For years there has been a funding disparity in Mississippi public schools. The law that defines how schools are to be funded has only been followed a few times in recent years, and there seems to be little interest by the legislative leadership in changing that. Rather, many legislators are rallying around a total rebuild of the law. It’s time to take a long, hard look at how we fund education in this state. It’s truly a story of haves and have nots. The numbers that were recently released in the Superintendent’s Annual Report from the Mississippi Department of Education clearly illustrate that. Districts with tax bases with lower assessed values are left to operate with very tight belts (if they even have a belt) while others seem to revel in excess.
Take the Union Public School District for example. With an assessed value of about $23,250,000, it generates $1.4 million in local revenue. This amount makes up about 17 percent of Union’s annual budget. Broken down by student, this means that USPD receives just under $1,500 per year per student in local funding. Compare that with the Oxford School District, where tax revenues generate $32 million a year. Broken down by student, local revenues in Oxford yield about $7,400 per year for each of its 4,323 students. Combined with the roughly $5,000 received from state in the MAEP formula, this high assessed value district receives about $12,400 per year to educate each student. When compared with the roughly $6,500 per year per student that Union receives, the funding gap is clear.
I say all this not to take anything away from Oxford, Pascagoula, Biloxi, Madison County, or any other high assessed value districts, but to highlight the lack of equity in the state funding formula. The funding formula should provide more state funding for districts with lower assessed value. This should operate on a sliding scale of some sort, wherein higher tax base communities to contribute a higher share than lower tax base communities. I sorted data in the report to rank districts along the Highway 15 corridor from high to low based on percentages of the total district budget generated from local revenue. There were 147 districts in the state last year. The Union Public School District and the Neshoba County School District were hit the hardest by the inequitable funding, ranking 142 and 136 respectively; Newton County came in at 97; Newton ranked 62. Philadelphia generated the highest percentage of local revenue on the Highway 15 corridor, with 32.25 percent of its budget coming from local sources, ranking it 46.
Mississippi legislators owe it to our students to fix this. Students who attend school at Union, Newton, Philadelphia, Newton County, and Neshoba Central are just as important and deserving of funding for a top-notch education as students who attend school in Pascagoula, Biloxi, Tupelo, Desoto County and other places. I think most reasonable people would agree. So, if I average the $12,400 per student that Oxford gets with the $6,500 per student that Union gets, I come up with $9,450. I urge you to call or email your legislators and remind them that our students matter a lot and our schools do a magical job educating students and preparing them to take on college or work anywhere in the country. I can only imagine how magical they’d be if equitable funding were received.
All that said, let’s take a moment to brag on teachers and administrators. Even given the funding disparities, students here continue to reach great heights, competing neck and neck on accountability models with districts with much higher tax bases. This is a testament to the talent that enters the classrooms of our schools each day. They give so much of themselves with time, emotion, compassion, and even personal finances. Educators deserve a huge pat on the back and an even larger amount of respect and support. Teachers and administrators in rural school schools wear so many hats and fill so many roles; they are truly superheroes.
Tyler Hansford is the Superintendent of Education in the Union Public School District.
