Avoyelles School District per-student expenditure among lowest in state

Avoyelles Parish is expected to spend about $8,123 per student in state and local revenues, according to state Department of Education estimates for the 2017-18 school year.

Of the state’s 69 public school districts, only Acadia will spend less -- $8,053 per student.

The total includes projected local and state funding. Avoyelles’ local share of $2,102 is also 68 out of 69. Only Washington Parish spends fewer local revenues on its public school students at $1,519 per child. The City of Bogalusa School District will spend the most per student at $11,546.

On average, state public school districts will spend $9,015 per student, up slightly from $8,965 last year. It is still less than the state average in 2015, when the state had $10,888 per student in state and local revenues to spend.

Many states have had to cut spending on education in the past several years, so Louisiana is not alone in that regard. Florida cut spending on education by 26 percent from 2008 to 2017 while Louisiana reduced spending by 5.1 percent.

The Minimum Foundation Program formula for allocating state funds isn’t exactly a level floor. A higher rate of funding goes to poorer school systems.

The state starts with a minimum of $3,961 per student this year, then applies a formula to get the final allocation to each district. That process includes considering how much the district can contribute in property and sales taxes. Ideally the state wants 35 percent of the school district’s income to be local revenues and 65 percent state.

Some parishes’ split is close to 50/50 while others are over 80 percent MFP funds. In Avoyelles, approximately 25.85 percent of the state/local total is local revenues with 74.15 percent coming from the state.

Again, Louisiana is not the Lone Ranger in that funding method. Most states tilt the foundation a bit to send more state funds to help the poorer parishes.

The funding formula also adds funds for special education students, gifted/talented students, low-income students, non-English speaking students, foreign language teachers, vocational classes and college-credit classes. In addition, there are adjustments for parishes affected by the 2016 floods and for the small districts.

MFP funding has no clear relationship to the cost of operating a school, which some politicians would like to see changed.

The Senate adopted a resolution this past regular session “to urge and request” the Board of Elementary & Secondary Education to tell its Minimum Foundation Program Task Force to “determine the actual cost of providing education in Louisiana and identify all potential funding mechanisms to enable school systems to meet this cost and to submit a written report of findings and recommendations to the Senate Committee on Education and the House Committee on Education no later than Feb. 1, 2018.”