The formula established by the Legislature to provide adequate operation funding levels for each school district to meet the accountability scale of “Successful” as established by the State Board of Education regardless of the school district’s geographic location. (37-151-7)

Ensure that every Mississippi student is afforded an adequate educational opportunity regardless of where he/she lives.  In order to accomplish this the system must:

• Provide equity to districts by recognizing differences in local resources
• Provide a level of resources necessary for an adequate education
• (Average Daily Attendance + High Growth) x Base Student Cost + At-Risk – Local Contribution + Hold Harmless Guarantee = MAEP Formula Allocation
• MAEP Formula Allocation + Add-On Programs = Total MAEP District Funding
• For this presentation, each part of the formula calculation will be referred to as a “component”
• • MS Code provides the guidelines for how the BSC is to be calculated. It contains four major components:

  –Instruction, Administration, Operation & Maintenance o

  • Grades K-12 of Months 2 and 3 Of Preceding Year

  –For FY16, months 2-3 of FY15 were used

  –Months 2 – 3 are October and November reporting periods

  • Excludes self-contained Special Education ADA
  • Data provided by attendance records submitted into MSIS by the district
  • Office of Technology and Strategic Services (OTSS) provides the data to our office
  • Issues with the data must be handled through OTSS prior to our final calculation in December

  f Plant, and Ancillary Support

  –The average cost of the four components are combined to form the base student cost

  • The BSC is recalculated every four years to maintain stability for appropriation and budgeting purposes

  –It was recalculated for FY15; recalculation due for FY19

• For any district that has positive growth in ADA each year over the 3-year period prior to the appropriation, the average percent of growth in ADA over those 3 years is multiplied times the most recent months 2 and 3 ADA and the result is added back to the ADA for that district
• If the district did not experience growth, the actual ADA is used.
• In some years, the Legislature has reduced the funding for high growth
• For FY16, the high growth component was calculated normally
• Local Contribution is the amount of funding calculated from the assessment data and the value of millage of the district
• Uses the 2nd preceding year’s data (for FY16, used FY14 data)
• Information comes from the Tax Assessor of each district/county
• Uses the yield from 28 mills + ad valorem in-lieu payments
• Capped at 27% of the MAEP Formula Amount prior to local contribution calculation [(ADA+HG component)+At-Risk component]
• Ensures that a district receives an allocation equal to at least what they received in FY2002 for funding programs replaced by MAEP (Minimum Program, Equity Funding, Uniform Millage Assistance) plus a predetermined percentage
• During the 2014 Session, the Legislature decided to reduce the Hold Harmless percentage over 3 years. For FY15 the rate was 6%; for FY16 the rate was 4%; for FY17 the rate will be 2%; and beginning with FY18 the Hold Harmless amount will remain equal to the FY2002 funding level
• For FY16, only 8 districts met the conditions for the Hold Harmless component at an amount of $3 million
• • Provide funding for additional programs including:

  –Special Education  — Gifted Education

  –Alternative Education  — Career and Technical Education

  –Transportation

  • Legislature is required by statute to direct MDE on the distribution of the MAEP allocation. They provide the funding in a lump sum, so we provide to districts in the same fashion.
  • Amounts are calculated on different criteria, but totaled into a lump sum amount; thus providing districts the discretion to distribute the money according to their needs.
  • Transportation is calculated from the previous year’s request multiplied by the most recent inflation rate
  • MAEP Formula Amount and the Add-On Amount are combined into a total MAEP funding request for each district and submitted to the Legislature.
  • In the event the MAEP formula is not fully funded, both the formula and the add-on amounts will be reduced by the pro-rata amount of the final allocation; or as directed by the Legislature.