As if Art Johnston isn’t busy enough preparing for his meeting with the legislature tomorrow and today’s imminent lawsuit against the Duluth School Board he has also waded into that discussion I’m having with Loren Martell about how much state revenue each ISD 709 student generates (and how much we will lose when a student abandons our district) Its even worse than Loren said. Art sent me the documents to back up an average loss per student this year of nearly $10,500. Every nine students lost means the departure of one teacher. Our current (but growing) loss of 187 students this year means we will lose the funding for 21 teachers.
Here is Art’s quick explanation to me sent late last night. I deduce from this that the per student costs Art is using also includes our local levy which will not be lost when students depart. That would put our lost state revenues somewhere below the $10,948 figure he mentions near the end:
Attached are two documents on the money received by ISD 709 per student.
The first is the document handed out by Thissen/Simonson at Denfeld on Aug. 19, 2013 where the number for Duluth is put at $10,452 per ADM for FY 14; and $10,948 per ADM for FY15.
The other document is from the presentation by WIPFLi in December where the expenditure per ADM in ISD709 is put at $10,982.
The state “formula allowance” for 2014-15 is $5,831, per the “Financing Education in Minnesota 2014-15” by the Minn. House Fiscal Analysis Dept. This formula allowance is only part of our funding. The biggest additions are local property tax and federal revenues.