Several IMTA members have asked for a summary on the Education and we believe that the summary provided by Representative Mike Sexton in his weekly newsletter explains it the best.
After weeks of negotiations and a new March revenue estimate, the agreement is a 2.25% per pupil increase ($6,446 to $6,591), falling in the middle of earlier proposals. At the table for discussion was the Senate's proposed 4% increase ($6,704) and the House's proposed 2% increase ($6,575). The Governor's proposal earlier this year was for 2.45% ($6,604).
Schools will finally have certainty to approve their budgets as agreement has been reached on next school year's education funding. This will be the sixth year in a row that schools receive a funding increase.
This agreement will provide local K-12 schools with an additional $153.8 million. This represents 87% of new spending in this year's budget.
While much of the focus of school funding is on Supplemental State Aid (SSA) and the percent increase that the legislature sets every year, there is more to school funding than the 2.25% increase approved last month. The increase put the State Cost per Pupil (SCPP) at $6,591. However, this only outlines the amount generated through the School Funding Formula which is directly impacted by the SSA percent and dictates how much the state spends out of the general fund.
There are a number of local option levies and additional dollars thrown in by the federal government which increase the revenue school districts receive from the $6,591 SCPP to $10,504 per pupil for the FY16 (2015/16) school year.
This year also marks the first time that total funding to districts, including state funds, local property taxes, and federal funds, exceeds $5 billion. $4.905 billion of that amount is state and local funds (97.12%) while the remaining $145.4 million is from federal funding (2.88%).
