Florida’s legislative session will soon adjourn on May 5, 2023. With the ending so close the legislators, staff and lobbyists are all working overtime. There have been many bills which have passed both the Florida Senate and Florida House. Several bills have already been signed into law by Governor DeSantis. There are also many other important bills for Floridians which are still being debated and meticulously scrutinized. One such bill is House Bill 5101 which sets the funding criteria for the Florida Education Finance Program. This bill was unanimously passed by the Florida House and has been sent to the Florida Senate for debate and passage.
You might ask what is the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP)? “The FEFP is the state’s formula to appropriate funds to school districts for kindergarten through grade 12 public school operations, which includes charter schools, and to fund the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES) program. The FEFP is composed of state and local revenues and takes into account various factors such as the individual educational needs of students, the local property tax base, the costs of educational programs, district cost differentials, and sparsity of student population.”
“State FEFP revenues are derived from the following three sources:
• General Revenue Fund – comprised of several state taxes and selected fees; the state’s sales tax is the primary source of general revenue.
• Educational Enhancement Trust Fund (EETF) – comprised of the net proceeds from the Florida Lottery and the tax proceeds on slot machines in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
• State School Trust Fund (SSTF) – comprised of revenue from unclaimed property that has escheated to the state.”
“Local Florida Education Finance Program revenue is derived almost entirely from property taxes levied by Florida’s 67 counties, each of which constitutes a school district. To participate in the state allocation of Florida Education Finance Program funds, a school district must levy the millage rate set for its required local effort (RLE) from property taxes. The Legislature sets the aggregate required local effort amount in the General Appropriations Act (GAA). Each school district’s share of this amount is based on the school district’s certified property tax valuations, and each school district’s required millage rate as established by the Commissioner of Education (commissioner).”
“In addition to the required local effort millage, each school district is authorized to levy a nonvote current operating discretionary millage. The Legislature annually prescribes in the general appropriations act the maximum amount of millage a school may levy. For Fiscal Year 2022-2023, the Legislature prescribed 0.748 as the maximum millage rate.”
The Florida Education Finance Program funding is comprised of base FEFP funding (set by the legislature) and categoricals. The base student allocation (BSA) for the FEFP is derived annually by the Florida Legislature. It represents the “base” or minimum amount of funds each student generates for the school district. For the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 FEFP, the Base Student Allocation is $4,587.40.19 Based up calculations of the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 FEFP, the total base FEFP funding is $15.0 billion.
The Florida House passed this bill to update the Florida Education Finance Program and provide more pupil funding and more money for teacher salaries. HB 5101 will provide $3,094,479 for per pupil funding for 2023-2024 and $488,461 for teacher salary increase in Jackson County.
State Representative Shane Abbott stated, “I’m so proud to support HB 5101 which improves PreK-12 funding by historic levels in Holmes, Jackson, Walton, Washington, and Calhoun County. Northwest
Florida residents are tired of feeling overlooked when it comes to crucial state funding, especially in our rural areas. In many communities there simply aren’t enough classrooms to meet the needs of our teachers and families. When I ran for State House I told voters that I would prioritize improving educational opportunities and outcomes, and I’m excited to help pass an education budget that will make an immediate, noticeable impact on Northwest Florida families. HB 5101 includes general PreK-12 public education funding along with funding for Florida Virtual School, charter schools, developmental research schools and other education initiatives. The bill includes over $20,000,000 in total funding for House District 5.
School funding is very important to all our communities and especially here in our rural Jackson County Area. Society is continually in a changing motion which places additional demands and expenditures on our school district. Many demands and expenditures which have not been experienced in the past. It is great to see a unanimous vote from the Florida House on House Bill 5101. The vote to improve the funding system and to provide much needed additional funding proves the Florida House is willing and ready to fight for the additional needs we have here in Jackson County. That concludes another week of The Straight Truth!