- April 19, 2024
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Ormond Beach will support the Volusia County School District's call to amend the ratio of transferred education funding from poorer to wealthier school districts through district cost differential, which the City Commission unanimously voted in favor of during the Oct. 3 City Commission meeting.
“It is very important to us that we have all of our cities in Volusia County in support of what we are trying to get Legislature to see and to do," said Carl Persis, Volusia County School Board member representing District 4.
According to the Florida Department of Education, Florida Legislature enacted the Florida Education Finance Program in 1973 to establish a policy on equalized funding to guarantee that all students statewide have the same programs and services available for their educational needs despite geographic differences and economic factors. The FEFP formula recognizes the different property tax bases for each county, education program costs, costs of living and the different costs of equivalent educational programs. One of the factors in the formula is district cost differential — it's one of the main factors used to calculate the base funding of each school district.
Volusia County recieves 0.9689 for every dollar of school funding. Persis said a few pennies might not seem like a lot, but that over time it adds up. In 2004, the first year it was implemented, Persis said those pennies amounted to the school district receiving $9.9 million less. This year, Persis said it's going to cost the school district $11 million.
Over the years, Volusia County Schools have lost $140 million in base funding because of district cost differential, Persis said.
“You can do a lot with $140 million," Persis said.
Out of the 67 counties in Florida, 55 of them are forced to give away funding, which is transferred to the remaining 12. Oftentimes, Persis said it's the smaller counties that are negatively impacted by district cost differential.
He cited Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach County — which all have populations in the millions — and have picked up $454 million, $32 million and $418 million over the years. The population in Miami-Dade County is almost five times larger than Volusia County's.
“The money is desperately needed to help the children here in Volusia County," Persis said.
He said that now there is less funding and more students that need it. To illustrate his point, Persis said that when district cost differential started 40% of students in Volusia were on free or reduced lunch. Now, that number has climbed to 65%.
Mayor Bill Partington said what struck him the most was that poorer counties are sending their dollars to wealthier counties. Volusia County is considered to be a poor county, he said.
“It really doesn’t make sense for us to be funding wealthier counties,” Partington said.
Out of all the counties, Volusia might not be the most affected, but it's high on the list, Persis said.
“Even one penny more, just a penny more, would bring in million of dollars," Persis said.
