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JFO explains Act 73 foundation formula: base set at 15,033 and weights reassigned
Summary
Joint Fiscal Office analysts told the committee that Act 73 establishes a foundation formula with a base amount of $15,033 per student, additive tiered weights for special education and English learners, and that a consultant report on implementation is due December 2026.
Ezra Holden, Joint Fiscal Office staff, told the Ways & Means committee that Act 73 creates a foundation formula with a base amount of $15,033 per student, adjusted annually for inflation, that becomes the foundation of each district’s Education Opportunity Payment (EOP). "The foundation formula has a base amount of 15,033, and that is the amount that every student would receive," Holden said.
Under Act 73 the base is multiplied by a district’s long-term weighted average daily membership and by additive weights for students who meet specified categories. Holden said pre-kindergarten retains a grade-related adjustment (a negative 0.54 weight, yielding 0.46 of the base for a pre-K student), English-learner supports are tiered by proficiency level, and special-education funding moves from census block grants to a tiered weighted model based on disability categories.
Holden attributed the disability-category framework to the Toby and Baker memo (04/03/2025) and said those national-level categories were used to estimate relative cost; Vermont data was used to generate the $15,033 base. "So these categories here are based on the national... studies," he said, noting that Vermont data informed the cost function used to calculate the base.
Committee members asked whether JFO had modeled Act 73 applied to current district boundaries. Holden said no such materials were prepared for this session but that JFO can produce that analysis on request. He also confirmed that JFO has issued an RFP and is contracting for a consultant whose report is due back to the committee in December 2026.
Why this matters: the base and weights determine how state education funds are allocated across districts and student groups; shifting special-education funding from block grants to weights and changing grade and sparsity treatments will change per-district and per-school funding totals. Several members asked follow-up questions about how student need is identified (for example, the role of free-and-reduced-price-lunch, Medicaid direct certification and an income-declaration form) and JFO said it would follow up with AOE and other agencies on data-collection details.
Next step: JFO will provide additional follow-up requested by members, and the committee can request modeling of Act 73 applied to current district maps.
