Scott County Central ranked among state's 'most equitable' school districts

A new study of all 516 public school districts in Missouri has ranked the Scott County Central School District in Sikeston, Missouri, as one of the state’s “most equitable” in terms of its expenditures per student.

The study, released Tuesday by the personal finance website WalletHub, ranked the Scott County district in fifth place on its list of financially equitable districts.

WalletHub’s ratings were based on two metrics — average household income in each district and the amount each district spent on educating its students during the 2019-2020 school year.

According to 2019 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Scott County Central had 736 households in its district with a median household income of $43,796 and spent an average of $12,813 on each of its students.

Meanwhile, the Jackson School District, which WalletHub last year ranked as the state’s most equitable district, fell to No. 82 on this year’s list. Jackson’s new ranking was based on NCES data indicating average household income increased by more than $4,000 in 2019 compared to 2018 (from $60,013 to $64,532), the district’s average expenditure per student only increased by a few hundred dollars (from $8,551 to $8,966).

Overall, Missouri households had an average income of $76,060 in 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. During the 2019-2020 school year, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education reports public schools in the state spent an average of $11,436 per student, up from $11,249 during the 2018-2019 school year and $10,972 the year before that.

Equitable funding has long-term benefits, according to WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez.

“If we make sure that every school district has equitable funding, students in less affluent communities will have a level playing field with students in wealthy districts,” she said. “As a result, their graduation rates will increase as will their likelihood to pursue higher education and earn larger incomes.”

Depending on the degree, she said college graduates have median weekly earnings as much as $1,100 more than a high school diploma and no college experience.

Methodology

In calculating its rankings, WalletHub added or subtracted points based on the differences between district and statewide expenditures and household incomes. For expenditures, for instance, for each 1% above the state average, WalletHub subtracted one point from base score of 50 points for each district. For household income, for each 1% above the state’s average, one point was added to a base score of 50 points for each district. The inverse was applied for each 1% below state averages.

The final score for each district was calculated by taking the difference between the score for expenditures and the score for household income. Districts were then ranked based on the total score.

With a score of 0.04, WalletHub ranked the Palmyra School District in Palmyra, Missouri, as the state’s most equitable with average student expenditures of $9,217 per student and average household incomes of $60,129. On the other side of the spectrum, the Bosworth School District in North Central Missouri was ranked as the state’s least equitable district, with average household income of $60,938 and average expenditures of $30,609 per student, giving it an equability score of 192.89.

The Scott County Central district had an equability score of 0.2, while the Jackson district’s score was 6.32. Last year, Jackson’s top-ranked equitability score was 0.03.

In addition to Scott County Central, two other public school systems in Southeast Missouri — North Pemiscot County in Hayti and Delta in Delta — were ranked among the state’s top 50. North Pemiscot had an equitability rating of 2.19, ranking it 35th, while the Delta district’s score of 3.56 ranked it 45th.

With average household income of $45,843 and per-student expenditures of $10,324, the Cape Girardeau School District had an equitability score of 18.05, ranking it at No. 204 out of the district’s 516 districts, the same ranking it held in last year’s study.

The entire equitability report, including the rankings of other area school districts, can be found on the WalletHub website, www.wallethub.com, and searching for “Most & Least Equitable School Districts in Missouri.”

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