Government Relations Links
Education Advocacy
Foundation Law
Funding Public Education
Legislative Districts
 |
Click here and enter your zip
code to get your state legislators' contact information.
Education Advocacy
Foundation Law
Funding Public Education
Legislative Districts
|
Click here and enter your zip
code to get your state legislators' contact information.
 |
NEA RateSmartsm
Credit Card
Save money with one of the lowest rates anywhere.
The major area of funding in the annual state budget is focused on salaries and benefits for the calculated foundation units. These expenses are based on calculations tied to the State Minimum Salary Schedule for each foundation employee (discussed later), any needed adjustments in funding for medical insurance, funding adjustments for retirement to keep the system actuarially sound for each employee, and required employer contributions to social security.
In keeping with the Foundation Program philosophy of focusing on the classroom, significant portions of the K-12 ETF budget are directly related to supporting the curriculum. Paramount among these items is an annual appropriation for classroom and instructional supplies. An amount is set in the annual state budget for each foundation unit. This amount is subject to change from year to year depending on revenue growth factors. The simplicity of the Foundation Program funding allocations makes it easy for the faculty of a school to know how much each certified unit (principal, assistant principal, guidance counselor, librarian, teacher) in the school will receive in instructional supply allocations as well as the other items discussed below. Additionally, $200 for each of these units is available for common purchases for instruction. The legislation fully funding common purchases for the school limits the scope of the budget committee to the $200 per unit. Instructional supply funds cannot be used for central office or other administrative functions. The budget of the school and the system regarding instructional supplies is subject to audit by the State Examiner of Public Accounts. This includes both city and county school systems.
Each system in the state is required to submit and have approved a technology plan “which sets out in detail the proposed expenditure of technology funds.” The annual state budget for the foundation program prescribes an appropriation per foundation unit. The State Department of Education makes a calculation for technology funds on a per school basis. The technology plan could have a component for professional development (in technology) and the system could, then, coordinate these programs under its professional development appropriation.
The Library Enhancement is for K-12 libraries and media centers to cover expenses for library books, book binding, repair, CD ROMS, computer software, computer equipment, cataloging, audio-visual materials, newspapers, magazines, recordings, and video tapes. An amount is set in the annual state budget for the foundation program and is also calculated on a per foundation unit basis.
The Foundation Program provides for the furnishing of state-adopted and locally approved textbooks for all grade levels in all required courses. The old Minimum Program was touted as providing “free textbooks” for all students. Unfortunately, this was only partially true. Depending on the wealth or poverty of the ETF in any given year, state funding for textbooks could be $10 or $11 per student or the funding could be zero. This often put the onus on local systems regarding the purchase of textbooks. The cycle for textbooks is set for a six-year span of time. The current funding pattern under the foundation program from the ETF has been running at somewhat greater than $50 per student per year. [The funding for the 2007 fiscal year has risen to $67.50 per student.] In accord with the law, “All students in the public schools shall be provided with adequate and current textbooks and other necessary instructional supplies for use in their education." Also, “Where textbooks are assigned in a class, every student shall have his or her own copy of the assigned textbook of the correct edition, which he or she shall be permitted to take home each day…”
Under the Foundation Program, each system is to submit a “proposed professional development program which sets out in detail the professional development needs of employees of the local board of education.” Beginning in 1984 the concept of regional in-service centers was first outlined in state law. They were to provide “rigorous in-service training in critical needs areas for the state’s public school personnel.” There are eleven (11) such centers spread across the state. Funding is now provided on a per foundation unit basis through the ETF and has been made part of the Foundation Program. In addition, the ETF Foundation Program has made available in most years a separate appropriation that goes directly to the system and schools for professional development. The ingredients involved in professional development provided by the system are set out in the required plan submitted to the SBE by each local system.
The Foundation Program incorporates previous legal requirements for the operation and maintenance of a student transportation system in systems where such is needed and required. The SDE controls the parameters involved in this program. Appropriations have been made to provide a “fully funded” state obligation in two major areas – an “operating” allocation and a “fleet renewal” appropriation. The SDE’s intention is to have local school systems purchase school buses on a recurring basis so that the local fleet used in transporting students has no bus in operation greater than ten (10) years of age.
The Foundation Program provides “for the provision of educational services to at-risk students in compliance with applicable state and federal law.” Identification of these students is based on a calculation combining students on free and reduced lunches as well as students scoring in the lower three stanines of the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT). Appropriations in the Foundation Program have been placed at slightly more than $100 per identified student. In the first year of the Foundation Program there were 256,125 students identified as “at-risk” statewide or around 35% of the total student population.
The Foundation Program also emphasized that programs were to be provided for “services to students with disabilities and gifted students in compliance with applicable state and federal laws.”
As outlined previously, some systems which could afford additional teacher units paid from local funds under the Minimum Program had been receiving state funds out of proportion on a per student basis. Language was included in the Foundation Program law to prevent these systems from losing state funds in a single drastic event with the 1995-96 (FY96) state budget. As stated in the Foundation Program, “It is the intent of the legislature to insure that no local board of education receive less state funds per pupil than it received in fiscal year 1994-95.” This was known as the “hold harmless” agreement. As funding for the Foundation Program increased each year, the “hold harmless” amounts to these systems would decrease and original calculations indicated that the final year would occur in FY99. During the 1998 legislative session, the “hold harmless” provision was extended another two years when it would terminate. Funds for the “hold harmless” amounts were to be taken as a first priority from the Public School Fund (PSF) (see later discussion of this fund). The "hold harmless" provision has expired and is no longer applicable.
The following matters were also included in the Foundation Program although they had been covered in previous years by other statutory or state policy provisions: