Education Committee - Senate and House
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- October 2, 2026
Unknown speaker
0:43
Members if you could go ahead and take your seats please.
Members please take your seats we'll start here in about a
minute good morning members and guests house or joint education will come to order if you would this morning let's let's stand and representative Nazarenko will start us in prayer this morning.
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
2:00
gathered herelord to come here and do the people's work lord we ask that you just bless this time that we have help us to make the right decisions that are gonna benefit the folks around us the children that are with us in this education system lord which is our future we ask you to bless each one of these children the teachers the administrators as well pray this in Jesus' holy
name amen Our members continuing from yesterday with our adequacy study we have M Bynum beck
in Hedley at the table and I will go ahead and recognize you for your presentation on
the resource allocation part one and then we'll roll right into part two. you recognize Elizabethynum with the Bureau
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
2:54
of Legislative Research Adrian beck also with the bureau
Lea haddley fear of legislative research. good morning members we're glad to be here today to share more information with you our topic for today iso allocation and we'll dive right in our we're going to start this morning as we did yesterday with the adequacy study statute which governs this entire process you can see here some part of the statute related to the committee's responsibilities which is showing that the
committee is required to review and continue to evaluate the amount of per student expenditure necessary to provide an equal educational opportunity and the amount of state funds provided to school districts based upon the cost of an adequate education the statute further states that this is accomplished by completing an expenditure analysis and resource all o c ation review each by Nm and so that's our purpose here today as a reminder if you would like to reference the adequacy statute that's in tab 1A of your binder
having gone through this statute we're going to go through a roadmap of what we're going to do this morning. I'm going to briefly discuss the methodology we're gonna get through some quick terminology and then we'll look at spending on items found in the matrix. if you'd like to reference the majorxx during that section that's in tab 1 E of your binder and we will look in that section specifically at the three categories of the matrix the schoolle personnel schoolle resources and district level resource
s then because foundation and other education funding can be spent on resources not identified in the matrix. Adrian's gonna take us through expenditures on non matrix items Finally we'll look at total expenditure datanet this report is going to look at three year public school spending including the most recently available expenditure data which is from the 2425 school year I'll make a note about the years right here when we're talking
about a year when we referred to the 2425 school year we're just going to refer to that as 25 and we are talking about school years unless we specify otherwise. in addition to expenditure data will provide where available comparisons to other states best practices identified in research and survey responses from Arkansas educators. OK looking at methodology first we're gonna just I want to explain how we're identifying matrix versus non matrix
expenditures and you can find a more detailed methodology in your report which is on your desk in appendix A and that begins on page 52. as a reminder your report is going to remain in your binder throughout this process it's also on the bureau website andation adequacyours and it's on the general assembly website in the meeting materials for this meeting so expenditures are calculated using data from the Arkansas public school Coputertwork which we'll refer to as Ap scan
in calendar years' 220132014 and2016 bureau staff worked with consultants to map the resource lines in the matrix to codes in the Arkansasinancialccounting handbag and this is a handbook that Desi produces that has codes for funds and expenditures and this is how districts enter their information into appscan. So any expenditure that has not been mapped to a matrix line is considered non matrix spending
then a little terminology about our fund sources foundation funding rumors refers to the amount distributed to school districts for that school year from the public school fund other funds means any funds other than foundation funding and all foreign sources includes all state, local and federalins. Could you move your mic just a little
bit closer please OK. later on
Speaker 25
7:13
in the report we're going to look at pertudent expenditures both by district
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
7:20
type and school type and so for district type we have three categories that we're going to look at we're gonna go through each of these and I'm going to show you some stats related to the these categories so that when we're looking at these categories you'll have an idea of the number of districts schools and students in each of these categories. OK. looking first at district type we have two district types regular t districts and charter
districts. I want to make a note about our terminology here when we say district we're referring to both of these types if we're making a distinction between a regular district and a charter district we will say regular district or charter district but if we just say district then we're referring to both you can see here the number of districts in each of those categories and the current year average daily membership since we're looking at 2025 expenditures that current year
ADM is for the school year 2025. Next looking at our size category you can see the number of districts in each category, the number of schools in each category and the average daily membership for 2025 and so you can see that while the average daily membership is rising in each of these categories the school count is also rising the district count actually goes down when you get into those higher size categories if you'll notice districts
above5,000 students have an AdM of over 175,000. so that's about a third of all students in the states Our final district level category is school district letter grades. These are calculated by the division of elementary and secondary education and you can see here that most students in 2025 attended a district that scored a letter grade of a B or C almost a quarter of
students attended a B orC district in 2025. Next looking at our school type analysis categories we have4 here the information on the school categories begins on page 54 if you'd like to refer back to that and we're going to go through each of these like we did the districts the first is our location type the National Center for Education Statistics has a method for classifying schools
as either urban or rural this is a schoolle measure and it is possible to have an urban and a rural school district an urban and a rural school in the same district you can see here that while urban while rural schools account for about 2/3 of the schools in the state. The average daily membership of students attending their schools is just more than half of the students in the state about53%. looking next at the number of
students eligible for free and reduced price lunch. the free and reduced price lunch categories are done in quintiles so you can see that it's about an equal number of schools in each quintile you can see that there are more students in those two lowest quintiles and so those two quintiles make up about half of all students in the state in 2025. One important note here you'll notice that that first quintile goes all the way from one% to47.4%.
Next looking at minority quintiles this is again like the free and reduced lunch eligibility extending quintiles so this school counselor similar minority is defined as any any student who is identifying as nonwhite and here you can see that the ADM is highest in that 3rd and 4th quintile and again that makes up about half of the students in the state in 2025. Our final category is school letter grades again these are
calculated by the division of elementary and secondary education these are separate from the district letter grades but like with district letter grades most students are attending a majority of students are attending a BRC school in 2025 about two thirds of the students in the states So now we'll get into spending on matrixx items the detailed foundation funding matrix define matrix lines define the necessary resources for an
adequate education as defined by the general assembly again you can find that the matrixx on tab 1e of your binder this section is getting examine what's being spent on items in the matrixx from both foundation funds and other funds out of respect for the member's time what we are not going to be presenting all of the data included in the report but we're providing a summary of what's included in detail in the report. so you can see here the matrix lines across the bottom of your screen. I want to note
that there are two lines that you will not see in this chart salary enhancement for other employees salary enhancement and for other employees and all personnel health insurance these are items that weblr is not able to track using fund codes and so that's why they're not included in this chart but you will see them later in the presentation so the remainder of the matrix lines are there across the bottom of your screen the blue
bar represents matrix expenditures for foundation funds the blue line represents foundation funding and the yellow bar is a percentage of other funds used. So when looking at what is spent on all matrix items the spending of foundation dollars exceeded the amount of foundation funding per the matrix for counselors principals secretaries subs t it ute s and operations and maintenance. However, when spending on these items from all find sources is
considered spending surpasses the foundation funding level on all lines except supervisory aids as a reminder public school districts and Epping andromlet public charters can apply for certain waiver for waivers from certain Arkansas rules but receiving such waivers does not affect funding. First we're going to look at expenditures by fensource we're looking at three years of data that blue bar is showing the
percentage of expenditures on matrixx items from foundation finds68% in2025 or about3.46 billion. The yellow bar is showing the percentage sent from all other fund sources32% in2025 or 1.66 billion. The line at the top is showing total spending on matrix lines from foundation and other sources so you can see that the percentage of matrix resources from foundation funds increased in 2025. there is a
corresponding drop in the percentage of other funds used and total spending on matrix items is rising each year Next looking I am per student expenditures on matrix line items. I'm going to start at the bottom of this chart and work up.gain we're looking at three years of data. the green bars at the bottom are showing the foundation funding amount per student for each year as set by the committees during the previous adequacy study
the green line on those green bars is showing the amount of foundation funding that's spent on matrix line items so in 2025 that amount is7,357 dollars or about400 dollars less than foundation funding the yellow line is showing expenditures on matrix line items from other funds and you can see for all three years that that amount is around3,500 dollars per student and then the blue bar at the top is showing total spending per
student on matrix line items so the sum of the green and yellow line. so in 2025 districts and charters spent almost $11,000 on matrix line items from all finds. Now looking at per student spending on matrix line items by district type so this is for 2025 districts spent almost $1000 more per student than charter districts
schools and districts with350 or fewer students spent the most per student in that categorymost5,000 dollars more than students in districts with 2500 to5,000 students which spent the least in that category and schools in F district spent the most in that category almost $1000 more than district spending the least Now we're going to look at some key findings we'll start with
the full matrix and then we'll like more specifically at each matrix category. looking at three year trends first districts spent between40 and to42% more per student on Matri's resources from all fund sources then what is perceived in foundation funding per student expenditures on classroom teachers accounted for almost one half of total matrixx expenditures from foundation funding operations and maintenance were
the second highest expenditures and expenditures on all other matrix resources accounted for6% or less of total spend Looking just at 2025 these are you can see this on the screen is results from the adequacy superintendent survey the full results of that survey are in tab3C1 toward the back of your binder and there's the question that this is responding
to for each of the following resources in the matrix, please indicate if your district needs additional funding during the 2425 school year. Over half of superintendents reported being extensively in need of additional funding for special education teachers operations and maintenance, student transportation salary enhancement for other employees and substitutes. In2025 it districts with500 or fewer students spent the most
per student on almost every matrix resource line it's been close to4,000 dollars more per student than districts with over500 students and then you can see on the screen some statistics about the districts with lower than500 students it's 21% of total districts 18% of regular districts and48% of charter districts now
we'll get into each real quick
Speaker 34
18:40
members see if there are
questions this is kind of broken up into very neat detailed sections for us and so as we get to the end of a key finding if there are questions on that particular area I think that might be a good
place to take questions so when they don't get too far away from the topic uhpresentative Duke
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
19:07
you're recognized Thank thank you Mr Chair. my question is back around page18
slide 16 and it has to do you mentioned that if a district receives if if I understood you correctly
if a district receives a waiver they still receive the funding. Is
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
19:28
a district had a waiver for a library media specialist for example they're still receiving the full foundation amount. OK
so do you have a breakdown on like how many waivers in this last year that that that that occurred with and what the
funding amounts were because obviously and and also do they repeat it the next year they asked for a waiver again because if we have districts that are asking for a library media specialist waiver and then they asked for it again and again or multiple districts that are asking for it then maybe we need to relook on what our guidelines and things are on these specialists if they don't need the money to have that position so do you have any of that information? I don't have that with me today but we can look into that for you think that would be at least for me
that would be very helpful again like I think what I'm asking for I guess to some degree is the areas where they sought the waivers and how many districts did that were they repeat? did they ask for it again the next year and how much funding went into those districts that ask for those waivers that they received that money for that position or that area or whatever it was and seemed to be able to make do without having that position but had the money allocated elsewhere because we may need to put that money somewhere else so
I would appreciate if you get that information that would be great we'll be happy to look into that and I think it also charters versus districts just re regular districts that have waivers. how many who I'd like the breakdown of that too in that as well which one had the had that broke down between them and I think that was all my questions on that thank you thank
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
21:08
you in er flowers you recognize thank you the key finding on I think
it's page 112025 half of superintendents reported being inix being extensively in need of additional funding do we have a breakdown or any more specific information I heard you referred to threeC1
for that riot the full results from the superintendent
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
21:36
survey are in tab3C1 in the back of your binder and that's where you can find the full breakout of
