Dec. 11, 2006
Jan Mitchell, Observer
The School Board's packet included Superintendent Richardson's report on the work of P.S. Minnesota (Public Schools MN). They have worked for several years to determine the actual costs of educating students to achieve the state, federal and local standards, and to develop a formula for state funding that will provide sufficient resources to meet those goals.
P.S.
Minnesota (comprised of mostly superintendents and board members, I believe) will be working to convince the legislature to enact this
recommendation, so that schools can anticipate the revenue coming from the state, and it will be formulated at an appropriate level. They determined that the costs would range from $5,359 per student per year to $5,938. Their premise is "A good school funding formula should have a rational link to student needs, be based on research, and be supported by data." The formula they came up with weights each student as 1 unit (kindergarners in all day programs would be weighted 1), and students in poverty would add 0.75 to that weight, and students eligible for English Language instruction weighted 0.90 in addition. P.S. Minnesota wants to have this formula be the base, and additional funds provided for special education, district instructional services, and district support services.Districts would be able to levy additional money for programs beyond the core standards, and for capital projects on facilities.
Happy holdiays!
Jan
