Education spending steadily increases as enrollment declines

Contrary to what you will hear from many candidates running for office, Mississippi is spending more taxpayer funds to educate a decreasing amount of K-12 students, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

In 2014, local, state and federal funding added up to $4.467 billion or about $9,068 per each of the state’s 492,586 students in public schools.

Fast forward to 2017, taxpayers spent a total of $4.75 billion on K-12 in Mississippi from local, state and federal sources. That added up to $10,092 apiece to educate 470,668 students enrolled in public schools.

Those add up to 7.57 percent and 6.8 percent increases, respectively, in state and local spending compared with 2014. 

During that same period, enrollment in Mississippi public schools decreased by 4.5 percent.

Mississippi ranks 41st in per unadjusted, total per-pupil spending among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 

South Carolina (35th) is the second highest ranking Southeastern state in per-student spending, along with Arkansas (36th), Georgia (40th), Alabama (42nd) and Florida (45th). 

The District of Columbia spends the most per student nationally, an astronomical $27,696. According to a 2018 audit report, students are allowed to pass courses despite excessive unexcused absences and there is a culture of passing and graduating students who didn’t meet standards.

The highest ranking Southeastern state is Louisiana, which spends $12,683 per pupil and is ranked 23rd.

The Pelican State uses a similar K-12 education funding formula to the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, the Minimum Foundation Program, to divide up state funding among school districts. 

The difference between the two states is that the MFP amount is constitutionally mandated by the Louisiana state constitution, leaving the Louisiana legislature with precious little maneuvering room in the budget during tough economic times.

The MAEP, thanks to a 2017 decision by the state Supreme Court, is not a binding funding amount for the legislature.

In fiscal 2020, the MAEP formula amount totaled $2.477 billion and the legislature appropriated $2.246 billion, a difference of $231,505,356.

In 2017, state ($2.413 billion or 50.8 percent), local ($1.666 billion or 35.1 percent) and $671 million for federal spending (14.1 percent) composed the taxpayer outlay on K-12 education in Mississippi.

For Mississippi to equal Louisiana in per-pupil spending, the state would have to spend more than $619 million more in state K-12 spending and more than $428 million in local spending.

According to the Census data, Louisiana spends more on salaries and benefits (80.98 percent versus 79.4 percent in Mississippi) and a slightly smaller percentage — 55.76 percent versus 56.68 percent for the Magnolia State — on instruction related outlays.

Louisiana (38.79 percent) spends more on support services — defined as school and district office administration and instructional staff support — than Mississippi (36.88 percent).