SCHOOLS SEEK ADDITIONAL STATE MONEY

JEFFERSON CITY -- School administrators from throughout Missouri asked lawmakers Monday to provide additional state funding for so-called "hold harmless" school districts.

Hold-harmless districts receive the same amount of state money per pupil they received for the 1992-93 school year. Of the state's 524 school districts, 52 currently are held harmless. The pleas for funding came during a hearing before the House Interim Committee on Hold Harmless School Districts. The panel has met in various areas of the state during the past several weeks to gather testimony on the issue. Monday's hearing was its last before the start of the legislative session in January.

In 1993, the General Assembly revamped the formula for calculating state funding for public school districts in an attempt to make education funding more equitable. Districts that stood to garner less in state aid under the new system were classified as held harmless so they wouldn't lose state money.

The options legislators will consider to help such districts include changing how federal money for at-risk students applies under the formula, restructuring how casino gambling proceeds are allocated and fully reimbursing districts for expenditures such as transportation and special education. The committee also will consider possible new revenue sources.

Cape Girardeau School District superintendent Dr. Dan Steska and Board of Education president Dr. Ferrell Irvin were among those testifying Monday. The district has been held harmless since 1994-95.

During his five years on the school board, Irvin said the dearth of additional state funding has forced the district to increase class size, eliminate course offerings and freeze staff and faculty salaries. Teacher turnover, he said, has been high as teachers abandon Cape Girardeau for higher paying jobs elsewhere."Hold harmless affects different school districts differently and to a different extent," Steska said. "Some districts are very adversely affected, and we feel the Cape Girardeau School District is one of those."To illustrate his point, Steska compared the Cape Girardeau district's financial situation to that of Arcadia Valley School District in Iron County. Steska was superintendent of Arcadia Valley, which is funded under the state formula, prior to taking over at Cape Girdeau this school year. He called his former district, with a total assessed valuation of $30 million, impoverished compared to Cape Girardeau School District's assessed valuation of $367 million.

Arcadia Valley has seen its state funding increase from $1,182 per pupil to $2,176 per pupil -- 54 percent -- since 1993. Cape Girardeau's per-pupil state funding has remained at $739. Total per- pupil expenditures, which are paid for through a combination of local and state revenues, have risen for both districts since the 1994-95 school year.

Arcadia Valley's per-pupil spending went from $3,618 to $5,284 -- a 32 percent jump -- while Cape Girardeau spending grew a mere 7 percent, going from $4,708 to $5,087."The phrase I think of when I look at this situation is not 'hold harmless' but 'held helpless,'" Steska said. "We are now spending less per pupil than a so-called 'impoverished' school district."Steska said Cape Girardeau voters have done their part in recent years by approving a property tax increase and a tax rollback but can only be expected to do so much. About 63 percent of funding for Cape Girdeau schools comes from local taxes.

While stressing his belief that all Missouri districts could use additional revenues, Rep. Scott Lakin, D-Kansas City, said Steska's comparison shows the funding formula is working since Arcadia Valley's total per-pupil expenditures are closer to that of Cape Girardeau's than under the old formula.

Lakin said care needs to be taken when making comparisons. A district that believes it is suffering simply because it didn't get as big a funding boost as another district is missing the point, he said. "The formula was intended to equalize," said Lakin.

Steska replied that while funding may be more equitable now, within five years districts such as Cape Girardeau will be at a disadvantage.

Committee chairman Rep. May Scheve, D-St. Louis, agreed with Lakin that the current formula has done what it was intended to but said education funding needs to be re-examined.

Other administrators from hold-harmless districts told tales similar to Cape Girardeau's.

Victor Kretzschmar, superintendent of the Westran School District in Randolph County, said his district is suffering from plummeting property values. He said the closing of a coal mine caused assessed valuation to drop from $168 million to $120 million, with a further downward spike anticipated next year.

Westran gets just $290 per student in state education money and has had to ask voters to raise its operating levy from $2.10 to $3.16 per $100 assessed valuation while eliminating faculty just to break even. About 95 percent of the district's budget is local money Kretzschmar said.

Chris Straub, associate executive director of the Missouri Association of School Superintendents, told the committee hold-harmless districts will get some relief this year as a provision of the 1998 bill settling the St. Louis desegregation program takes effect.

Under the change, increases in the number of students eligible for free or reduced lunches -- and the federal funding that comes with them from 1997-98 levels will not count against the formula. This will apply to all districts except those in St. Louis County, which will lose many such students as the desegregation program is phased out.