Louisiana begins overhaul of $4 billion school funding formula

Louisiana officials began a potentially sweeping rewrite of the state's public school funding formula Thursday, with members of a new task force signaling that teacher pay, declining enrollment and vast differences in local tax bases will be central to the debate.

The Minimum Foundation Program Formula Task Force held its first meeting at the Capitol, beginning a review that could go considerably further than the annual adjustments typically made to the roughly $4 billion funding system.

Created after voters twice rejected constitutional amendments intended to finance permanent educator raises, the task force is also charged with finding a recurring way to increase teacher and support-worker pay without relying on temporary money. Gov. Jeff Landry has said he wants permanent raises built into the state's school funding system without raising taxes.

The immediate challenge was underscored this year when Landry reduced the MFP appropriation by $168 million and redirected the money to preserve $2,000 compensation increases for teachers and $1,000 for support workers.

The state Department of Education has since instructed districts that the money can count toward a local raise or be distributed as a stipend, depending on what districts have already provided.

Thursday's meeting produced no proposed formula. Instead, members heard a history of the MFP and laid out what they want preserved – or reconsidered – as the work proceeds.

Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge and chairman of the Senate Education Committee, stressed that the task force was not created simply to cut school funding.

"I don't think anyone is suggesting that we destroy a formula, hurt anyone," Edmonds said. "I think what we'd like to be is on common ground of how we can do better." He pointed to Louisiana's recent academic gains while arguing the state needs to prepare more students for jobs generated by new economic development.

David Claxton, executive director of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents and a former Jackson Parish superintendent, said local school leaders want any replacement to protect districts from abrupt funding swings.

"If we can find something that's sustainable, that works in the budget for the state, is what we would like," Claxton said. He also warned that districts' ability to raise money varies dramatically, particularly as some communities gain major industrial projects while others have little capacity to generate additional local revenue.'

That issue goes to the heart of the MFP. Level 1 currently adjusts state support according to student needs and a district's local tax capacity, while Level 2 rewards additional local financial effort. Other layers contain past pay raises, operational funding and special programs accumulated over decades.

The task force's authorizing resolution argues that those additions have made the formula increasingly complicated and less transparent.

The overhaul comes after another unusual year for the MFP. BESE proposed spending about $4.004 billion under a 2026-27 formula, roughly $12.2 million less than the previous formula budget as statewide enrollment fell by 12,183 students.

At the same time, BESE proposed adding nearly $30 million for operating costs. The Legislature never approved that proposal; House Concurrent Resolution 20 remains pending in the House Education Committee.

Rep. Aimee Freeman, D-New Orleans, said members are likely to need detailed information from teacher groups, the retirement system and individual districts as they dig into the formula. Janet Pope, executive director of the Louisiana School Boards Association, made a similar point.

"Every district is very different and unique," Pope said.

Those differences are likely to make agreement on a replacement formula considerably harder than identifying problems with the existing one.