Simply start typing the name of your school district in the finder above. The report will show state, federal and local funding and the per pupil dollar amount.
Missouri public school districts and public charter schools are funded using a combination of local, state, and federal funding. Generally, the responsibility to provide the bulk of school funding falls to the state and to local communities.
Federal funding across the United States typically makes up less than 10% of total school funding. The dollars contributed by the federal government are given through federal agencies such as the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the Department of Agriculture to fund their federal programs. Note that during the pandemic, increases in Federal aid have dramatically increased that percentage temporarily. Most school districts have spent their COVID relief money and the percentage for federal support is expected to return to previous levels.
Local funding comes more directly from the surrounding community, and is a bulk sum given to the district that is taken mainly from property taxes.
The money available for state funding comes from general state revenues (income taxes, sales tax, etc.), gaming, lottery, and other miscellaneous taxes. The funds are distributed based on a funding formula which takes a few district factors into account. The formula is of particular interest because it aims to bring “equity and adequacy” into school funding by helping bridge the funding gap between districts with and without a lot of local funding.
As a whole, it is a student-based formula, meaning that schools are funded per student. A baseline cost of educating a student with no special needs or services is established, then multipliers are used to give districts more money to reflect the additional cost of educating certain categories of students. In Missouri these categories are students who receive Free or Reduced Lunch (FRL), Individualized Education Plans (IEP), or are categorized as Limited English Proficiency (LEP).
The formula
Weighted Average Daily Attendance x State Adequacy Target x Dollar Value Modifier – Local Effort = State Support
The baseline is called the State Adequacy Target (SAT) and the multipliers are applied to the Weighted Average Daily Attendance (WADA). Additional factors such as Dollar Value Modifier (DVM) and Local Effort are also taken into account to determine total state funding for a district.
The State Adequacy Target is the baseline amount given to each district per student, and is a measure of the average spending per student in schools that meet state standards (known as the Performance Districts). The SAT for 2024 is $6,375, and the SAT for 2025 will be $6,760.
The adjusted number of students the school serves based on multipliers and attendance is the Weighted Average Daily Attendance.
In 2024, Senate Bill 727 changed how schools are funded by exchanging attendance with enrollment. This change is expected to take effect in 2026.
The Dollar Value Modifier factor adjusts funding based on the value of a dollar in a specific area. It will increase funding in areas where the cost of living is especially high, but will not take money away from districts with lower costs of living.
Local Effort is a measure of how much money a district receives from local taxes and from other sources. The local tax revenue is calculated by multiplying the assessed property values by the property tax levy (3.43%, as suggested by the state). Collector and assessor fees are subtracted from the number to give the total local effort. This number is deducted from the product of the other three variables. Therefore, districts with more affluent populations (and thus higher property taxes) receive less state funding. Other things can also contribute to the total for local effort. Proposition C, for example, is a statewide sales tax that is collected and redistributed to districts based on WADA. 50% of the Prop C money that goes to a district is counted as local effort.
Additional Resources
Here’s a link to a DESE finance newsletter that is issued regularly. This one highlights some of the changes coming as a result of the passage of Senate Bill 727 in 2024. https://dese.mo.gov/sites/dese/files/media/pdf/2024/05/sf-May2024_0.pdf
DESE also provides this overview of the funding formulat: https://dese.mo.gov/media/pdf/missouri-school-funding-formula
Here is a 2016 Springfield New-Leader article that provides additional information and a “historical” perspective from 2016.
Earlier this year, a school ranking site also went live that shows even more school finance and performance data: https://www.moschoolrankings.org