lawmakers with an overview of the Foundation Program.
The amount schools receive is based on a unit count. The state takes the average number of students enrolled in the school or school system during the 20 days after Labor Day. The number is then divided by the divisor, established by the Legislature for the number of students within a set of grade levels.
If a school has 100 students and the divisor for grades K-3 is 14.25, the school or school district has a unit count for grades K-3 teachers of 7.01. That is then converted to dollars based on the salary plan that is established.
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The number of principals, assistant principals and counselors at a school is also calculated based on units, and the amount of Foundation Program funds for the school is converted by multiplying that unit count by the money per unit decided by legislators.
Other types of funding are added to the Foundation Program allocation for schools, from transportation expenses to additional money specifically for math and science teachers along with special education.
The money to finance the cost determined for each district is shared between the municipalities and the state. The formula is designed so that more affluent places pay a higher proportion of the cost than those whose residents have lower incomes.
Local governments must set property taxes at a minimum of 10 mills to receive money from the Foundation Program.
For next year, the state’s portion of the fund for K-12 schools, including the Foundation Program; transportation and programs administered through the Alabama State Department of Education, is approximately $5.5 billion. The local fund portion is approximately $831.5 million.
The amount of local property taxes collected for the school system will vary depending on the assessed value of properties within the school system boundaries. Poorer areas will generate less tax revenue than more prosperous ones.
Lowndes County, for example, an area with a significantly lower-income population, contributed approximately $1.3 million to the foundation’s program. Mountain Brook, a wealthy Birmingham suburb, paid about $7.3 million to the foundation’s program.
School districts with wealthier populations tend to post higher standardized test scores, according to an analysis based on fiscal year 21-22 spending and school year 2022-23 scores from the Georgetown-based Edunomics Lab.
The local allocation has irritated some lawmakers who work to increase their economic development to increase school funding, only to see their state allocation reduced, leaving them net neutral.
“We were always under the impression that, ‘Wow, we bring in industry and they pay $200,000 in property taxes to our schools,'” said Rep. Troy Stubbs, R-Wetumpka, who used to be on the Elmore County Commission. “We felt like we were improving our local schools because we were putting more money in. However, Elmore County only participates in our Foundation Program with our 10 mills. We don’t have any local funding. So all we were doing was what we actually did. was to reduce the amount the state contributed to Elmore County.”
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In Tennessee, which in recent years adopted a weighted student funding formula, school districts were required to maintain funding at previous levels, according to the Commercial Appeal. Overall, the state provided more funding to the education budget, so districts received more money in numbers, even if the share they received from the state decreased.
Garrett previously told the Reflector that the Educational Opportunity Reserve Fund, created in the 2022 regular legislative session, could be used to change the funding formula.
Schools receive additional funding for specific students, such as those with special needs, from the Foundation Program. The formula automatically takes into account the number of students who have special needs by 5%. The unit count is then weighted up to 2.5 so that those students give schools additional dollars for more resources.
Currently, the only adaptation in the formula is the template, and it does not incorporate the specific needs of some schools, but rather depends on each student.
“We know that the cost of educating a child with special needs is by far greater than the average child,” said Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, chairman of the Senate education budget committee. “The cost of educating an English learner is much higher than that of an average Alabama child. Following the trend, or at least looking at the other states that have gone down this path, to see if we want to consider changing our funding model , how to fund based on a type of student instead of just a student.”
The committees plan to resume discussions at a meeting in August.
Reporter Jemma Stephenson contributed to this story.
Read more at AlabamaReflector.com.
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