Interim Committee Getting Closer to a “21st Century Funding Model”

Boise (670 KBOI) – The Idaho Legislature’s Public School Funding Formula Committee is making progress, and should have some proposals for the 2019 Legislature.

That’s according to District 16 Representative John McCrostie. He says they made good progress this week, trying to come up with a way to go from a funding model based on how many students are sitting at desks, to one based on enrollment.

“And so one of the inherent flaws of the attendance-based model is that you just never have every single kid at school,” said McCrostie, who is a public school teacher.  “Even on the first day of school, kids are absent, kids are sick, you know, if there’s a field trip.  There’s a myriad of reasons why every student who’s enrolled in the class isn’t going to be actually in their seats on a given day or time.”

He also says students may take classes in different places during the day…for example, a student may take online classes at home, but come to school for band, theater or sports.

McCrostie says they have three more meetings between now and October.