Funding Public Education in Virginia

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Learning About Virginia School Funding

• How the Funding Formula works.
• A disproportionate burden on localities.
• Actual funding for
• Salaries
• Professional Educator Positions
• School Construction
• Other School Priorities

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Generally speaking

• All 50 states provide funding for public schools
  in one manner or another.
• The idea is to spread out the burden of funding
  over a larger population to raise the floor
  level of services for all students in the
  Commonwealth.

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Fiscal Capacity

• Some localities have a greater ability to fund
  education than others.
• This ability, or lack of ability, is called
  fiscal capacity.

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Composite Index

• Virginia has a sound formula for determining a
  localitys ability to fund education.
• That formula is called the composite index.

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Composite Index is a

• Measure of wealth
• based on a
• localitys
• Sales Tax
• Income Tax
• Property Tax

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Composite Index

• The composite index is computed to have a
  theoretical range of 0 to 1.0

0.0
1.0
Extreme Wealth
Extreme Poverty
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Composite Index

• The purpose of taxes is to redistribute wealth
  spread the burden of paying for programs over
  many, raising the floor of education services
  for students in Virginia.

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Constitution of Virginia, Article 1
That free government rests, as does all progress,
upon the broadest diffusion of knowledge, and
that the Commonwealth should avail itself of
those talents which nature has sown so liberally
among its people by assuring the opportunity for
their fullest development by an effective system
of education throughout the Commonwealth.
Thomas Jefferson
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Composite Index

• A composite index of 0 would indicate that the
  locality has virtually no ability to pay and that
  the floor of education services would be carried
  almost entirely by the Commonwealth.

0
1.0
.5
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Composite Index

• A composite index of 1.0 would indicate a
  locality has the ability to fund the floor of
  education services without any financial
  assistance from the Commonwealth.

1.0
0
.5
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Composite Index

• A composite index of .5 would indicate a mixed
  level of fiscal capacity the cost of delivering
  the floor of education services would be split
  approximately 50/50 between the Commonwealth and
  the locality.

1.0
.5
0
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Effort

• Capacity is one issue and effort is another.
• The resources that a locality puts into education
  is called local effort.

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Capacity Effort in Virginia

• Virginia ranks 15th in wealth as measured by per
  capita income but ranks 45th in state support for
  public education based on that income.
• VEA Research Services, 1999-2000

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How is Floor of Services Established?

• Virginias General Assembly examines both
  capacity effort in determining funding.
• The Standards of Quality (SOQ) provide the basis
  for funding educational programs and services in
  Virginia, but
• There is a problem with with how the SOQs fund
  the floor of services.

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Two Major SOQ Problems - They Do Not Fund

• Salaries (correctly) ...or the
• Number of positions in the schools.

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How Does the Formula Work?

• Each of the 135 school divisions in Virginia are
  treated as a unit of measurement.
• Each school division has equal weight regardless
  of size, capacity, or effort.

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Highland County has the same weight in
determining costs as does Fairfax County

• Highland County

• Fairfax County

JLARC (Joint Legislative Audit Review
Committee) recommended using the linear
estimator to calculate costs.
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What Does the Linear Estimator Do?

• Gives equal weight to each school division in
  terms of costs.
• This method underestimates the actual costs
  incurred by many school divisions.

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Linear Estimator says these 2 districts are
equal
District 2
District 1
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Average Salaries Are Part of State Funding

• Average Salary
• (using mean/average)
• 500,000
• 30,000
• 530,000
• 530,000 48,181.81
• 11 teachers

• Fairfax County
• 10 teachers
• _at_ 50,000/ year
• Total 500,000
• Highland County
• 1 teacher
• _at_ 30,000/year
• Total 30,000

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The Linear Estimator Treats Every School Division
Equally

• Fairfax County
• 10 teachers
• _at_ 50,000/ year
• Total 500,000
• Highland County
• 1 teacher
• _at_ 30,000/year
• Total 30,000

• Average Salary
• (using EQUALIZER formula) 50,000
• 30,000
• 80,000
• 80,000 40,000
• 2 school divisions

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A Low Estimate

• Fairfield Highland
• Counties --
• Average Formula
• 48,181.81
• Linear Estimator Formula
• 40,000.00

• Does the linear estimator give the General
  Assembly the real picture of average salary in
  Virginia?

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Salaries

• The linear estimator model calculates a lower
  salary than the average.
• The figure used by this model in
• 1997-98 was more than 4,500, less than the
  actual average salary in Virginia.
• Source VEA Research, Superintendents Annual
  Report, VDOE

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Salaries

• This misleading calculation formula
• results in severe under-funding to
• localities which must
• be made up by local effort
• where the burden is spread
• over a smaller group of
• people!

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Salaries

• With more than 80,000 teaching positions for more
  than one million students in Virginia
• If the formula underestimates salaries by
  approximately 4,000 for ¾ of them
• Localities must come up with more than
  240,000,000 in local funds to make up the
  difference!

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BUT, Salaries are funded on the Composite Index

• IF your Composite Index is .3
• The state pays 70 the cost of the estimated
  salaries.

• IF your Composite Index is .7
• The state pays 30 the cost of the estimated
  salaries.

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The State Pays Only a Portion of What it REALLY
Costs to Run Our Schools!
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Professional Positions in Schools

• Virginia funds a basic number or ratio of
  professional positions for each 1,000 students in
  the school division.

51 positions funded
1000 students
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Professional Positions in Schools

• To these 51 funded positions per 1000
  students, we need to add six categorical
  positions
• Special education
• Vocational education

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Professional Positions in Schools

• When you add in the other category monies,
  there are 57 funded positions per 1,000 students.

57 positions
1000 students
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Professional Positions in Schools

• When you add in the other JLARC-funded
  considerations, there are an average of 63 funded
  positions per 1,000 students.

63 positions
1000 students
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Professional Positions in Schools

• The state pays for a
• minimum foundation program in our schools, not
  the number of teachers we really need.

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The Average Number of Professional Positions per
1000 Students in Virginia is 78.

• The average locality has an average of 15
  professional positions that the state does NOT
  fund and that must be funded LOCALLY.

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Professional Positions
Average
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A c t u a l A v e r a g e
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The State Pays Only a Portion of What it REALLY
Costs to Run Our Schools!

• The Bottom Line.

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We Must Ask

• Do the Standards of Quality really fund high
  standards quality in our schools?

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Funding Public Education in
Virginia by William A.
Owings, Ed.D. Leslie S.
Kaplan, Ed.D. Produced by Virginia
Association for Supervision Curriculum
Development 106 Yorkview Road
Yorktown, VA 23692
757-898-4434