Thursday, January 18, 2018

MAEP rewrite passes House

Mississippi Speaker of the House Philip Gunn and House Minority Leader David Baria issued the following statements after the House passed a "rewrite" bill of the MAEP formula.


Speaker Gunn Statement on Passage of New Education Funding Formula

Today, the Mississippi House of Representatives voted on and passed House Bill 957, which establishes the Mississippi Uniform Per Student Funding Formula Act of 2018. The new funding formula passed by a vote of 66-54.

“Today, we have accomplished the first step of our goal of sending more dollars to the teachers and students in the classroom,” said Speaker of the House Philip Gunn. “We have worked with the Lieutenant Governor and the Senate to craft this legislation that creates a more equitable, fair funding formula. We look forward to continue working with them as we see this bill through the legislative process.

“The current funding formula was written almost two decades ago and has not kept up with the needs of the classroom of the 21st Century,” he continued. “We are moving to a student-centered funding formula.”

Enactment of this legislation would create a new formula with the following parameters:

· Base student cost set at $4,800, with additional weights added for specific student needs: special education for the different tiers, English language learners, gifted students, low income and high school.

· Funding based on average daily membership (ADM, enrollment figures would be monitored three times a year), rather than average daily attendance (ADA).

· Methods for consistent, accessible reporting.

“We believe that all similar students should be valued the same, regardless of where they live,” said Speaker Gunn. “Furthermore, using ADM aligns with spending behavior and moves to an enrollment count. This will help provide for more accurate reporting.”

For the first two years, school districts would be funded based on the appropriations of Fiscal Year 2018, with some districts seeing no changes in funding and some seeing increases if enrollment numbers grow. This two-year period would allow districts time to study the formula and its reporting methods. The next five years would be the “phase-in” period that would gradually increase the overall investment in education by an estimated $107 million.

“This new formula gives our districts more flexibility and predictability in spending, something superintendents have requested for years,” said Speaker Gunn. “School districts can spend their allocated money as they see fit to meet the needs of the students in their district.”

Ongoing interests will focus on mandating that the Mississippi Department of Education submit a plan to eliminate overly bureaucratic regulations by next year; studying alternate options to the 27 percent rule; and establishing a new financial transparency model comparing spending across “peer groups” to evaluate spending habits among districts compared with what the legislature is providing.



Democratic Caucus Statement on House Bill 957

The Mississippi House of Representatives took action today to eliminate the formula for funding public education known as the Mississippi Adequate Education Plan (“MAEP”) and replaced it with a new formula. The new formula has no requirement of that the legislature provide consistent funding in a particular amount nor any provision for increases over time as costs escalate.

The stated purpose behind the rewrite of the education formula was to achieve equitable funding throughout the state. However, a key recommendation from the consulting firm hired to assist on the project was left out of the bill. The provision--known as the 27% Rule-- caps the amount that tax-rich school districts are required to spend towards public education. Removal of the cap would serve the spread state dollars around to poorer areas in need of greater funding and would have resulted in an additional $120 million in funding for schools in those areas.

Representative David Baria (D-Bay St. Louis) offered an amendment to phase out the 27% Rule, but it was defeated along a mostly party-line vote. Other amendments offered by House Democrats were also defeated and the bill was passed by a vote of 67-52.

“The biggest problem with what we have done here today is to remove what has been the standard for funding education in our state for 20 years without providing any guarantee of any particular level of funding for schools whatsoever,” said House Minority Caucus Chairman David Baria. “Now, the legislature can decide every year what amount it wants to spend on public education without regard to what it actually costs to educate our children. This is a sad day for public school advocates.”

Kingfish note: I seem to remember the Republicans raising hell because the Senate Democrats would allow no amendments to be offered on Obamacare when it was passed.  Maybe I need a dose of Aricept but is my memory faulty? National level but you get the idea. 

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This will not go well. Period.

otisfyfe said...

"School Districts can spend their money as they see fit..."

That in itself is very bothersome.

Anonymous said...

What good does it do to give them more money? It will not end up in the classrooms.
Just be more money for administration to divide up.

Anonymous said...

This whole thing sounds sounds a little like: “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it....”, famously said by the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, on Obamacare passage

How'd that work out?

Anonymous said...

12:55, the report has been out for a year - anybody that doesn't know what's in it is either (1) not paying attention, or (2) a Jay Hughes supporter that wants to deny the truth of the bill. Hughes saying that this kills public education funding shows the truth of the fight - it doesn't matter what the bill does, the Dems want to be against it. Their real reason for not liking it is that now the money given to individual school districts can actually be audited to see if they are supposed to be receiving what they are claiming.

Anonymous said...


If the democrats are against it, I'm for it.

Anonymous said...

Whose auditing actual attendance and excessive absences? Students in Mississippi aren't learning because they're missing too many classes, yet being counted as present.

Anonymous said...

@4:32–

Put up or shut up - State Auditors Office is 601.576.2800.

Otherwise, take your generalizations and shove ‘em.

Anonymous said...

The report has been out for a year but the bill is hardly in lockstep with the report. There are real problems with the multipliers in this bill. MDE uses an antiquated program that needed to overhauled five if not ten years ago but the money hasn't been appropriated. The information MDE is being asked to provide it can't provide using the current system and the legislature has been unwilling to appropriate the money to establish a system that can. There were some legit concerns posed yesterday about the definition of rural and there were no answers. I also understand that there is a problem with the ELL classification as well. If the Speaker and the Lt Governor would actually deign to entertain individuals who don't think in lockstep with them some of this could have been sorted out. The reality is that the Senate will come up with something entirely different.

Anonymous said...

35 districts will be cut. Is Madison on the list?

Anonymous said...

Yes, after the two year phase-in, Madison County will be cut. This plan is bullish*t.

Anonymous said...

10:53...if you paid minimal attention, Madison County was on the list found in the study/report we paid for over a year ago. The logic cited in that report is that several larger, wealthier, (more white) districts can afford to be cut since they can easily make up for the cut by raising taxes and wealthy, white people will never even miss the money collected by the increase.



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