State committee reviews spreadsheet for proposed school funding formula, seeks more data

Members of a state legislative committee (committee name not specified in the transcript) spent a meeting reviewing the technical spreadsheet behind a proposed education funding model, hearing from Secretary of Education Zoe Saunders and Amanda Brown of APA Consulting about how the base, weights and adjustments were applied and which policy choices remain unresolved. The group set follow-up work for next week, including provision of a file that itemizes what was built into the base amount.

The walkthrough centered on a shared Excel workbook the consultants displayed and explained. "This very first tab is somewhat of the controlling tab for the model. This is where we have the base and the weights, laid out," Amanda Brown said as she showed the spreadsheet. Brown stated the model uses a $13.02 base expressed in fiscal year 2025 dollars, and that various student weights and adjustments are applied to generate a weighted average daily membership (ADM) and a resulting foundation funding total.

Secretary Zoe Saunders framed the session as a technical review to surface policy choices embedded in the model: "So as we go through with the model today, I think we're gonna make explicit some of the policy choices that are built in, and that is for further conversation." She and Brown emphasized the committee would reconvene to dive deeper into areas members asked to explore.

Key points explained in the meeting: - Base and weights: The model uses a base of $13.02 (FY25 dollars) and several categorical weights. Examples discussed in the spreadsheet…