that question and so that would show you how many how many respo how many super the percentage of superintendents that responded for each for each matrix line
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
21:59
in each category. so we wanted to find out how
much was being spent or funded for any of these items in the key findings from all the schools do we have
a like a spreadsheet or something on
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
22:19
defending the funding amounts for each individual item or in your report and that is where
Speaker 25
22:28
that should be that should be on your desk where on
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
22:34
my desk? I mean I got all notebook on my desk I got in addition to the report which
Chair
Unverified
22:43
I don't know exactly where that's at but there is a document in the binder that has
a funding breakdown. it doesn't have the pursuant amounts for each law but it does have the where it has I should say for the schoolle staffing they have the FTE amount funded for each line and that's in I don't have the tab with me but it's in the tab one I believe there's a funding overview one page document that has the matrix on one side that's in tab one thank you the matrixx and other funding summary and then we can make sure you get the per student amounts for the staffing lines
of the matrix if that's what you're interested
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
23:22
in as well in regard to these key findings and this is I guess directed to the chair
can we get our staff to print us out or spreadsheet on how much in each of these categories that are listed here that the superintendents want more funding for I'm I'm sure that we can
iss is that information is is contained
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
23:50
in like exhibit B2 which is the more on their responses to this question about how my whether the superintendents felt they were in need of additional funding that is in the superintendent survey report and that's in the back of the binder in tab3C1 the amount of funding and spending on each line item in the matrix is in the report that should be in front of
Speaker 25
24:11
you today Senator on your desk there's a
B2 that would have been right under that main presentation most of the data is in that
I believe according to staff that you're looking for is the the
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
24:29
hard data isn't that what I'm getting at and I haven't looked just at this but it would be simpler at least for me and I would think for most committee members to have a list of
what's being spent in terms of matrixx funding in line item for matrixxx if I'm saying it right
for each of these items special education teachers operations and maintenance student transportation salary enhancement and substitute since I've got several of the folks in the
queue asking questions. maybe you could put together a list so we can just give to staff say hey
can we get this in this format and then just you go down a more granular level if necessary
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
25:15
and how exactly how many schools do we have school districts do we have
259 total school districts so'd be asking for 259. items times 12 345 I
think that should be easy. think we can get you that information.
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
25:39
thank you Mrir Representative beck you recognize thank you just a quick question
on the the slide number is se7 it's on page 9 but what what you were talking about the breakdown of the other funding
versus the foundation funding that that percent's increasing so the other category shrunk in percentage of of those funds so the question I have is is there is there less of the other fundings or is it is the difference in the percentages because we went from34 to32 is a difference in percentages because the the spending changed and and so now the other funding is still the same it's just that
the matrixx is taken up the the matrix the foundation funding excuse me is is taking up a larger percentage of it or I'm curious as to if the other funding went down in terms of dollars are are not you you understand what I'm saying it's a percentage but it it looks like you know the other funding decreased I mean just using the percentages that are here we have
Speaker 25
26:55
seen declines in some of the other funding streams for
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
27:00
2025. yes does that does that make up the the 2%
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
27:12
difference all right thank you Representative meeks my name was chairman so my question is on the that last slide with the extensive needs that we you were discussing do you have trend data on that so for example this year the special education teachers at67%. so is that trending
higher or is it trending lower? because that would let us know that more and more schools are having a need for special education teachers if those numbers are trending down that lets us know that that is slowly being taken care of so I'm just kind of curious if you have those have any trend lines on those items we can pull that for you that's a question that we've
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
27:52
asked in several pre previous cycles so we can pull that data for you all right thank you Representative painter you
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
28:01
recognize Thank you Mr Chair. I think kind of go down the following line with Senator Flowers on slide 22 or 23 when we talk about what's currently up there right now. can we have the breakdown of those requests for like67% for special education can we have that breakdown as far as like school sizes like you know smaller schools or maybe rural versus urban who who's exactly asking what those percentages
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
28:33
are we can do that that is a superintendent questions so we can do that
Chair
Unverified
28:40
by type of district that'd be great. I
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
28:45
appreciate that thank you Representative Gonzalezworthen Yes I echo the representatives who asked about this slide on on the slide this one the breakdown for the salary enhancement what that includes. it says non certified classified so which group does
that include that don't I don't know if there's a breakdown of that but it it appears that that that's a that's a very there there's some need there's a lot of need in that in that category and I'm just curious as to what that what that includes is
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
29:22
that possible it includes both believe it includes both 9s includes
Speaker 88
29:25
both noncertified and classified employees that's your question but you don't you're not sure I guess I'd like more specifics
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
29:37
when it's non certified classified for example, the reason for my question currently in my school district there are 21 instructional assistant positions specifically for special education that has been a very high high need area we also have5 teacher positions in special education so I wondered if that has something to do with if that if that category is included for those particular support staff, non non certified
Speaker 88
30:07
classified staff that's my question so that that's a
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
30:12
salary enhancement for that type of staff we can't track the expenditures from there's not a separate fen code for that funding because it's part of foundation funding
Speaker 25
30:21
and so those aren't we can't track how the how that money is actually being
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
30:32
spent Looking now at school level
personnel and this slide is showing just for your reference and the number of schoolle staffing and the number of positions funded in the matrixx for each year. Looking at key findings starting with three year trends every schoolle personnel line shouldn't increase in spending except instructional
facilitators which showed no change in spending the largest increase in spending was for student support staff at 10% followed by nurses at 8%. expenditures from all fund sources were more than two times the amount funded in the matrixx for the student support staff line. Looking specifically at 2025, the matrix line with the highest percentage of spending from all fund sources was classroom teachers at43%
spending from foundation funding was highest on principle and library media specialist matrix resource lines which both had 84% of funding coming expenditures coming from foundation funding spending from foundation funding was lowest on student support staff at 28% and nurses at44%. and conversely spending from other funding sources was highest on student support staff at72% and nurses at56%.
