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Education was a topic of continual discussion for the regular and both special sessions. Legislative oversight, increased accountability, and teacher raises have prompted charged discussion throughout the year. While most would agree that education is far below where it should be in this state, few can agree as to the cause. Reasons range from inadequate funding to inefficient use of funds; from lack of accountability to wasted resources proving accountability. Without understanding the problem, it became impossible to develop a solution.

Governor Foster issued Executive Order MJF 99-41 creating the School Finance Commission to look into the concerns surrounding K-12 education and to develop specific remedies to address the problems. Months of meetings ensued involving Department of Education staff, BESE board members, local school board members, school superintendents, teacher union representatives, legislators, legislative staff, Division of Administration staff, Governor’s office staff, and nationally renowned consultants. The end result was a new funding model.

The new model provided for a teacher pay raise with the intent of reaching the southern average. In providing funds for the pay increase, the new model also reduced the hold harmless problem to a point where it was no longer believed to be an issue. The structure of the new model was changed to provide the legislature more control and a better understanding of how existing and new funds were spent. While it was still a block grant to local districts, legislators would know where funds went between salaries/benefits, accountability, incentives, and other costs. Ratios were set up to determine the distribution of funds across these categories, as well as the appropriate state and local share. The problem with this formula was that it cost an additional $300 million. Without the new funds, the new model was temporarily set aside while the old formula was modified to meet current year expectations (to be described in the MFP section below).