State Auditor Stacey Pickering issued the following press release:
State Auditor Informs Legislature About MAEP Formula Flaws
JACKSON-
State Auditor Stacey Pickering has notified the Legislature of his
concerns with the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP) formula.
The report provides detailed information to lawmakers on the MAEP formula in advance of the upcoming 2015 legislative session.
“Each
year the Office of the State Auditor provides an overview of MAEP
funds, how arbitrary changes are continually made to the formula, and
how funds are used, or not used, for our students,” Pickering said.
“Accountability issues are a major concern of this office, and it is
past time for the MAEP formula to be seriously examined.”
Four flaws discussed in summary include:
o Spending MAEP funds is at the discretion of the district with no state requirements.
o The
rate at which administrative expenditures has grown far exceeds the
rate at which classroom spending has grown. In fact, in all years except
2004-5, the rate of administrative spending has significantly out-paced
classroom spending. Expenditures are increasingly going to
administrative costs as opposed to where the money should be going,
which is the classroom.
· While using enrollment might initially appear to be an ideal funding mechanism for school districts because it artificially inflates the number of children actually attending classes, it is a poor mechanism for funding for several reasons:
o It removes a district’s incentive to get children to attend school regularly.
o It does not properly reflect student or school needs.
o It
would add an additional $30 million or more to school districts with no
guarantee that it would be focused where it is needed the most- in the
classroom.
o This
new program will give 53 districts and 506 individual schools the
ability to give free lunch to all students regardless of individual
eligibility.
o Base
Student Cost (BSC) uses free lunch data to establish funding for
“At-Risk” programs– inflated 10 percent in the “At-Risk” program
portion.
o If
a one-time injection into the formula (i.e. 2015-2016 Teacher Pay
Raise) is not properly removed and accounted for in full recalculation
years; and
o When
the federal government allows the inflation rate to move, it will
increase the BSC, and will not be tied to any performance,
accountability, or outcome measures, or actual need.
“Our
brief shows that those able to manipulate a few characteristics of the
formula can increase the funding of K-12 schools by nearly $40 million
without even looking at actual need and with no required targeted
spending,” Pickering added. “Even if we did know exactly how much to
fund MAEP with using precise calculations there is no mechanism in place
to ensure that once taxpayer dollars are sent to the districts they
will be spent on teachers and students in the classroom.”
2 comments:
ah, wonder why stacey doesn't try AUDITING for awhile instead of grandstanding? we haven't had a REAL auditor since the late hamp king
Auditing has slightly changed in 30+ years. When Mabus became auditor we were something like 1,000 years behind on our audits.
Second, auditing the MAEP formula is something the auditor is tasked with so he is actually doing his job. You just don't like the results.
Post a Comment