State Education Finance Plan PP

Florida State Funding of School Districts - Highlights #1

*The Florida constitution establishes the state’s commitment to funding K -12 education as follows: “The education of children is a fundamental value of the people of the State of Florida. It is, therefore, a paramount duty of the state to make adequate provision for the education of all children residing within its borders. Adequate provision shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education…”

*In 1973 the Florida legislature enacted the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFPP) which is the primary mechanism for equalized funding the operating costs of Florida school districts, along with the state’s virtual, charter, and developmental research (lab) schools.

*In order to participate in the FEFP, school districts must provide evidence of its efforts to maintain an adequate school program throughout the district.

*In particular, in order to participate in the FEFP, school districts must do the following: (1) maintain a system of internal accounts for individual schools; (2) operate all schools for a term of 180 actual teaching days or the equivalent on an hourly basis; (3) provide written contracts for all instructional personnel; (4) expend funds for salaries in accordance with a salary schedule; (5) prepare, adopt and execute school district budgets according to requirements of the Florida Board of Education; (6) levy the equalized required local effort (RLE) millage rate; and (7) maintain an ongoing, systematic evaluation of the education program needs of the district and develop a comprehensive annual and long-range plan for meeting those needs.

*For 2021-2022, the total FEFP funding for Florida school districts came to $22,405,338,663 of which $12,431,965,249 was comprised of state funds and $9,973,373,414 was made up of local funds. However, compared to the 2020-2021 total FEFP funding of $22,504,680,361, there was a decrease of $99,341,698 due primarily to the 2020-2021 pandemic-related student enrollment decline.

*According to the most recent figures (2020-2021), Florida school districts in 2018-2019 received 39.90% of their financial support from the state primarily by means of sales taxes, 48.79% from local sources primarily by means of property or ad valorem taxes, and 11.31% from federal sources primarily by means of personal and corporate income taxes.

*In Florida, the state sales tax is 6%. Both in Broward and Miami-Dade counties the sales tax is 7%. This is due to the temporary additions of two 0.5% surtaxes which normally require voter approval in a referendum and are typically used for things like both capital outlay and capital improvement of services and facilities like public schools.

*Although the operation and funding of Florida school districts is primarily a state legislature responsibility, according to the state constitution, over the years there has been a steady transition toward having local county governments take over a greater share of local school funding via primarily property or ad valorem taxes.

*Most states, like Florida, use a broad tax base consisting of personal and corporate income, sales, and property or ad valorem taxes which provide the most stable, predictable, and lucrative sources of revenue, while making it difficult for individuals to avoid paying any sort of tax for government services.

*Sales taxes tend to be regressive, while income taxes tend to be progressive. Property or ad valorem taxes can be either regressive or progressive depending upon the particular scenario.

*For the sake of equity or fairness, it is generally advocated that tax systems should be more progressive than regressive in nature whenever possible. That is because a progressive tax is based upon the “ability to pay principle” or vertical equity, i.e., people with more income are in a better financial position to carry a greater proportion of the overall tax load needed for government services. On the other hand, not everyone is in agreement with this rationale.

*Although taxation is not perfect or completely fair or equitable to everyone, it remains the best system yet devised for supporting government services like the public schools.

Primary Sources: 2020-21 & 2021-22 Funding for Florida School Districts (PDF) http://www.fldoe.org/fefp