looking at district key findings regular districts spent more per student than charter districts on all positions except nurses and secretaries regulargular districts spent over 12 times more per student on library media specialists and charter districts the smallest district spent more per student on all positions excluding special ed teachers instructional facilitators and library media specialists the only resource line that showed a difference in spending by district letter grade was the student support staff we're
districts with F grades spent almost two times more per student than other districts. and then finally in schoolle personnel looking at schoolle findings the lowest free reduced lynch quintile spent the most per student on special education teachers more than two times the lowest per student amount. the highest minority quintile spent the most for student on instructional facilitators more than 2 times the lowest per student amount. rules rural schools spent more
spent the most per student on classroom teachers library media specialists counselors, student support staff and principals Urban schools spent
the most per student on special education teachers instructional facilitators, nurses
and secretaries. right we'll take a couple of questions
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
33:36
senator flowers you recognized thank
you on page th3 matrixx Li expenditure analysis
I'm I'm trying to what is this decimal amount here let's just say the classroom teachers so 24.94 what is what does that mean percentage of the matrixx funding spent
for excuse me this is the number of positions
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
34:11
that are funded in the matrix and so the matrix is
spending for 24.94 classroom teachers for a whole district for for a for one district with onen K-12 school of500 students So for500 students
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
34:34
you can the district is spending 24. 94 of the matrix for those referring to staff positions so
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
34:48
is referring to staff positions
and so for every500 students the matrix is finding 24.94 classroom teachers and then that amount is multiplied in order to get a spin a a salary amount but that's the number
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
35:12
of positions funded. So how do you get to 67 for nurses and72 for student
support staff.854 libraryed what does that mean that
Speaker 25
35:31
was the further details on each specific line are in and in their report and exhibit 2B. These these amounts have also
Chair
Unverified
35:41
been the same they haven't really changed in I think several years in the matrix. The Matrix sets they just break out and the number of FTEs and in the PowerPoint yesterday in the presentation there's a discussion some calculations if
that's helpful of how those are converted to a per student amount that would be used to get to that sven771 number. The staff positioned to just fund a diff set differently because they're set towards staff positions or yes, like the staff position so it's just saying it's the estimation of how many positions would be needed for every500 and those are just varied and those are raised by the the the committees every two years so I guess
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
36:28
when you have these fractional amounts less
than one the salary or the funds that would pay these individuals that are listed here would be made up from other funding sources that's correct is there something that requires us not or or allows us not to have a complete funding for
a position other than a fractional position under the end
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
37:07
your flowers these amounts are set by the committee and it's up to the committee to determine what's inadequate what constitutes an adequate education and what that includes
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
37:18
so would ask the chair because this is my first on
the education committee has the education committees in
the past had discussions about how we reach these fractional parts here do you know So let staff correct me
if I'm wrong but you know the we we look and we establish a a funding amount and then as as we see what the the needs are from year to year, based upon the different categories and that made that funding amount may point towards you know a fraction based upon how many people actually fill those positions but so the the
additional data so that that exhibit B2 that's on your desk if you'll look at page six it goes in a little bit more detailed information relative to what they're talking about on on each particular categoryies so classroom teachers special ed library media specialists all that it goes in a little bit more information information relative to the the specific dollar
amount as well as the data that goes into that
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
38:33
this adequacy the amount for the matrix we determined that as a committee yes ma'am. so we're at as
a part of this process so we're we're gonna evaluate all this data for the next 4 months,5
months and then inoctober we're going to come up with a senate recommendation and a house recommendation and then hopefully they'll be the same recommendation come up with a joint recommendation to present and we establish all of those numbers and so there's a there's a worksheet that you'll have that you already have in the
binder that worksheet. you can go in and you can say hey, I I think that we need to allocate x for this particular line item and so then we take that and we put that together and we come up with we come up with a recommendation based upon what the increase should be for the next biennium based upon what members recommend
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
39:23
we don't start off with a certain number for funding we do not start off with a certain
number obviously a lot of it is built upon the the most
recent previous number because to my knowledge I don't believe we ever we have ever decreased it. and so we're we're basing it on that but we don't start off with this specific amount is is our base let's go from there we we start with again it's it's a good guideline from from where we have been previously as a good starting point but member a member can certainly start wherever they choose to with the recommendation they individually make. and last question to the chair do we ever have
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
40:06
school district superintendents come before the committee before we finalize our recommendations for adequacy a lot of the information that's contained within and
all that staff answer that a lot of the information that's contained within is based upon surveys from from superintendents correct. we
Chair
Unverified
40:28
were discussing earlier, those are all survey results and superintendents and we also survey all school principals and
