NEWS

Ed funding: A new formula for Mississippi schools?

Bracey Harris
USA TODAY NETWORK - Mississippi
Rebecca Sibilia, CEO of EdBuild, left, and her staff, listen to a speaker during a public comment forum earlier this month at the Capitol in Jackson on funding the state's public schools. House and Senate Republicans are considering a rewrite of the Mississippi Adequate Education Program.

In the past four years, Mississippi’s statehouse has seen the passage of major education reforms, including charter schools and initiatives centered on childhood literacy and pre-kindergarten. With the Legislature’s hiring of the New Jersey-based firm EdBuild to propose changes to the oft-debated, twice fully funded Mississippi Adequate Education Program, rewriting the state education formula could be on tap for the approaching legislative session.

In addition to funding, lawmakers also are expected to hone in on school consolidation, the state’s early learning collaborative and school performance.

Student-based emphasis

The structure for the formula is average daily attendance times base student cost plus at-risk component minus local contribution plus 8-percent guarantee. Meant to ensure “adequate current operation funding levels,” the formula has been decried by critics as a behemoth and defended by education advocates and cash-strapped districts who have fought fiercely for funding.

With top Republican leadership, including Gov. Phil Bryant, expressing support for a student-centered funding formula, both sides are wondering if the 2017 session will sound the death knell for the current MAEP structure.

Senate Education Chairman Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, said lawmakers would “more than likely be considering revisiting the formula.”

EdBuild CEO Rebecca Sibilia has said Mississippi’s funding structure is a hybrid encompassing both student and resource-based funding. Allocations for exceptional-needs students, for example, are based on teacher units, rather than the student’s condition. Under a student-based mechanism, weights for certain needs and characteristics, such as those receiving free and reduced lunch and English-language learners, could be considered add-ons to the base student amount.

“In 20 years, a lot has changed in other states about (school) financing,” Tollison said.

“I think we can be a lot more specific based on a student (as opposed to) a general funding formula across the school districts.”

Tollison suggested that having multipliers added to a base student amount would be better suited to meeting student needs.

House Education Chairman John Moore, R-Brandon, also said he is in favor of adjusting the current structure but doesn't want it rushed.

“Over the last five years, we’ve known there’s been some issues, but I’ve been very hesitant,” Moore explained. “I don’t want to do anything that will be detrimental.”

Before considering changes, Moore said, lawmakers should run “tests” analyzing how funds would be allocated to districts — the agreement between the Legislature and EdBuild references a finance simulator tool.

Some stakeholders are leery that during the evaluation the reality that the formula is routinely underfunded will be lost in the details. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Mississippi is one of 35 states where funding per student in the 2013-14 school year was lower than pre-recession levels.

The next year the Legislature increased the K-12 education budget by $110 million. But several districts took a hit in a budget cut ordered by Bryant in April amid falling revenue.

“We hope to see an increase in funding for school districts, which are struggling in their ninth consecutive year of underfunding and budget cuts,” said Nancy Loome with the Parents’ Campaign, an education advocacy organization.

Early learning collaborative

In May, the National Institute for Early Education Research recognized the state’s early learning collaborative as among the top five in the nation.

And the state Board of Education recently granted partnerships to providers in Canton, Greenwood, Grenada and Starkville and has expanded the slots in the state-funded prekindergarten classes from 1,700 to 2,200.

Funds for the touted successful partnerships, however, reach fewer than 10 percent of the state’s 4-year-olds. The Legislature appropriated $4 million for the collaboratives for the 2016-17 school year. A $6 million funding increase is being sought for the next fiscal year.

About two-thirds of students in Mississippi begin kindergarten without necessary skills, according to the board, citing research that shows children who start school behind “continue to struggle throughout elementary, middle and high school, and have lower graduation rates.”

Since its inception in 2013, appropriation amounts for the program have fallen short of education officials' requests.

The collaborative exists outside the MAEP formula. During a joint education session with EdBuild, Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, who authored the collaborative, asked whether it would be possible to include the program in a rewritten education formula.

