No More Funding Favors For Small, Rural Schools
Hawaii’s new proposed school funding formula would abolish adjustments previously made for small and geographically isolated schools.
It would instead give the superintendent a $3 million discretionary account to help those same schools with additional funding as needed.
The new formula would also get rid of a “loss threshold” adjustment that Department of Education officials said is confusing and does not contribute to transparency in the funding process.
The Board of Education postponed a vote on the the new Tuesday, but plans to revisit the proposal at its Sept. 20 meeting. If passed, the new formula would go into effect for the 2012-2013 school year, for which schools are already constructing their financial plans.
The Weighted Student Formula is used to determine how much money each school principal gets to spend at his or her discretion each year. The formula begins with a base amount for each of the various types of schools (elementary, middle, high, elementary multi-track, etc.) and adds additional money based on student and school characteristics. Schools get more money for each military student or student with economic or language disadvantages, for example. Neighbor Island schools also get an additional amount.
The new base amounts would be as follows:
- Elementary: $200,000
- Elementary Multi-Track: $280,000
- Middle: $347,000
- Middle Multi-Track: $427,000
- High: $354,000
- K-8 or K-9 Combination: $403,000
- 6-12 Combination: $410,000
- K-12 Combination: $465,000
The board postponed its vote after a lengthy discussion about whether Alternative Learning Centers should no longer be categorically funded, but instead paid for out of the weighted formula. How the centers are funded would not affect the actual Weighted Student Formula, but it could make a $2.6 million difference in how much money is in the weighted formula pool.