then all teachers so there's and those feedback or interspersed as applicable throughout the report and don't don't know what our feedback has been
from superintendents this time I believe last time we got information from all except for maybe four
that had replied and given us our feedback but I'm I'm always open to hear from as many voices as we can. I know personally I reach out to a lot of superintendents and a fairly regular basis to to get their input and I would encourage members to do the same to understand not just what's going on in your particular local area
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
41:07
but what's going on across the state that's why would like to have that spreadsheet that I'm was talking about earlier and I was just thinking that the items that think it was representative meeks pointed out could be incorporated in that and that could give us an idea of which schools are doing what and what the needs are maybe and it sounds like staff
provide that so thank you for that that suggestion thank
youpresent Beck you're recognized thank you
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
41:41
Mr chairir I don't wanna go too deep on this student support but it just a quick question look looking at it back on 20 excuse me on slide six and it it shows that they didn't spend all the money that was allocated within the matrixx for student support but it looks like it's the single largest
area that took other support to you know it's it's the largest yellow line on there but then so which would indicate that there's needs to be a lot more spending there you know for us but the the superintendents didn't even mention that I mean that's not one of their requests for more money y interesting I mean and and that and that's what got me because I looked at
the other the the allocation hasn't changed obviously so I wouldn't suspect anything else has had had changed either so it it's just interesting that they wouldn't recognize it as a needing funding when in fact they're getting their funding is it just because they've got other sources that are that that are willing to pay for it and and that's why they some of that'll get addressed
Chair
Unverified
43:01
in the non in the non matrixx because some of the the spending gets categorized a little differently so non matrixx
spending may help better account for that and hopefullys better answer that question for you on that line. OK thank you in ner flowers
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
43:38
as the representative beck's question about s student support staff not being specifically mentioned under that key finding on 11 could that
possibly be part of the salary enhancement for other non certified classified employees could that be in that category? I mean how is it defined
non certified classified sounds like student support staff could be included in that Senator flowers we're
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
44:22
salary enhancement money is being spent they certainly may be spending some of that money on on state support staff well non certified
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
44:31
and classified employees sounds like it could be incorporating student support
Speaker 106
44:44
I'll also add and there's like I said the nonmetric sections that that might help
Speaker 55
44:50
address some of that. um, now there's an issue sometimes with how expenditures are coded or mapped and sometimes they can get they the categorization may not
Chair
Unverified
44:57
always line up exactly with the matrix line def as the matrix law because there is no clear definition for each individual mattres line since that's not in statute. maybe we need to have it in statute
Speaker 20
45:14
mean having us guess what is in sanderflowers it's you know the committee is the committee's created the matrix and it's
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
45:28
at they can you know the committee's have can decide to define the matrix lines or defin salary enhancement Represented y you're recognized for
Chair
Unverified
45:38
a question thank you Mr. Chair. On library
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
45:46
media specialists it's at.85 and nurses is.67 and student support staff it's point72 let me ask you this where do you come up with that is that based on a certain amount of students or and then there's a breakdown for each nurse and the matrixx suspended based on500 students so this is the
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
46:06
amount for500 students we don't set we as the bureau don't set that amount the committee set that amount so that's up to all of you to set that amount
and as you can see a lot of these mounts have a lot of these positions have had the same number of physicians funded for a number of years but that's a decision of the committee are you let me see OK. our second matrix category is schoolle resources this category is going to include technology, instructional materials extradD funds
supervisory aids substitutes and the salary enhancement and health insurance looking at three year trends every schoolle resource line shoulded a decrease in spending except extra duty and substitutes which showed no change in spending the largest decrease was in technology at 11%. looking specifically at 2025 here each may matrixx resource line accounted for 2% of lives fromms
of spending from foundation funding sources and3% or less of spending from all fund sources spending from foundation funds it was highest on extra duty at 80% and least on technology at32%. spinning from other fund sources was highest on technology at68% and the least on extra duty at 20%. looking at district level findings charter districts spent close to4 times more per student than regular districts on
instructional materials. uh, I want to note here that two charters accounted for 16% of total expenditures on instructional materials Charter spent $150 more over $150 more per student than regular districts on technology regular districts spent more than charters on extra dudies supervisory aides and substitutes the smallest district size categoryies spent the most per student on all schoolle resources except supervisory aides and extra GD
and DNF districts spent the most per student across all schoolle resources exceptx duty. and finally in schoolle resources looking at schoolle findings rural schools spent the most per student on substitutes and extra duty urban schools spent the most per student on instructional materials and supervisory aids. the highest minority quintile spent the most per student on supervisory aids and substitutes and DNf school has spent the most per student
across all schoolle resources exceptxdD. And with that we'll move on to district level resources and this includes operations and maintenance central office and transportation reyear returns district level expenditures for operations and maintenance in central office should an increase in spending while student transportation showed no change. the largest increase in spending was for operations and maintenance at 12%.
