House Education hears Ways and Means on foundation formula, district sizing and school construction timing

House Education on March 14 took testimony from members of the House Ways and Means Committee about plans to implement a statewide foundation school funding formula and how that work should link to district boundaries, property-tax changes and school construction.

A member of the House Ways and Means Committee, speaking to the Education panel, said timing is the committee’s primary need: “we want our timeline to align with your timeline because the funding should match what’s happening in school, in classrooms, in communities.” The Ways and Means member said the panel is trying to coordinate three separate changes — two changes to property taxes and the new foundation formula — and urged the changes be effective in the same year to avoid “whiplash.”

The Ways and Means member said the committee is working with the Joint Fiscal Office on modeling and gave a preliminary implementation target of fiscal 2028, adding, “FY ’28 seems like the most realistic thing to me based on my preliminary conversations with the tax department.”

Why it matters: the committee’s choices about district scale and the timing of tax and spending changes will determine how state foundation funding is distributed across districts, how much districts may raise locally on top of a state guarantee, and whether assumed class sizes and building capacities can be met when funds flow.

What the Education committee was asked to provide Education members were asked to supply assumptions and ranges the Ways and Means panel can use in its modeling rather than precise boundary lines. The Ways and Means member requested a practicable range for total district counts and minimum/maximum district sizes — for example, a useful range would be “between 7 and 15” districts rather than an impractically wide range like “2 to 50.” The Ways and Means member said a numeric range will allow JFO and Ways and Means to model multiple implementation scenarios.

Transition planning and checkpoints Ways and Means recommended a multi-year transition anchored to current spending and noted past transitions (the member cited Act 173 and census block grant work) as models for staging change. The member recommended that statutory implementation include specific, objective checkpoints tied to completion tasks rather than only a date certain, to reduce the risk of plans being overtaken by outside lobbying or delay near a single deadline: “if it’s just a date certain, folks really start participating heavily from outside of the building when you come close to the date certain.”

School construction and where it will be funded Committee members asked whether school construction would be part of the foundation formula or funded separately. The Ways and Means member said big construction is likely to be funded at the state level in a separate fund rather than as a district levy, because large capital needs are atypical components of U.S. “foundation formulas” and the state would likely need to create a funding vehicle for new construction. The member said operational and facility costs will be captured by the initial cost-factor formula that represents the “current state,” while a modeled “future state” formula could assume new construction to meet targeted class sizes.

Other technical points and intercommittee work The Ways and Means member noted pre-K and career and technical education assumptions are being handled by other committees and should be factored into any final foundation model. The member also said the governor’s proposal uses the term “state guarantee” to describe the state’s role in ensuring minimum funding and that Ways and Means is exploring the name and scope of that guarantee.

What was not decided No formal votes or statutory language were adopted at the session. The Education committee did not provide final district boundary maps; it was asked only for ranges and assumptions to feed JFO modeling and Ways and Means drafting. Specific funding sources for school construction, and precise tax-code changes, were discussed as pending items and were not finalized.

Next steps The Ways and Means member asked Education to provide a reasonably narrow range of district sizes and any other modeling assumptions this session to support possible FY 2028 implementation. Ways and Means and the Joint Fiscal Office will continue modeling and will consult with the tax department on administrative timelines.

Ending Committee members thanked the Ways and Means representatives for the briefing and said they would continue coordination in upcoming hearings and joint sessions.