Dear Neighbors:
I hope you are looking forward to an exciting Super Bowl LX or, for non-football fans, a charming Puppy Bowl XXII (which, for the first time, will include older dogs). In this letter, I discuss the Blue Ribbon Commission’s proposal to revise the state’s school aid funding formula.
A. The Ribbon Commission’s History
As described in its Executive Summary, the Rhode Island Foundation convened a Blue Ribbon Commission of experts and stakeholders in Winter 2024 to review the State’s funding formula for aid to local school districts. Last month, the Commission presented its findings to State leadership, as well as at a public forum. It is now drafting a legislative bill to implement its recommendations. The Rhode Island Foundation announced it will fund a campaign to advocate for the bill’s passage.
B. The Commission’s Proposal
The Blue Ribbon Commission’s proposal rests on there four pillars:
1. Accounting for the full cost of education;
2. Tailoring costs to student needs;
3. Matching local contributions to a municipality’s ability to pay;
4. Increasing fiscal responsibility and reporting.
To understand these pillars, it is useful to review the components of the current funding formula and their shortcomings. The Commission’s analysis is similar to one I provided you in a series of letters I wrote in 2023, which provide further detail for those who are interested.
My January 1, 2023 letter describes the current funding formula’s three basic elements, namely (1) developing a “core instruction budget” per student, (2) adjusting for the additional needs of certain students, thereby creating a “foundation budget” for each district, (3) allocating the responsibility to fund each district’s overall “foundation budget” between the State and local communities.
1. Accounting For The Full Cost Of Education
As noted in my January 8, 2023 letter, the “core instruction budget” of the current funding formula includes “instructional” elements such as educator salaries, but excludes such non-instructional operating expenses as building maintenance and transportation. These expenses comprise roughly 25% of any district’s budget. The current state formula provides no State aid for those expenses, even though those expenses are just as essential a part of any public school’s operation as the direct cost of instruction. The first pillar of the Blue Ribbon Commission’s proposal is to develop a “core educational budget” per pupil that includes these non-instructional operating expenses.
2. Tailoring Costs To Student Needs
As discussed in my January 15, 2023 letter, the current funding formula makes a single adjustment for students with greater needs by adding a “student success factor” to the “core instruction budget” of 40-45% for each student in poverty. As described in that letter, the adjustment is helpful but insufficient because it does not provide for other high needs students, such as multi-language learners and special education students. The Commission’s proposal would add additional weights to address the greater needs of these students.
3. Matching Local Needs To A Municipality’s Ability To Pay
As documented in my January 22, 2023 letter, the current funding formula contains two basic elements to allocate the cost of public education between local funding and State aid. The first is relative ability to pay, based on each municipality’s property tax base per student – districts with larger tax bases per student pay a greater share of the total cost of education. The second element, called the “quadratic mean” directs greater State aid to communities with greater populations of students in poverty regardless of the municipality’s ablity to pay. As documented in my January 22, 2023 letter, the “quadratic mean” effectively transfers millions of dollars of State education aid from some of the State’s poorest communities to some of its wealthiest ones. The Blue Ribbon Commission’s proposal would remove the “quadratic mean” from the funding formula.
4. Increasing Fiscal Responsibility And Reporting
In general terms, the Blue Ribbon Commission’s proposal contains measures to ensure that school districts use State aid responsibly by (1) ensuring accurate, detailed financial reporting by school districts and (2) ensuring that school districts contribute, at a minimum, the local share of funding required by the core educational budget.
C. Initial Thoughts
The Commission’s first three pillars will go a long way to improving the funding formula generally, while better addressing the specific funding needs of the Providence Public Schools. I would have preferred to bolster the fourth pillar to include a stronger emphasis on each district’s accountability to produce better educational outcomes for its students as part of its partnership with the State. I believe Massachusetts succeeded in adding this greater level of accountability as part of its 1993 Educational Reform Act, which produced a “grand bargain” of greater funding for greater accountability. I also wish the Blue Ribbon Commission had recommended enactment of a Constitutional right to education, which remains a foundational piece of the successful Massachusetts public education program. With that said, there is much to like in the Blue Ribbon Commission’s presentations to date, and I look forward to reviewing the legislation that the Commission proposes.