looking at 2025 spending from foundation funding was between60 to63% for all district level resources districts with500 or fewer students spent the most per student on all district'sleve resources and districts with F grades spent the most per student on all districts level And then looking at each individual line for central office charter spent two times more per student than regular districts districts with fewer
than351 students spent almost three times more per student than the lowest per student amount for student transportation, regular districts spent more than4 times per student in charter districts the smallest district size categories spent the most per student and operations and maintenance the smallest district sized category spent over $1000 more per student than the lowest per student amount. and with that we will move on
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
50:36
Representative Duke you're recognized for a question thank you Mr Chair. thank you all again for the presentation a quick question and if this breakdown is in here then never mind but I I just didn't see it
on the on the expenditure there that we just went over with the charters not spending as much as the districts if I understood is there any correlation to waivers that they may receive and that they're not necessarily spending as much because they receive waivers on some of these areas
and are able to utilize staff and different things
differently? yes we have there is a there is a it it we can see that charters are spending less and they do tend
to have more waivers. can can we compile that so we can see what they're kind of similar to the other conversation is what are they getting waivers on and how is that saving them money that maybe we need to explore those options as well so that would be great thank you
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
51:39
center flowers you're recognized thank you so with
operations and maintenance you know I don't know if
it's still called school dude through the facilities and transportation division but I'm wondering how does any information received in terms of their
I guess checking up on how that program is being implemented through out the different school districts can we glean something from their data just I'm just wondering because I mean as far as I know all the school districts are supposed to be hooked up to that un ny flowers that'd be
a better question for the division of the elementary and secondary
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
52:41
education we are looking at the expenditures we don't have access to any whatever system they're using to track any kind of operations and maintenance. it seems to me like we set
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
52:55
it up and that was some time ago
probably 2009. when that whole application was set up I think they renamed
it or something but it was supposed to be
a means of preventative problems with
maintenance and operations at school and making sure that we take care I mean if we don't need to by a whole newhvAC system because you're changing the filters on a regular basis that is all supposed to be coordinated or at least reported
to that division so I don't see why how we don't incorporate some
of that information that they acquire into these reports especially when you're dealing with
operations and maintenance I'd like to know what are they doing will
they come before us or have have
they been before us already that division senator flowers
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
54:10
we do have information that adequacy statute requires us to cover the
academic academic facilities distress program and so there is information about that program in the accountability report. but beyond that we don't have any of that information and that would be a question for the department ofdation if we need senators we need to at at a future
meeting if we need to have the department come and answer additional questions. I know GregRogers looks like he's excited to to do that at some point. you can see trying to hide behind the column but you can't if we if we need to have the department come and answer some
some more specific questions relative to operation and maintenance and certainly we can do that obviously it's a pretty relevant question especially when you're thinking about things like our new captive property insurance and we talk about things like deferred maintenance and other things which can can help that process be more effective and more more cost efficient so happy to set that up
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
55:07
at a at a future meeting. I'd appreciate that because you know I'm thinking about insurance
and the schools do have that we I guess China changed or
something but umm it seems like there should be more of a intertwined between that division of facilities and transportation with the whole department and again if we if we had a future meeting perhaps our may you don't guess we meet
in in April but at our Ma meeting if we need to have some some more detail relative to to that that would be that would be fine and I think may may be instructive for us again as we're almost a full year into
the state property captive to perhaps get some information on that in addition to it so happy to set that
Chair
Unverified
56:11
up greg put it on the calendar you can continue. So with the matrix spending wrapped up we're going to move into spending on non matrixx items so there are several items not included specifically in the
matrix but are frequently purchased by public schools with at least some use of foundation funds and we're gonna go over those and it's important to note that foundation funding is unrestricted so districts can use that however best fits their needs in some cases expenditures were placed in this category simply because they didn't fit within the the specific intent of each individual of any of the matrix line So first we're going to look at total spending by fundsource similar to the chart
thatelizabeth walked through earlier so you'll see here districts and charters spent $2.31 billion on non matrixx items in 2025. with 9% of that coming from foundation funds and 91% coming from other funds and you'll see that's for the last three years that's remained above $2 billion and additionally expenditures on
Speaker 163
57:13
non matrix resources front foundation funding accounted for
9% then 9 categorical supplemental and federal fund sources accounted for 15% and then additional fund sources reasoning additional state fund sources accounted for76% of the total spending in that other funds are
Chair
Unverified
57:34
wenn to break that down in the next slide. so these are the additional funds makeup of the other funds used from on non matrixx resources excuse me you'll see that total $1.8
billion in 25 with the largest coming from the building fund and this refers to a fund that's used to record receipts for any kind of building related expenditures. So when looking at spending from non on non matrix resources these are the top five categories of expenditures so instructional aids were the top use using matrixx funds with77 million dollars for 2025 and I'll note that
an additional slot as well but it instructional aids looking at total expenditures a lot of those it was a variety of types of aids
Speaker 163
58:31
that were spent but the majority of them40% from all funds in the next slide came were spent on special education related expenses so
Chair
Unverified
58:40
the next slide here is looking at total expenditure so looking zooming back out looking at expenditures from both foundation and other fund sources we see that
nontechnology related facilities made up the largest expenditure and these are this was made at32% and I'll also note as a kind of caveat to that the elle districts where the primary spenders in the made up excuse me50% of that spending on the nontechnology related facilities line So looking at spending per student over time
we can see in 25 so a little bit different from the matrix line because there is no matrix funding so we have that zero bar at the bottom so you can see from foundation expenditures non matrix spending was441 dollars per student which has been a steady increase over the last three years and then other finds in that yellow line so that's also been increasing though a slight drop from 24 as well as total
Speaker 163
59:50
