Agency: MSP - Basic School Program

Function

The Basic School Program provides general operations revenues to school districts and charter schools. Program appropriations support education programs for all public kindergarten, elementary, and secondary students in the state. The basic program is divided into two sub-programs:

1. Regular Program - provides generally unrestricted revenue to school districts and charter schools. The appropriation includes funding for Kindergarten, Grades 1-12, Professional Staff, Administrative Costs and a supplement for Necessarily Existent Small Schools.

2. Restricted Program - includes targeted programs for Special Education, Career and Technology Education, and Class Size Reduction. As the name implies, the use of allocated funding by school districts and charter schools is restricted to the functions defined in each sub-program.

Basic School Programs use the WPU to estimate the cost of each sub-program and to distribute program appropriations in a relatively proportional manner among school districts and charter schools. Generally, one WPU equals one pupil in average daily membership (ADM). One program, Professional Staff, uses the number of Full-Time-Equivalent (FTE) licensed staff in the school districts and charter schools to determine WPU counts.

Certain programs within the basic program generate fewer or additional WPUs based on statutory guidelines, which most often is based on student qualification. For example, kindergarten students generate .55 of a WPU whereas students enrolled in special education programs generate more than one WPU. These weightings allow the program to adjust to meet the varied costs associated with educating different student populations.

Funding Detail