(Baton Rouge – March 10, 2009) “The choice is between a rock and a hard place.” That is how Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan characterized the two public education funding options facing members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“Neither of the funding formulas under discussion recognizes the needs of children in our public schools,” Monaghan said. “We are not looking at how much is required to provide a sound education.”
BESE is looking at two options for public education’s Minimum Foundation Program, the complicated formula used to funnel state money to local school districts. One is a standstill budget that would divide $3.27 billion among Louisiana’s 69 school districts; the second has a small growth factor that would divide $3.37 billion.
“The problem is that neither of these is based on classroom realities,” Monaghan said. “In the past we have lamented educational investments that were not large enough. Today we are still faced with a vision for our schools that is far too limited.”
Several times in the past, Monaghan said, lawmakers have rejected proposals to conduct adequacy studies. Those would determine how much money is required to fulfill the state’s constitutional obligation to “provide learning environments and experiences, at all stages of human development, that are humane, just, and designed to promote excellence in order that every individual may be afforded an equal opportunity to develop his full potential.”
The information required to conduct an adequacy study is readily available, Monaghan said. But some have worried that learning the true cost of educating educate a child could lead to lawsuits demanding that the state live up to the obligation.
“The LFT has a clear goal,” Monaghan said. “The state must determine the true cost of providing an appropriate, sound education for all of our children. Then we must find the revenues to build the ‘world-class’ education system that everyone knows our children deserve.”