spending from all fund sources on non matrixx items
Chair
Unverified
1:00:00
So then breaking out that spending by types of districts so we see that districts spent more than three times as much than charter districts per student on non matrixx items d d ition
Speaker 163
1:00:13
ally districts with f grades have the highest per student spending when compared based on district letter grade. and then
Chair
Unverified
1:00:25
some some results from our superintendent survey so in the last three surveys
we've done in 22,24 and26. we asked superintendents to share if there was anything not included in the matrix that they believed is an important part of adequacy or providing an adequate education and over the last three surveys we've had the same top three responses and bearing orders but they include mental health services, school safety and dyslexia support services and it's important to note here that there is sometimes a discrepancy between expenditures that are not items included in
Speaker 163
1:01:04
the matrixx and they sometimes get mapped or labeled within the appscan system as a matrixx item incorrectly so sometimes that can account for some of their can cause confusion with not confusion but discrepancies between what superintendents believe is covered in the matrix versus what we're counting as spending But I'm
Chair
Unverified
1:01:26
gonna go through each of those categories a little bit more so starting with school safety in 25 districts spend $100 million on school safety related
expenses or $213 per student and I'll note here that spending was higher by 1.5 times higher in traditional just regular districts as compared to charter districts So the most common source of fund used to cover school safety related expenses was other state
Speaker 163
1:01:55
and local funding with41% and foundation funds making up 25% of those expenditures and the most common use the most
Chair
Unverified
1:02:07
common expense related to school safety was that for school resource officers and as a note in the 2020 Arkansas school of finance study connected by APpa which is Augenblikeelick and associates a consultant hired by the committees at that time in their report they recommended that education committees
Speaker 163
1:02:25
consider adding resources for school security or school resource officers to the max for
Chair
Unverified
1:02:31
mental health expenditures districts spent44 million
dollars on these expenses or $93 per student in 2025 and spending was also 1.5 times higher in regular districts as compared to charter districts though the idd the matrix identifies resources for guidance counselors many Arkansas educators superintendents principals and teachers have reported that the growing student mental health needs go beyond the expertise of guidance counselors in that specific mental health resources and support for all students
including positions for specialized staff such as social workers psychologist or behavioral specialist need to be identified. so the most common use of funds that districts use to to cover mental health expenses where federal funds followed by foundation funds and the most common most common expenditure type the most common mental health expense from districts with social worker activities, psychological testing and other psychological services and counseling
d d ition ally APA noted this item in their report as well in 2020 and recommended to the committee's to consider adding resources for mental health to the matrix. Additionally on our adequacy survey this year we asked superintendents if their district had mental health therapists therapist excuse me FEs are full time equivalent staff working in dis in schools to provide mental health therapy services directly
to students during the 25 school year. so71% of superintendents reported that they did so these are their responses shown here on your screen so approximately 85% of those districts had mental health therapists employed through an agency or other organization and then40% had a therapist employed directly through the district and then there are54 districts that had a mix they had
Speaker 163
1:04:32
therapists on campus that were employed by the district as well as employed directly from another agency or organization.
Chair
Unverified
1:04:44
and then that final category was for dyslexiarelated expenses so in 25 districts spent32 million dollars or68 dollars per student and again per student spending for dyslexia services was twice as high actually in regular districts as compared to charter districts so in 22016 each school district has been required to have at least one individual to serve as a dyslexia interventionist and this is a resource requirement that's not currently addressed in the matrix.
Additionally, screenings are required of all students in grades K through el through and students in grades three and above if they if teachers are noting any deficiencies in certain skills. the most common source of funds used by districts to cover these expenses came from enhanced student achievement categorical funds that will cover in the next report as well as foundation funds and the most common expenditure type went towards dyslexia therapist or dyslexia interventionist.
In additionally in their in their 2 or excuse me 2020 report APA recommended an increase to the per student funding amount for instructional materials which could be used to meet any current or forthcoming needs such as dyslexia screeners as long as other materials or other needs there They also did note that other state adequacy studies do not typically address dyslexia separately from special education resources so typically
Chair
Unverified
1:06:25
that umbrella. Additionally, another resource comes from on andakas another consultant that's been hired by the committee in past years and their most recent 2019 evidencebased model they identified other resources not currently funded in Arkansas's matrix and but they are as but they consider
Speaker 163
1:06:41
as critical to core educational program and student success so this includes core instructional tutors
Chair
Unverified
1:06:52
per student funding for gifted and talented education as well as career and technical education so the matrix does not provide funding for gifted and talented education but pursuant to state law districts must expand a specific amount of state and local revenues on gifted and talented programs d d ition ally standards for accreditation require districts to provide gifted and talented services and then related to career and technical education. so this is
not provided for in the matrixx. However, the general assembly currently includes curriculum and career and technical frameworks as part of the definition of adequacy and standards also require each public school district to offer at least one career ready pathway aligned with high wage, high demand Additionally in their model they identify key resources for atris students that includes staffing for additional tutors and pupil support staff extended day
programming and other English for as a second language service So that brings us to our key findings section for non matrix expenditures. Let me go and take a couple
Speaker 34
1:08:02
of questions members will take a couple of questions on this section that she just finished and then we'll let them roll through to the end of of this part of the presentation before any other questions Represent Mayberry you're recognized
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:08:14
thank you very much. I'm so glad we're talking a little bit about dyslexia. I'm gonna back up when this committee went to Jud Soa
we heard from the staff there that they were having some concerns that maybe in some situations that there was some over identification of dyslexia. we certainly want to make sure that we are identifying properly but that some students don't actually have dyslexia that they might have something else or simply that they're coming in in kindergarten and they just aren't exposed to reading yet and they're automatically being put into this category that they have dyslexia and really that's not what the issue they just need to
be exposed to the science of reading and that it's causing some issues and I've just I've heard from a lot of other school districts along this lines and I really really really would love if we could as a committee spend some time taking a deep dive into this issue. maybe have desi present some information on the testing that's taking place, how are we diagnosing and since we're trying to get the you know this will be the first year that
