A new funding formula for Mississippi public schools may see a vote this week or the next. House Bill 957 was filed on Jan. 12 and is a considerable departure from the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) formula, which has been used to determine school funding in Mississippi for close to 20 years.
The new formula is based on recommendations of the consulting firm EdBuild, with funding based on a figure of $4,800 per student as opposed to being based on the school district.
In the new formula, additional funds would be added to the $4,800 figure for special education students, English language learners, extraordinary students, students in poverty and students who must travel long distances to get to school. State Rep. Rob Roberson, R-Starkville, who serves as vice-chair of the House Education Committee, said the Education and Appropriations committees planned to meet Monday to discuss the bill. He also said he expected the bill to be ready for a vote late this week or early next week. Roberson explained the origins of the $4,800 amount.
“It’s an average, basically where that number comes from,” Roberson said. “EdBuild, the people we paid to come in and help us put this together that are supposed to be the experts on it, they’re the ones that came up with the base amount.”
However, he said it was too early in the bill’ s life for him to know for sure where he stood. He also said he hoped to clear up some minor issues he had with the bill when he met with the Appropriations Committee. State Rep. Gary Chism, R-Columbus, also a member of the House Education Committee was ready to offer his support.
“All my (school) districts besides Columbus that I represent in the Golden Triangle, all of those win in this formula,” Chism said,
Chism said the Columbus Municipal School District would lose a small amount of funding under the new formula, but would be funded at the same level as years past for the next two years. Roberson also said he hoped the bill would counter the 27 percent rule, which states a school district is allowed to pay no more than 27 percent of the cost of public education.
“I have a problem telling local communities if they want to spend more on their education we’re limiting it to the 27 percent amount,” Roberson said. “Some schools may want to put more time, energy and money into that, into their own schools.”
Leslie Fye, a Starkville native and one of the founders of the Mississippi Public Schools PAC voiced her opposition to the bill.
“It will give our schools a little more than we gave them last year, it’s still going to be less than what the MAEP formula would have given them if they would fully fund,” Fye said.
She said it was not good to set a precedent of lowering funding standards for education in Mississippi.
“They’re asking us to lower the bar for education funding and we think our children are worth keeping that bar high,” Fye said.
However, both Roberson and Chism said MAEP had almost never been funded completely.
“It could be said if you fully funded MAEP, than this formula is less,” Chism said. “Well, the truth of the matter is, we haven’t fully funded MAEP but twice in 20 years. This one, we can fund. You would set the base student cost, and we would be able to fund this one based on that.”
Fye also objected to the legislature using census data to measure poverty for the formula.
“Low-income families are chronically undercounted in the Census Bureau data,” Fye said.
She said poverty data was for all children in one region, and not just for those who attend public school.
“There’s a group of children being counted who attend private school or are home schooled,” Fye said. “Those children are much more likely to be from middle-income families.”
The legislative session started on Jan. 2 and will run 90 days.