JEFFERSON CITY — State education leaders plan to ask legislators for $120 million more for Missouri public schools in next year’s budget, which would bring the total allocation close to $4 billion.
Most of the additional funding would come from an increase to the foundation formula, or the state’s payout per student. The current payout or state adequacy target, which is derived from the expenditures of high-performing school districts, has been the same for four years at $6,375. The request calls for $6,760 for fiscal 2025 and $7,145 for 2026.
A main factor in the request for increased funding is a significant drop in enrollment and attendance rates. School funding is typically calculated by average daily attendance, but districts have been allowed to use prior years’ rates during the pandemic.
There were 5,500 fewer students enrolled in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County public schools and nearly 3,000 fewer in ºüÀêÊÓƵ city last year compared to 2019-2020. Even with a growing population in St. Charles County, the number of public school students fell by 558 in the last three years. Fox School District, the largest in Jefferson County with 10,800 students, is down by more than 400 students in the same period.
People are also reading…
Missouri overall has seen an enrollment drop of about 20,000 students in the last five years. The decline is mostly due to an increase in homeschooling for children entering kindergarten during the pandemic, state leaders said.
“This is a national issue on getting kids back into schools,†said state board of education member Carol Hallquist of Kansas City, at the monthly meeting Tuesday. “I think during the pandemic we taught the culture that you can work from home and we’re losing a lot of our students because of that and we need them back in our schools.â€
Along with the decline in enrollment is a rise in student absentee rates nationwide during the pandemic for a host of reasons from illness to transportation. More than 20% of Missouri’s students were chronically absent last year, defined as missing at least one in 10 days of school. That’s up from 12% a decade ago.
At least half of students were chronically absent in 12 charter school networks and four school districts including Kansas City, Normandy, Riverview Gardens and ºüÀêÊÓƵ Public Schools. Hawthorn charter school for girls, which shut down last month due to low enrollment, had the worst chronic absentee rate in the state at nearly 70%.
Board president Charlie Shields said he wants to start a conversation with legislators about changing the funding formula to count student enrollment over daily attendance. Other considerations could include increasing the weighted payments for students with disabilities or low family incomes. Even with the decline in attendance, the costs of educating and supporting students have only increased, he said.
The education department will present the budget requests on Wednesday at a hearing of the Legislature’s joint education committee.
“It will be a challenge to fund what we have right now let alone anything that would increase costs, but we want to be sure everybody is making informed decisions,†Shields said.
Board member Peter Herschend of Branson asked why the state’s education budget has been “increasing real dollars and not increasing academic performance.â€
Shields called it a “legitimate question†while pointing out that schools are providing more now in special education, security, transportation and other line items.
“The complexity is higher than ever,†Shields said. “The level of what we’re being asked to address is different now than it was even when this formula was created.â€