State legislators working to fix education funding formula
It’s been 24 years since the Idaho school funding formula has had any changes. Now, state legislators are working to fix that.
“It’s really time to modernize and update the formula,” said Rep. Wendy Horman of the Idaho State Legislature. “And we want to get as much feedback as possible from teachers, parents, students, administrators, school board members anyone who has an interest in how we fund public education in Idaho.”
They’ve hired an agency called the Education Commission of the States to come up with a new formula.They are touring the state, getting public input on what needs to change. Everything from rural schools struggling because of high costs to the funding for special education departments.
“They can’t predict year to year the amount of money they’re going to get from the state,” said Michael Griffith, a school finance consultant for the Education Commission of the States. “That, they feel frustrated, that they can’t quite figure out how they’re able to spend their money, how they money’s going to come in. So they want a lot more clarity, they want a lot more simplicity, and they want to make sure that the money is going to the places that it should go.”
They say the formula needs to be simplified. They want to make school funding more flexible and have funding decisions be made at the district level.
“People in the local districts really want greater flexibility with the way we fund schools,” Rep. Horman said. “They want a formula that’s more simple and more transparent than the one that we have right now. And so the end goal really is to move us from a what is a very complicated system and a very dated system into something that’s a lot more simple and flexible for our local school districts and charter schools.”
The group will tour more areas of the state and then bring their plan to the legislature on July 18th. If you missed the meeting tonight, but would still like to make a comment, you can take a survey here or you can email the commission at IdahoSchoolFunding@ecs.org.
