Last Spring, the Associated School Boards of South Dakota, on behalf of the Alliance for Education, contracted with APA Consulting to answer the question How much does it cost to educate a child in South Dakota? The full report will be abailable mid-December, but, the Alliance will be releasing prliminary information in conjunction with the Joint Legislative Area Meetings sponsored by the ASBSD, SASD and SDEA.
Download a copy of the final report.
Why is Adequacy Important?
Public education is going through "standards-based" reform - a period involving increasing performance standards, assessment methods and accountability measures aimed at improving public education. Enacted into law under No Child Left Behind, these modern practices represent a significant shift in what public education is supposed to accomplish.
Standards-based reform didn't start with No Child Left Behind, though. A gradual shift had been taking place without federal legislation. More public K-12 systems were being moved away from merely providing opportunities - systems were expected to achieve certain outcomes.
About the same time states started setting standards for what students should be able to accomplish, an important discussion about the way schools are funded began.
Historically, schools are funded by using "residual budgeting" methods - meaning that funds available to education were determined politically and arbitrarily on a what-is-available basis. With the states now dictating outcomes, education leaders sought out a funding method that tied resources to outcomes. In other words, education leaders began asking for funding based on what the state was telling them to accomplish rather than just what the state had available to spend.
Enter the adequacy study. As part of the process to tie resources to outcomes, more than 20 states have undergone adequacy analyses. The way adequacy studies have been received, though, has been mixed.
States that fail to recognize that modern school systems are now being asked to do more have the hardest time accepting the costs associated with arriving at new standards-based outcomes. States that recognize the impact modern school reform has on local education, including Wyoming, Ohio and Maryland, have used adequacy studies to ensure education resources are sufficient to guarantee outcomes. To date, Maryland's Bridge to Excellence in Public Education Act of 2002 marked the strongest commitment and most seamless transition to an adequacy-based public education system.
The key issue, of course, is establishing a long-term funding solution that allows school leaders to plan for the increasing standards that come with No Child Left Behind. With a long-term solution, school leaders can work to build programs without fear that funding will disappear as an opt-out sunsets or as enrollment dips.