The process of drafting a new formula to calculate state aid for Missouri’s public schools became more challenging this week as state officials discovered some federal data sources are likely to disappear.
Kari Monsees, the state education department’s semi-retired chief of finance, told working groups tasked with revamping the formula that he hopes to find a replacement for a variable called the dollar-value modifier. This piece of the formula, as it stands, uses regional wage data to increase state funding in areas with higher salaries. But the underlying data, Monsees said, is no longer being reported by federal agencies.
The funding targets working group thought it had a solution with a dataset called the Comparable Wage Index for Teachers, which is reported by the National Center for Education Statistics. But this week, Monsees learned this data is also set to go dark.
“It may be a side effect of all the transitions happening at the federal level, with some of the determined non-essential reporting entities no longer reporting the same information,” he said. “So after quite a bit of work over the last couple of weeks, it felt like as of last Thursday afternoon we were back to square one.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education confirmed that the wage index, which measured the salaries of college graduates by region, was deemed nonessential.
The working groups were scheduled to complete their recommendations this week so that the larger Missouri School Funding Modernization Task Force could review plans in January. Monsees said he has identified possible data sources, like the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center.
Surveys that are part of the U.S. Census are another potential source, but the data is not reported annually.
“One of the things to be mindful of is frequency of availability,” said Liberty Public Schools Superintendent Jeremy Tucker. “Especially when you throw out Census data that is going to be a little bit longer cycle as far as when that might be available.”
Currently, the dollar-value modifier is updated annually. Though, without the underlying data, the state is forced to freeze this variable until a new method is outlined in state law, Monsees said.
Each working group has focused on different sections of the funding formula. How each piece works together — and the potential funding ramifications for schools — will begin to emerge when the task force reconvenes Jan. 26.