Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 10 - Education Institutions and Agencies › Part 402 - MCSAB Board Policies › Chapter 2 - Application Toolkit 2013 › Rule 10-402-2.3 - Understanding Funding for Charter Schools for Budgeting

Current through June 25, 2024
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BALL PARKING A PER-PUPIL
				  AMOUNT
The fastest way to ballpark a per-pupil amount for budgeting
				  purposes is to look at the most recent per-pupil amount spent by the district
				  in which your charter will reside. Look at pages 31-35 of the 2011-2012
				  Superintendent's Report to get an idea of this figure:
http://ors.mde.k12.ms.us/pdf/a/2013%20Superintendent's%20Annual%20Report%20for%20SY
				  %202011-2012%20version12.pdf.
The information below will help you gain
				  a more precise estimate as well as an understanding of where the dollars come
				  from and how your school will receive them.
STATE DOLLARS
All state dollars that support education, with the exception
				  of any state facilities funds, will flow directly to approved charter schools.
				  There are two main categories of relevant state funds: Mississippi Adequate
				  Education Program (MAEP) funds and state categorical funding. In 2011-2012,
				  state funds averaged approximately 50% of a school district's total
				  revenue.
MAEP and how to use it for
				  budgeting
MAEP is the state funding formula for K-12 education. The
				  purpose of MAEP is to guarantee a minimum amount of funding for every public
				  school child in the state. The share of MAEP dollars that a school district
				  gets is based on a formula in law. Because charter schools are their own local
				  educational agencies (LEAs), MAEP will be calculated for you separately from
				  the district in which you reside. Your school's share of MAEP will flow
				  directly from the Mississippi Department of Education to your school in the
				  same manner in which school funding is distributed to traditional public
				  schools.
The formula is as follows:
Average Daily Attendance x Base Student Cost + At-Risk
				  Component - Local Contribution + 8% Guarantee = MAEP Formula
				  Allocation
*
Average Daily Attendance (ADA)
is
				  the number of student who, on average, attend your school every day. For MAEP,
				  this number excludes students who are in self-contained special education
				  classes. ADA is different than a school's enrollment, which is the number of
				  children signed up to attend your school. Since MAEP is lagged a year, your ADA
				  for the previous school year will be used for your current year calculation.
However, in the first year, your projected enrollment will be used
				  initially and then your second year payments will reflect a reconciliation up
				  or down between the projected enrollment and your first-year ADA. For a
				  conservative budgeting estimate for your first year, you may want to assume
				  your first-year ADA will be 10% lower from your projected enrollment. For a
				  conservative budgeting estimate for each year thereafter, estimate that 95% of
				  your enrollment excluding estimated self-contained special education students
				  will attend your school everyday.
* Note: There is a special "high-growth component" to ADA for
				  districts with rapidly expanding enrollments. This may apply to many charter
				  schools. However, the current law requires that a district have rapidly
				  expanding enrollments for the three preceding years in order to qualify. In the
				  first three years, there is no provision for charters to qualify for the
				  high-growth component.
*
Base student cost
is the number
				  calculated by the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) to reflect the
				  minimum amount of money required to adequately educate a child in the state of
				  Mississippi. MDE has a formula it uses to determine the base student cost each
				  year. For the 2014-2015 school year, the base student cost is preliminarily
				  calculated to be $5,054.97. However, the legislature rarely appropriates enough
				  money to meet the full estimate of the base student cost.
For a
				  conservative budgeting estimate, you should estimate that the appropriated base
				  student cost will be at least 12% lower than the calculation, which is
				  approximately how much lower the base-student cost appropriation was from the
				  calculated base student cost in FY 2014. For future budget years, you should
				  estimate that the base student cost will not increase by more than
				  1-2%.
* The
At-Risk Component
is
				  additional 5% of base student cost funding for each child a district serves who
				  qualifies for free lunch. A school's free lunch count on October 31 of the
				  preceding year is used. For a charter school's first year, the projected free
				  lunch count would be used.
For a conservative budgeting estimate, you
				  should estimate that you will serve at least 80% of the percent of students
				  qualifying for free lunch in the district in which your charter
				  resides.
* The
Local Contribution
is the
				  amount of local tax dollars a district must pay towards the guaranteed state
				  minimum per-pupil expense. This money is not transferred to the state, only
				  taken into account when calculating the state's share of the minimum per-pupil
				  amount. The local contribution is somewhat tricky to calculate because it
				  includes a few different types of local funding sources: ad valorem tax
				  reduction grants, in lieu payments, and the value of 28 mills. It also looks at
				  data from the second preceding year rather than the prior year like other
				  components of MAEP. Furthermore, the local contribution is capped at 27% of
				  program costs. This means that in school districts where the value of 28 mills
				  is very high, the local contribution will be a maximum of 27% of the total base
				  student cost and at-risk component. Most districts are not at the 27% cap.
				  Every year, the Mississippi Department of Education calculates what the local
				  contribution is that each district must make towards MAEP based on all of these
				  rules. It then tells each district how much its local contribution will be. A
				  charter school's local contribution will be equal, on a per-pupil basis, to
				  that of the district in which the charter resides.
For a conservative
				  budgeting estimate, you should use the most recent local contribution for your
				  first year budget and then use the percent of the contribution in future budget
				  years.
