Opinion ID: 1789805
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: School Funding Choices

Text: Ultimately, school funding choicesincluding, especially, the laws that treat schools as localare policy decisions that will be decided by legislatures. The two recent changes in Missouri's school funding formula, in 1993 and 2005, show two different approaches to the state's efforts to support local schools. With the transition from the 1993 to the 2005 version, the system currently has some of each. Disparities or inequities prompted the change in the state's foundation formula in 1993, as I have noted. The 1993 school foundation formula addressed the disparity question without, of course, actually eliminating disparities. The 1993 formula was designed to give school districts some equal access to fundingthat is, a certain amount of local effort, as measured by the district's property tax rate, would yield a certain amount of money per-pupil regardless of a district's property wealth. Theoretically, two school districts with the same property tax ratei.e., the same local effortshould have the same amount to spend per pupil, even though one district may have more property tax wealth per pupil. The formula would equalize the two districts by giving more aid per-pupil to the less wealthy district. The 1993 law did raise substantially more money for property-tax-poor districts, but large disparities with wealthy districts remained. Rather than eliminate disparities, the 1993 law attempted to shift the cause of disparities from lack of wealth to lack of local effort. [33] Substantial disparities remained because of the great disparities in the ability of districts to raise money through property taxes. But at least one could say, if inaccurately, that the reason for the disparities was that the poorer districts were not trying hard enough. Prudently, from a political standpoint, Missouri never made an effort to rob the rich school districts to give to the poor onesa disaster in states that tried it. [34] Nor did the state ever try to limit the ability of rich districts to raise more money through their property taxes over and above what is provided in the state's formula. Within about 10 years, legislators determined that the 1993 formula was in need of revision. The amount of state money required each year to keep full funding of the 1993 formula continued to grow, in part because the formula gave local districts an incentivein the form of more state aidto raise their property tax rates, and most districts did.