While Sibilia said the inclusion could work, Wiggins told The Clarion-Ledger he’s not in favor of the addition if it alters quality.

He noted that “traditionally districts throughout the state have not focused on early education and the Legislature has not funded early education.”

Data, Wiggins said, has shown the program is of high quality.

“As long as those parameters and the quality remains, I’m all for putting it into the formula. But I don’t want to sacrifice the quality and the framework just to say, ‘we’re putting it in the formula.’ If by putting it in the formula school districts are going to focus on early education, then I’m all for it.”

Accountability

Both Tollison and Moore said they do not expect a major bill tied to accountability to emerge during the session. Moore said he would like the Mississippi Department of Education to provide a debriefing on reform efforts such as The Mississippi Literacy Based Promotion Act.

Known as the "third-grade gate," the law requires third-graders to read at least on basic grade level before being promoted to fourth grade. Statewide, 87 percent of third-graders achieved a passing score on the Third-grade Reading Summative Assessment, which tests students on reading comprehension and proficiency. Last year a bill that would allow MDE to raise the required reading test scores for school year 2018-19 above the basic grade-level died in the Senate education committee.

For its part, the state Board of Education has not been shy to express to the Legislature that funds are needed to strengthen improvement efforts.

Nineteen school districts in Mississippi were rated as failing by MDE for the 2016 school year. Districts and schools that make a consecutive F this year could be considered for absorption into the new Mississippi Achievement School District, and the state Board of Education has asked for $250,000 to develop a model for the district.

“The current conservator model does not adequately address improving academic performance,” the board said of its legislative priorities.

An examination of superintendent or school board member qualifications is also possible, according to legislative education committee leaders.

School consolidation

In the past session, the Legislature continued its trend of consolidating Mississippi’s 144 school districts, sending Bryant four bills that merged eight of the state’s districts into four.

Tollison told The Clarion-Ledger one of the objectives of administrative consolidation is equity.

“Political lines that were drawn 50 years ago are not conducive to local tax base,” he said. Tollison gave the example of Holmes County, which he said draws a revenue of $100 million compared to nearby Durant's $9.5 million.

Holmes and Durant were two of the districts lawmakers approved for consolidation.

“When that consolidation is complete, the students in Durant will have access that they otherwise wouldn’t have,” Tollison said.

He expects his committee to hone in on districts with similar situations that impact academic performance and areas with “a declining tax base that would be stretched to provide education.”

Precedent suggests new pitches for mergers may not be welcome.

During the summer an advisory council tasked with making recommendations to the Legislature for consolidating three school districts in Chickasaw County failed to reach an agreement.

School choice

Although the landmark Mississippi Charter Schools Act of 2013 permits up to 15 charters to be established per year, fewer than three operate in the state (a high school is slated to open next fall). With both ReImagine Prep and Midtown Public Charter School underperforming on the state's student assessment, the state's authorizer board has made it clear it will not rubber stamp new charters, leading one member to question whether they were deterring prospective operators.

Grant Callen of Empower Mississippi, which advocates school choice, applauded the action and says his organization remains focused on expanding options for students "trapped" in failing schools or districts.

Although an open enrollment bill introduced by Moore last year — a bill that would have allowed students from D and F districts to attend A and B schools — failed to make it out of committee, Bryant's signage of a law permitting students from D and F districts to attend charter schools was seen as a win for the school choice crowd.

This session Callen said he hopes the Legislature will consider increased funding for Educational Scholarship Accounts. The program provides awards of up to $6,637 to parents of exceptional needs children to help defray costs of public school alternatives.

The accounts have seen some push-back with critics pointing out the law does not boost public schools resources. Loome is among those concerned that the program fails to provide a long-term solution, noting private schools have the option of selecting who is admitted.

Although ESA funding has remained level ($3 million in Fiscal Year 2017), scholarship demand outweighs resources. In his executive budget recommendation, Bryant noted 425 students are enrolled with 130 on a waiting list. The law allows for up to 1,500 spots for the 2017-18 school year.

Brice Wiggins
Callen