Opinion ID: 1723051
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Funding formula reductions

Text: The property-poor districts also criticize the changes that Senate Bill 7 made in the State's funding formulas. In 1992-93, under Senate Bill 351, the basic allotment in Tier 1 was $2,400; Senate Bill 7 reduces it to $2,300. The guaranteed yield in Tier 2 was previously $22.50 for tax effort from $0.83 to $1.27; under Senate Bill 7, it is $20.55 for tax effort between $0.87 and $1.50. The property-poor districts argue that these reductions in the basic allotment and guaranteed yield represent a retreat from previous efforts to achieve efficiency, which will have an especially detrimental effect on poorer districts. Initially, we note that the Senate Bill 351 system is of limited usefulness as a basis for measuring the efficiency of the present system. We specifically noted in Edgewood III that the issue of efficiency was not then before the Court. 826 S.W.2d at 494. The record establishes, moreover, that Senate Bill 7 continues the State's movement toward efficiency. For many of the poorer school districts, the immediate effect of Senate Bill 7 was a setback from Senate Bill 351; but in comparison with the system existing at the time of Edgewood I, Senate Bill 7 provides even the poorest districts with vastly improved access to revenue. At full implementation of the system, the poorest districts containing five percent of the state's students will have 78 percent more revenue per student than they had in 1988-89. While the basic allotment is clearly too low to meet the goals of Tier 1, the availability of the guaranteed yield at effective rates as high as $1.50 enables every school district to meet or exceed the requirements for accreditation and other legal standards. [18] In view of these facts, the differences between the funding formulas of Senate Bill 7 and Senate Bill 351 do not compel the conclusion that the system embodied in Senate Bill 7 is inefficient. The property-poor districts' concerns regarding the funding formulas in Senate Bill 7 are shared, in some respects, by the property-rich districts. We now turn to those districts' specific complaints.