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Flat Isn't Flat

Missouri law sets the per-student funding target at $7,145. Districts are being paid on about $6,865.

A "flat" budget makes that gap bigger. Here's how the formula works, and why.

How the formula works

Follow a fictional district through a simplified funding calculation. As you scroll, each step adds one piece of the formula.

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Step 1 of 5

Start with the students

Our fictional district has 100 students. The formula starts with the students a district serves.

100 students in this example.

Step 2 of 5

Account for additional needs

Extra funding weights recognize the added cost of serving students in poverty, students with disabilities and English learners. Here, the weighted count becomes 120.

There are still 100 students. The extra 20 are funding weights, not additional children.

Weighted student count: 120.

Step 3 of 5

Apply the funding target

Multiply the weighted count by the State Adequacy Target, or SAT. At $7,145, 120 weighted students produce $857,400.

$857,400 before regional adjustment.

Step 4 of 5

Adjust for regional costs

The dollar value modifier adjusts for regional cost differences. With a modifier of 1.05, the total grows to $900,270.

$900,270 before local contribution.

Step 5 of 5

Subtract local effort

Finally, the formula subtracts what the district is assumed to raise locally: here, $300,000. What's left, $600,270, is the district's calculated state aid.

Local effort is a formula-defined amount, not what the district actually collects.

Calculated state aid: $600,270.

Simplified example. District numbers are illustrative. Real calculations include attendance and enrollment rules, hold-harmless protections and other adjustments, and state aid is only part of a district's budget.

Missouri's State Adequacy Target

$7,145

That's what the state's school funding formula says it costs to give one student an adequate education for FY2026 through FY2028. Here's where that number comes from.

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Step 1

Start with every district in the state.

Missouri has more than 500 public school districts, from big city systems to rural districts with a few hundred kids.

The SAT doesn't come from a study of what education should cost. It comes from what certain districts already spend.

Step 2

Keep only the high performers.

The state picks out performance districts: districts that meet DESE's performance standards on their Annual Performance Report. Under the current system (MSIP 6), that means earning at least 90% of the possible points.

By law, performance districts can't make up more than 25% of all districts. After the switch to the tougher MSIP 6, the group shrank from more than 200 districts to a few dozen.

Step 3

Trim off the extremes.

Next, those districts are ranked by how much they spend per student. The highest-spending and lowest-spending 5% (measured by student attendance) are set aside.

That way a few unusual districts can't pull the average way up or way down.

Step 4

Add up what they spend to run schools.

For the districts that remain, the state totals their current operating expenditures: the day-to-day cost of instruction and support services, like teachers, buses and classroom materials.

Construction, debt payments and certain other categories are left out.

The fine print: the law doesn't use a fresh look at today's budgets. It starts from districts' 2004 spending and adds the state aid increases since then, so the figure can lag behind what schools actually pay now.

  • Instruction counts
  • Student and Staff Support counts
  • Operations and Transportation counts
  • Construction and Debt left out
  • Other excluded categories left out

Step 5

Divide by the number of students.

Take that total and divide it by the combined average daily attendance of those same districts. The result is the per-student State Adequacy Target.

Every district's state aid starts from this number.

Total operating spending Total average daily attendance
$7,145per student

Then, for each district:
Weighted attendance × SAT × regional cost adjustment − local effort = state aid

Step 6

Recalculate every two years.

DESE redoes the math every two years with the newest data. The law says a recalculation can never lower the target.

When the number goes up, the increase is phased in: half the first year, the rest the next. That's how the SAT went from $6,375, where it sat for years, to $6,760 in FY2025 and $7,145 in FY2026.

$6,375
$6,760
$7,145
FY20-24FY25FY26

Calculated target by fiscal year (bars not to scale)

The catch

The target isn't always the check.

Calculating the SAT is one thing. Paying it is up to the legislature. If lawmakers don't appropriate enough to fully fund the formula, districts are paid based on a lower number.

For FY2027, DESE's initial payments were calculated using a SAT of $6,865, not the full $7,145.

What the formula calls for$7,145
$280 less per student, before weights and adjustments

Why the target falls

The same $4.28 billion line pays a list of special payments first. Whatever is left is spread across districts through the SAT, so every dollar those payments grow is a dollar the SAT loses.

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Start here

The full line

The FY2027 foundation formula appropriation is $4.28 billion. Before anything else is paid from it, the full amount is on the table.

Virtual host school (MOCAP)

State aid paid to host districts for full-time virtual students. About two-thirds of all special payments.

169-day calendar incentive

SB 727 bonus for districts keeping at least a 169-day calendar.

MOScholars payment (HB 349)

HB 349 (2021) lets districts keep counting students who leave on a MOScholars scholarship.

Financial institution tax reduction

Backfills revenue districts lost from a bank tax change.

Recovery high school

Tuition for students at designated recovery high schools.

Fine reduction

Constitutional backfill for fine revenue.

Residential care facility

Aid for students served on-site at residential facilities.

Kindergarten payment

Statutory kindergarten payment.

What's left

About $4.08 billion for the SAT

Eight special payments totaling $205,467,947 come off the top. What remains is all the SAT calculation has to work with.

The gap

The formula needed about $4.27 billion

At $7,145 per student, the formula needs about $4.27 billion. What's left is about $190 million short.

By law, DESE closes that gap by lowering the SAT until the math fits.

FY2027 foundation formula line
Still on the line Missing: taken off the top

About $190M short. By law, DESE lowers the SAT.

Figures are DESE's FY2027 estimates for special payments that ride on the foundation formula line. The FY2027 appropriation is $4,282,736,000.