School Funding

What is school funding?

- It is a mix of Federal, State, and Local money
- Its purpose is to provide adequate funding across schools, and provide
an the underlying conditions to make learning possible.
- Federal Funding represents 10% of education funding, and focuses on
low-income students
- State Funding is provided to districts based on many factors, such as State
and District revenue, the anticipated differences between districts, what
incentives districts choose. The State cannot predict what incentive
districts will pick, so this complicates the process.
- The State Funding model states try to balance giving the local community
some control and ensuring all students have a quality education.
History of school Funding
-In the early stages of education, colonies were founded to escape religious
persecution. As America started to grow as a nation, Thomas Jefferson created a
tracked educational system and Benjamin Franklin established several schools.
-As industries grow in the beginning of the 19th century, places like New York and
Massachusetts, have businesses fund local schools.
-The Federal Government starts to get involved in the education system in the 1940’s
and 50’s. It began to fund granting schools that were overburdened by WWII.
- The Cold War highlights the need for scientists, which ultimately lead to the
Department of Education’s start to push effective teaching practices, and distribute
funds on a wider scale.
-The Civil Rights movement pushed the government to grant students in need of
educational resources, which was mainly in African American and Hispanic
communities.
School Budget
- Adequacy Budget: for every school district the
state calculates what would be the necessary
funding level to provide a “thorough and
efficient education” to every pupil in that
district

- Local Cost Share: what the state believes the

local taxing authority would be able to raise
and earmark for the school district’s budget

- Equalization Aid: covers the difference

between Adequacy Budget and Local Cost
School Budget Cont.
- Base Per Pupil Amount (BPA):
baseline number for Adequacy
Budget calculation of what it would
cost to educate one elementary
school student with no external
factors considered
- Teachers’ salaries, supply cost,
rate of inflation, etc
- “Weights” added for individual
students
- Increase with age
School Budget Example
EXAMPLE 1: Student X is a high school student for whom English is a second language.
He is also one of the few students in the school enrolled in the Free School Lunch
Program (under 20 percent of the student body). What is weighted calculation for
Student X?

The answer is 1.6781. Student X’s baseline weight is 1.16 due to being a high school
student. In addition, he is considered At Risk due to being enrolled in the Free School
Lunch Program. Since the student population is less than 20 percent enrolled in the
program, his At Risk weight is 0.42. Finally, he is additionally weighted due to being an
LEP student, but this weighting is limited to 0.0981 due to it being combined with also
being At Risk.
 How school funding affects the
classroom?
Having low school funding, and educational budget cuts:
- Less pay; teachers will have their pay raises reduced, some school districts have cut teacher
pay, teachers who do summer school classes or run activities that provide supplemental pay
will have their positions eliminated or their hours/pay reduced
- Less spent on employee benefits; many school districts pay for part of their teacher’s
benefits, now that amount will not be paid for because of budget cuts (this is like a pay cut
for the teachers)
- Less to spend on materials; the discretionary fund that teachers get at the beginning of the
year gets cut, teachers might spend this money on classroom manipulatives, posters, and
other learning tools. However, as budget cuts increase more and more of this is either
provided by the teachers and their students.
- Less school wide material and technology purchases; teachers who have requested the
purchase if new technology will be denied, this more affects the students can no longer use
the new tech.
 How school funding affects the
classroom? (cont)
- Delays for new textbooks; teachers will be forced to use outdated textbooks that are 10-
15 years old. This affects subjects like American History, where some presidents are not
even mentioned. Even some Geography textbooks are so outdated they are not worth
giving to the students.
- Less professional development opportunities; teaching is like any profession, it will
become stagnant without continuous self-involvement. The education field is changing,
new theories and teaching methods can make a large difference for all teachers.
- Less electives/larger classes; schools facing budget cuts will start by cutting electives or
moving teachers having them teach something they are not prepared to teach, and
eliminating their old positions/Schools will combine classes into a much larger and
overcrowded class, making it harder for students to get the help they need and it is much
easier for students to “fall through the cracks”, and it limits the teacher.
- Possible force out/School closures; teachers might be forced to move to new schools as
their own schools reduce their course offerings or increase class sizes/Typically smaller
and older schools are closed and combined with larger, newer ones.
 School funding in NJ
- New Jersey's School Funding Formula 101. Funding for your schools comes from a few
sources: local property taxes, aid from the State of New Jersey and aid from the federal
government, although most New Jersey district receive minimal aid from the federal
government.

- Calcualtor https://www.nj.com/education/2019/03/njs-school-funding-plan-has-huge-winners-and-losers-
see-how-much-your-district-is-getting.html
- Detail explaination
https://www.njsba.org/news-information/parent-connections/school-finance-101/
How has this affected New Jersey?
- In 2018, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy proposed a 37.4
million dollar budget to aid school districts throughout the
state.
- The calculation of this budget excluded 30% of counties
which included: Hunterdon, Cape May, Sussex and Ocean.
Thus, these school districts not being included in the budget
would lead to budget cuts on programs and teachers.
- In total approximately 391 districts will get aid, 14 will not
receive any and 172 will see a reduction.
What can we do?
- Reduce reliance on local property taxes to fund
education
- Target extra funds to help lower income children
- Fix funding gaps for individual schools within
districts
- Improve state education funding in terms of
increased spending on public education
Video
https://www.esd112.org/schoolfunding/

- Discuss the issues in with school funding

in Washington State
- Explains multiple problems that schools
have with limited funding
Work Cited
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may02/vol59/num08/Unequal-School-
Funding-in-the-United-States.aspx
https://apps.urban.org/features/funding-formulas/
https://www.thoughtco.com/how-budget-cuts-affect-teachers-7919
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb05/vol62/num05/-The-Funding-
Gap.aspx
https://www.njsba.org/news-information/parent-connections/school-finance-101/
https://www.nj.com/education/2019/03/njs-school-funding-plan-has-huge-winners-and-losers-see-
how-much-your-district-is-getting.html
https://www.njsba.org/news-information/parent-connections/school-finance-101/
739052002
https://education.findlaw.com/curriculum-standards-school-funding/finance-and-funding-background-
information.html