Question

Design a foundation program with an increased state cost of $25 million that gives your district the greatest increase in state aid. Discuss why your plan should be the one proposed to the legislature, and argue on the basis of your program's impacts on school finance equity and adequacy.

Answer 1

Program to get maximum state aid for our district: Why this plan should be proposed to the legislature and its impact on school finance equity and adequacy.

Some issues in the school funding:

1. State funding for district school is on “per pupil” in the district, basis.
2. The district need to ensure that it gets “inflationery increases” year on year.
3. Address why the district pupil base is shrinking? (presently there is issue for districts, as pupil count is not known for many districts until October, the month in which a State’s fiscal year begins.

Desired program:

1. As the funding is based on “per pupil” living in the district, ensure that a detailed exercise is done on taking census of the pupil count and ensure that all the pupil of the district is counted for this purpose.
2. Design the program to show increased accountability. Show how the funding would be spent efficiently for school education purpose. This will satisfy the policy makers of the state that the aid is well spend.
3. Do not design a program that rewards district on the basis of student test scores, as it is not in the control of the district and may derail the adequacy of the funding.
4. Present that managerial efficiency is high in administering the fund so that the objective of high state aid and the pursuit of Educational equity.
5. Present a computation of “Need/resource capacity”, to show the disparity in wealth in the district and use latest census data (instead of an old data). The state would indices of poverty/wealth in determining the state aid.
6. Include “income wealth index” (IWI) of the district in the proposal. The benchmark IWI is 0.65 and if the district’s index is less than 0.65, then it would generally get more state aid, on the basis of “neediest of needy” criteria.
7. Present the statistics of “Relative value of Free and reduced lunch program” and “Extraordinary Needs students count” in the proposal. The absence of such metrics will impact the funding.

When the program is present on the above basis to the legislators, it becomes easy task for them to arrive at the funding needs and ensure adequate funding. The program highlights the socio economic needs of the district and provides equality when sufficient funding is released for the district.