The Charter School Authorizer Board will provide you with the
				  most recent local contribution per-pupil for the relevant district once you
				  turn in a letter of intent.
* The
8% Guarantee
is a provision
				  added by the legislature to guarantee that all districts receive at least as
				  much MAEP funding as they did in 2002 plus 8%. This provision impacts very,
				  very few districts. The Charter School Authorizer Board will alert you as to
				  whether the district in which your school will reside will receive 8% Guarantee
				  funds.
State Categorical Funds
Charter schools are entitled to state categorical funds as
				  are traditional school districts. There are five categorical funds:
				  transportation, special education, gifted education, alternative education, and
				  vocational education.
* Transportation-If a charter school chooses to take state
				  transportation funds, it must abide by the reporting requirements for the
				  program. For those rules, see
				  http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/safe-and-orderly-schools/pupil-transportation. [File
				  Link Not Available]
* Special education-In order to receive federal special
				  education funds, a charter school must accept state funds for special education
				  and follow the rules and regulations for both. To learn more about special
				  education, refer to the Special Education Office at
				  MDE:http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/special-education. [File Link Not
				  Available]
* Gifted education-If a charter school chooses to take gifted
				  education funds, it must abide by the reporting requirements for the program.
				  For more information, see
				  http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/curriculum-and-instruction/advanced. [File Link Not
				  Available]
* Alternative education-If a charter school provides
				  alternative education and accepts alternative education dollars, it must abide
				  by the reporting requirements for the program. For more information,
				  seehttp://www.mde.k12.ms.us/dropout-prevention-and-compulsory-school-attendance/alternative-education-ged.
				  [File Link Not Available]
* Vocational education-If a charter school chooses to offer
				  vocational education courses and take vocational education dollars, it must
				  abide by the reporting requirements for the program. For more information,
				  seehttp://www.mde.k12.ms.us/career-and-technical-education. [File Link Not
				  Available]
Note on Lump Sum MAEP
				  Allocations
In years in which the state legislature does not fully fund
				  the MAEP formula (which is nearly every year), school districts are given their
				  dollars in a "lump sum" to be used as they see fit, within the law. The one
				  exception is that school districts must still spend an appropriate amount of
				  state funds on special education, as this is required to receive federal
				  dollars and to maintain compliance with federal law.
FEDERAL DOLLARS
Federal dollars flow directly from the state to the charter
				  school based on the eligibility of children enrolled in the charter school for
				  the various federal programs. These federal funds would include, for example,
				  Title I and IDEA. The Mississippi Department of Education administers all
				  federal funding sources based on the rules attached to each program.
Since charter schools are their own local educational agencies (LEAs),
				  they will need to apply for federal funds in the same way that traditional
				  school districts do.
Please refer to the Mississippi Department of
				  Education's Office of Federal Programs for more information:
				  http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/federal-programs. [File Link Not Available] In
				  2011-2012, an average of approximately 18% of a school district's total revenue
				  came from federal sources. Please note that this number could be a lot higher
				  for school districts with very high populations of economically disadvantaged
				  students.
LOCAL DOLLARS
For each student enrolled in a charter from a local district,
				  the legislature intended for money to follow the child from the local school
				  district to the charter. This means that the local district will divert to the
				  charter a proportionate share of the local funding. Charter schools will not
				  receive any amount of the local taxes that were levied for bonded indebtedness,
				  short-term notes, or vocational-technical programs. In 2011-2012, an average of
				  approximately 31% of a school district's total revenue came from local
				  sources.
Only the local school board will make a request to the
				  appropriate municipal or county board for an amount to fund all public school
				  students (traditional and charter) in that district. The local board can only
				  ask for the amount of last year's aggregate receipts plus the allowable
				  percentage increase already in state law; it will not be able to ask for an
				  additional percentage increase due to the presence of a charter in the
				  district. The district will transfer to the charter a proportionate share of
				  the actual receipts each month.
Since the school district typically bases its request to the
				  taxing authority on its previous budget, it does not necessarily calculate a
				  local "per-pupil" amount each year. To estimate how much local funds a charter
				  may receive, you can estimate a per-pupil amount based on the district's
				  enrollment and its local revenue (see pages 37-39 in the Superintendent's
				  Report:
http://ors.mde.k12.ms.us/pdf/a/2013%20Superintendent's%20Annual%20Report%20for%20SY%202011-2012%20version12.pdf)
.
				  Remember that this figure will include not only the local contribution to MAEP
				  but also the operational taxes levied above 28 mills. It may also include
				  revenue resulting from taxes for short-term notes, bonded indebtedness, or
				  vocational-technical programs to which a charter is not entitled. To determine
				  whether a school district may be taxing its residents for these additional
				  expenses, refer to pages 45-49 of the Superintendent's Report to see if
				  additional mills are being levied:
http://ors.mde.k12.ms.us/pdf/a/2013%20Superintendent's%20Annual%20Report%20for%20SY%202011-2012%20version12.pdf
.
For a conservative budgeting estimate, you should determine
				  whether your local school district raises revenue that charters are not
				  entitled to before using the most current local revenue per-pupil estimate in
				  your budget.
Miss. Code Ann. §
										37-28-15.