A JPS audit states JPS continues to shrink. The JPD student population fell to only 21,600 students for the 2017-2018 school year.* Over thirty thousand students attend Jackson public schools just ten years ago. While the student population fell, JPS continues to collect more property tax revenue than ever while it operates at a $5 million loss.
White flight can't be blamed on the loss of students. JPS was 97% black ten years ago and 96% black for the 2017-2018 school year. The white population fell by only 89 students. The student population gradually declined but then sharpened after 2012 and off the proverbial cliff for that last school year.
The student population does not include charter schools. However, the Mississippi Department of Education's website states 944 students attended Jackson charter schools in 2017-2018 school year. However, the overall population of students attending the overall public schools in Jackson still fell by more than two thousand students from the previous year.
JPS once ranked next to the Desoto County School District as the largest public school districts in the state. However, Desoto had 34,027 students for the same school year. JPS is slightly larger than the Rankin County School District. Rankin had a student population of 19,145, a difference of 2,688 students.
Thankfully for JPS, property tax revenue stayed roughly the same as the district collected over $94 million.
Fewer students meant JPS collected more property tax revenue than ever per student. JPS received over $4,309 per student in property tax revenue.
However, the loss of students did affect state funding. JPS received $114.8 million under the MAEP formula, a 5% cut from the 2016-2017 school year.
JPS overall revenue was $273 million. JPS revenue was 7% greater for the previous school year as it received $293 million. A loss of federal funds contributed to the lower revenue. JPS paid $2.5 million to charter schools as well. The property tax revenue per student is still at a record $4,194 per student if the charter school appropriation is deducted from the property tax revenue.
Spending fell from $298 million to $277 million. Approximately $7 million less was spent on instruction from the previous year. However, JPS caught a break on pension expense of only $41 million - down from $49 million in 2016-2017. New GASB accounting rules nailed Mississippi public school districts three years ago as many, including JPS, saw their pension expenses double in one year. Debt service remained stable as the district did not suffer any drastic interest rate increase such as those afflicting the city of Jackson.
Despite spending $21 million less, JPS spending per student continued to rise to $12,507 per student.
Instructional spending per student rose as well. (p.64).
Then there are the suits. The money spent on the suits stayed about the same but rose when the spending per student was calculated. The spending for General Administration was $10.6 million per year from 2016 to 2018. However, the General Administration spending per student rose from $369 per student to $485 per student.
The total expenses were $277 million. JPS operated at a $5 million loss.
*JJ reviewed the annual audit that is posted below. The data is found on either pages 10 or 64.
Kingfish note: No way around it. Time to start closing some schools, especially the older ones that are falling apart and have nice, yuuuge maintenance costs.
38 comments:
When your money goes to administration rather than the classroom this is what you end up with
Well ....
13 years ago I moved my family to Madison because of the schools.
People realize that they can move out of Jackson and Hinds county. They don't have to spend 13k per child a year on private school. They just move to Madison or Rankin and have a nice home less crime and most importantly better schools. Now, that being said the corruption in Madison county is going unchecked. It will never be Jackson but they are lining pockets at an alarming rate.
I'll say it again. 3 of my 5 immediate neighbors up here in Madison are BLACK families. All 3 moved from JACKSON. 6 total children elementary to high school aged. EACH neighbor will tell you they left Jackson because of 1a) Crime, 1b) Schools. PERIOD.
It must be the lousy lunch menu, right? Right?
It’s all about quality of life and Jackson is falling behind fast. Jackson voters are to blame.
Just scroll down to the Jasco post from yesterday to see why black parents are moving out in droves.
Don't think David Archie's election will do anything to slow down the exodus of black families.
Not only do some of the older buildings need to close, a significant percentage of administration needs to go also.
KF, how much has Hinds County, Clinton, and Madison County school populations increased over the same time, since you posted the increase in Rankin?
And God knows that JPS is not spending $12k per student. Where is that money really going?
Priorities in Jackson and in JPS are based on the demands and desires of the lowest achievers, the least educated, and the most dependent. Middle class and upper class black people have only one thing in common with those types, i.e. being black, and that's not enough, so if they can, they leave. And they will continue to leave because there is no reason to stay. They actually have more in common with the whites who have already left. They just hate to admit it out loud. There are fewer and fewer enclaves of descent housing, amenities, and education remaining in Jackson for young black middle class types to live, so they leave at the first opportunity further weakening the already weak communities. The so-called leadership sends their kids to private school or have no school age children, so... It's a downward spiral.
You could take all the comments on this post and apply the same logic to our state population. We are losing them as quick as we are gaining them, leaving behind those who can't afford to leave, are not qualified for better jobs or who are stuck caring for family.
BINGO @11:49a.m. - JACKSON VOTERS ALONE are to blame. Until they elect judges, DAs, Mayors, and council members who will put public safety #1, the flight - black and white- to the suburbs will continue to happen. Nobody has been willing to drastically cut the budget of other areas to adequately fund Public Safety i.e., JPD. BTW, the population base of Jackson is ~80% African-American - it aint big, bad whitey
You turn the City around by:
1. Cutting the funding to all non-essential services - looking at you zoo.
2. Fully fund JPD and Public Safety to reduce crime
3. Fully fund the maintenance budget of Public Works until the tax base returns, then increase this budget to take on large projects.
