MONEY POSSIBILITIES AFTER DESEGREGATION TOPIC OF MEETING

The Cape Girardeau School District could benefit financially if a settlement is reached in the St. Louis desegregation case, says a school finance expert.

Dr. John A. Jones, the research and salary director for the Missouri State Teachers Association, said the district could receive $306,000 in additional state money, or approximately $76.59 per student.

"If we don't have a settlement in St. Louis, we won't have the money to fund the changes," Jones said.

The additional funds could be obtained under accounting changes pertaining to the state's school funding formula.

Jones spoke Tuesday at Cape Girardeau Central Junior High School to 23 people, largely educators, about the mechanics of Missouri's school funding formula.

With 1993 passage of the Outstanding Schools Act, also known as Senate Bill 380, the funding formula was completely revamped with the goal of equalizing disparities in per-pupil education spending throughout the state.

Under the measure, in exchange for urban taxpayers sending more money to outstate Missouri, outstate districts were required to increase minimum property tax levies from $2 per $100 assessed valuation to $2.75 per $100 assessed valuation.

"We are a great deal more equalized today than we were under the old formula," Jones said. "Are we perfect? Far from it."

Money received under the formula is tied to local property taxes, which vary. The maximum levy a district may plug into the formula is $4.60, though some districts have even higher levies.

The only way to achieve true per-pupil spending equality, Jones said, would be for every district to levy taxes at the same rate.

When the new formula went into effect, some districts, Cape Girardeau included, stood to lose state money.

Those districts were designated as "hold harmless" districts, meaning they would receive at least as much state money as they did for the 1992-93 school year, even if the formula said they should get less.

For the 1997-98 school year, Cape Girardeau schools would only get $632.19 per pupil under the formula. However, the state still gives the district its 1992-93 allocation of $739.38 per student.

"The upside is you get more money from the state than the formula says you are entitled to," Jones said.

A non-hold harmless school with similar formula numbers as Cape Girardeau would only get the lower amount, he said.

"The downside is you don't get any growth. It's fixed, and if you should get a decrease in local revenue, the state isn't going to make it up."

Jones said that in 1993 it looked as if the district would benefit from the new formula. However, an economic boom changed that.

In the 1992-93 school year, the district's assessed valuation was $256.9 million. That had jumped to $344.2 million by 1997-98 and is estimated to be $354 million for 1998-99 -- a six-year increase of nearly $100 million.

"Growth in assessed value has taken you off of the formula," Jones said.

The only way for the district to generate more revenue is to raise the local operating levy.

The Cape Girardeau district's levy for purposes of the formula is the minimum of $2.75. Levies for debt service and capital improvements are not included.

Jones said that according to his calculations the district would have to impose a levy of $3.92 to start receiving additional state funds under the formula.