Local business manager weighs in on MFP formula

Lafourche Parish School District’s Business Manager Don Gaudet was among several finance directors from across the state to advocate for school funding recently.

The business manager was on a panel that discussed the Minimum Foundation Program, which allocates close to 50 percent of funding for many school districts in the state.

Dr. John Augenblick, president of Augenblick, Palaich and Associates Inc., a financial consulting firm from Denver, created the MFP formula in the late 1980s.

“The formula is more student-driven. It takes into account the number of students and a base amount provided to instruct each student,” Gaudet said. “It takes into account each parish’s relative wealth to determine how much the parish can get to provide a minimum level of instructional opportunity for each parish.”

Gaudet’s panel discussed the MFP from the state and local level perspectives. He said there are certain implementation problems that the state Department of Education has, and there are certain issues affecting local school boards when the formula is used.

One of the problems is that when the parish’s enrollment numbers drop, MFP funds are immediately reduced. But, Gaudet said, school systems cannot necessarily reduce the number of teachers or any other employee count as fast.

Another problem is the MFP does not take into account facility renovations and improvements.

“We get nothing on the MFP to help upgrade our facilities. A lot of parishes have to go to the public to approve sales tax and property tax millages to upgrade their facilities,” he said.

Lastly, the state recently started earmarking the funds for specific programs. Prior to that, funding through the MFP was in the form of a block grant. Districts were afforded the flexibility to spend these funds as they determined to be in the best interest of the district.

“We get money based on the account of students. We get extra money for at-risk and special needs students, and vocational and technical programs,” he said. “The money should be used for the general operation of the school system.”

Lafourche Parish School Superintendent Jo Ann Matthews is hopeful the problems with the formula can be fixed. “The MFP is supposed to help schools, but it’s really not,” she said.