1:47 Hey, you get the cigar! Jackson is the capitol city and the eye of the shitstorm that is the whole state of Mississippi. What happens to Jackson in five years happens to the whole state in fifty. Ultimately Mississippi returns to it's roots, no middle class, just very rich and very poor. Everybody else just leaves.
Don't remember any one blaming "whitey"
Let's not forget the elected folk... where's the integrity?
2:15, agree. Some people are figuring this out, some are enjoying living it up in glass houses.
This truly disturbing information. The students that suffer the most, in my opinion, are the brilliant minded, motivated and responsible students who are striving to make life better for themselves, their family and the future. They have to keep their goals and priorities in the forefront of all the do while being surrounded by incompetence, crime and malfeasance. I pray for those young people.
It’s evident that the term “white flight” has become an excepted part of the American lexicon. However, it only describes part of the problem.
I propose that we start making it part of a two term description.
From now on, the term should be white flight/black squat.
3:16 Believe it or not, I pray for them all, even the incompetent ones.
It is time for JPS to be taken over by the state.Well regulated Charter schools are part of the solution for the families trapped in the district who are concerned with their children’s education. The current system is broken and will take major surgery to correct. Politics be damned!!
But I thought Phil Bryant was going to fix everything?
Somebody hire a 4 piece sting set to sit out at frontage and northside to sit and play "Nearer My God to Thee" a la the Titanic.
The same people who holler for a state takeover of JPS say state government botches up everything and should run nothing. The state should leave everybody alone and we should cut their budget EXCEPT when it comes to JPS
and the airport. WTF
Shrinking student population and growing budget - welcome to Jackson's radical new economic model!
People need to consider @1:47 and @2:15 carefully. When the population is under-educated, when the infrastructure is dilapidated and when the leadership is inept business will not invest in the community - at the state level as well as the local level. The problems facing Mississippi are much bigger than just Jackson.
This is not about money, flags, lunchrooms, admin staff or Madison. It's about 'where the hell did all that population base go?' Maybe the State Department of Education knows. Wait...they don't even know how many students are enrolled or how many schools the public systems tally.
In recent weeks there has been numerous comments by individuals saying horrible things about Mississippi. I trust that these individuals don’t live here. If you do live here, please pack up and get the heck out.
I live in NE Jackson bc my wife and I both are in call alot. That said I would never live here if I couldn't pay my 3 kids tuition to st Andrews. My neighbors are much the same in terms of private school. I'd live in the burbs otherwise. Stop making Jackson/Madison an issue.
Frankly, I'm amazed it's still that high.
Any parent who gives a whit about their child can move 20 minutes in any direction to a vastly better school district.
Not just Madison or even Rankin. The most run down apartment in Clinton or Pearl instantly gets your kid a better education. Not great, necessarily, but far, far better than JPS.
12,500x30 students=
$375,000 per classroom/teacher/homeroom.
Where does the money go?
$375K
You can't win the Kentucky Derby with a jackass and you can't educate children by using idiots.
7:46. in clinton that kid takes two to four years to catch up if they start in JPS. even if they just went K-1 in JPS they are probably repeating second grade at least once in Clinton.
Maybe JPS should sell some bonds.
3 years ago Jackson had 61 schools (see C-L article about lack of fire extinguishers in school -- only 600 and needed 1200 more).
Then 2 years ago it was 59 schools.
Look like more consolidations are coming.
To the city administration, City Council, and JPS:
Pants on the ground
Pants on the ground
Lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground
With the gold in your mouth
Hat turned sideways
Pants hit the ground
Call yourself a cool cat
Lookin' like a fool
Walkin' downtown with your pants on the ground
Get it up, hey!
Get your pants off the ground
Lookin' like a fool
Walkin' talkin' with your pants on the ground.
"Now, that being said the corruption in Madison county is going unchecked. It will never be Jackson but they are lining pockets at an alarming rate."
Please elaborate. Thanks.
But you won't because you can't.
@9/12 - 8:40pm
While some of the public schools in MS are decent, Clinton schools are not all that. Ocean Springs is about the only district in this state that I would put up against good public school districts in the southeast.
Sadly, instead of being run like schools, most JPS schools are run like prisons.
7:38a
Reunion Parkway
Proposed car wash at dees and gluckstadt road
Widening projects of Bozeman
New subdivisions off dewees
You want more?
My last year of teaching in JPS was 1997.Even then, my few really good students were tormented by the others because they actually did their homework and scored well on tests. "why you trying to be white and oreo were frequent taunts. I would move to save my child, too.
@2:52 - All you did was list a few projects on the drawing board. You provide NOTHING regarding "lining pockets at an alarming rate". It's true that David Bishop was knowingly in the pocket of developers, but you see where that got him.
Oh...Put Up!
2:52, who's making money off a damn car wash?
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