House Ways and Means reviews proposed foundation formula, EOPs, sparsity and small‑school grants

House Ways and Means members spent the morning reviewing staff modeling of a proposed shift to a foundation funding formula that would calculate district Education Opportunity Payments (EOPs) and a set of sparsity and small‑school grants.

Julie Richter, who identified herself as from the joint Trisco office, presented the committee’s FY25 modeling and said the figures in the draft were calculated from Professor Colby and Dr. Baker’s memo. “So again, I’m nonpartisan. No policy recommendations, unbiased,” Richter told the panel as she walked through slides showing how the EOP and supplemental grants would be computed.

The analysis uses a base per‑pupil amount of $15,033. Richter described the EOP as that base multiplied by a district’s long‑term weighted average daily membership (ADM), with additional weights applied for students experiencing economic disadvantage and for English learners. She told members she had not included special education weights or tiered English‑learner weights because the necessary pupil‑level data were not available for her FY25 run.

Why this matters: the committee is considering whether to move from the current funding approach toward a foundation model that would reallocate state education dollars based on estimated costs per pupil and student needs rather than current tax‑capacity adjustments.

How the supplements would work in the draft - Sparsity: A district would be eligible for a sparsity grant if it has fewer than 55 people per square mile (Richter…