we have students that are being held back in third grade and we want to make sure from what I'm hearing a lot of students now are developing IEps or504 so that they don't get held back. there's just a lot of issues in this area that I think we need to have greater conversation in and I'd love to see if maybe the dyslexia advocates could chime in have them come to the table have some school districts come to the table, have Desi come to the table and
and really take a deep dive to make sure that our resources are being allocated properly as you can see this is a this is a huge issue and I don't know if this is the proper time to make a motion to have a subcommittee meet to delve more into it don't is that a question
for the chair that's a question for the chair don't know that we need a motion for any type of subcommittee maybe we can certainly discuss that offline and and determine kind of the best course of action whether it
be in conjunction with one of these meetings you know that there would be a little bit of a departure from adequacy specific since we'll be requesting the department to come and and provide some more academic data so happy to to schedule something separately if if there's the will of the committee to do so. I appreciate it. I just know I've
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:10:44
heard a lot of school districts saying we we need to address this and we need a bigger
conversation and we really want to have all stakeholders involved in in in that discussion and then one
other very brief question if you don't mind me me just backing up just a little bit on page 21 slide42. it has athletic supplies and transportation on one line 27.7 million and I see those things as very different issues and I didn't know if that could ever be broken up. athletic supplies on a separate line transportation
a separate line that's it. thank you so much
Chair
Unverified
1:11:28
if I I'll look into that I know off the top of my head in terms of how our appscan is coding expenditures I'm not sure if that can be delineated out but if we can we can absolutely do
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:11:44
that for you representative painter thank you first of all I want to echo the comments by Representative Mayberry. I I feel the same way and hearing the same topics that schools in my district. Second
of all is I'm having a brain fart today so can you remind me
nontechnology related facilities can you remind me of what that is exactly is because it's745 million dollars Absolutely. so these are
Speaker 180
1:12:07
any kind of it's a broad category so it's any kind of activity concerning acquiring
Chair
Unverified
1:12:12
land buildings remodeling buildings, constructing buildings any kind of additions equipment installations anything along those lines so that's is that gonna include our tornado shelters and stuff like that don't off the top of my head
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:12:23
but we can certainly look and see if
Chair
Unverified
1:12:29
that would be included don't mind absolutely greatly appreciate
Representative Steven Walker
Unverified
1:12:35
it thank you Representative Walker you recognized thank you Mr Chair. mine's also on page 42 instructional aid instructional supplies and and objects would that be like the curriculum that the schools are purchasing or is that separate from that I would
Chair
Unverified
1:12:48
double check but I think that would be included under the supplies and objects that aids would be strictly a staffing line.
Representative Steven Walker
Unverified
1:12:55
OK. that looks like to me if our state was to look in building
our own curriculum we'd be able to save a lot of money there my other question, do we have a breakdown for rural areas on how much of a percentage that they're having to spend on these categories that are outside of the matrix because I I know that's a common thing that that I hear throughout my district about having to use foundational funding to fund some of this the stuff that's outside of it and I'm just curious on we've got a breakdown on that I don't have that with me but we can absolutely provide that kind of
breakdown for you if I can have my last question what about unfunded mandates do we know and I'm assuming stuff that's funded outside the matrix that we see here would fall under an unfunded mandate maybe not the curriculum things but they'll be stuff in this list do we know what percentage that would be for unfunded mandates that we have passed over the years so we don't have the ability we're not able to define when an unfunded mandate is so that's
Chair
Unverified
1:14:02
and you would have if you have some idea if you have some items you would like us to look into that you consider an unfunded mandate we could do that but we can't
Representative Steven Walker
Unverified
1:14:12
identify what unfunded mandate items would be. Do we do we have that in that survey that we send out where we ask schools for their opinion on
Chair
Unverified
1:14:20
what they would consider an unfunded mandate. We have that response of what items let me pull that slide up here for you but we do ask them what materials are not included in the matrix that they think are part of an adequate
education so we have some other results but these are the three that have come up consistently for the last three surveys that we've administered. perfect thank you Representative
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
1:14:47
Ezarenko you recognized Thank you Mr Chairman and thank you all for the the information
it's been great information here I wanted to echo uhpresentative Mayberry's and I kind of had a question on that same line so dyslexia has been something that had been topic of discussion for myself here recently quite a bit just last week I met with a
school board member on that specific topic and then talking with the superintendents I've seen the same thing come up and then just two weeks ago I was inRaleigh and was kind of introduced to dyslexia testing that could possibly help so I'm trying to get some more information on that and then connect it over here but I'd be very interested in in anything we can find out to help with these numbers you're showing on here per student expenditure68 dollars for dyslexia so reached out to my district so I'm in a rural
and a low income area. my district's about $150 per student and so it's much much higher and then when I'm looking at what they're spending about 885,000 last year and then matrixx funding for that is about330 so we've got a deficit of about550 plus that that they're having to come up with for that and so this on that same line dyslexia and any of the mental health anything that we can do to help them my question is this for you all is is there a
because I'm kind of going back to the key findings on the schoolle resource as well rural schools spent most per student on substitutes and extra duty urban schools most spend on instructional materials and then so my question is is there a is there any kind of data that's showing per district per area what that spend is so that we could possibly see a correlation between rural areas and low income areas and dyslexia or
anything like that to be able to correlate that and then be able to address it
Speaker 55
1:16:37
We can absolutely get that information for you I don't have it off the top of my head but I'm
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:16:49
some information to help address that for you thank you
Mr Chairman Senator flowers OK I'm looking at the slide41 expenditures on non matrix resources the building fund has a total spend of695.3 million is that
source funding source through academic division of academic facilities and transportation? don't we put appropriate and put money every regular session in in that division so
there is a facilities partnership
Speaker 55
1:17:38
program I don't know
for sure if that's I don't think that would be included but I I
Chair
Unverified
1:17:44
would have to look into that to further investigate to identify what other sources are included there MrRogers would you like to come
Speaker 34
1:17:53
and and talk for just a moment about facilities partnership I
know you thought you're gonna get off easy today
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:18:03
but sorry I'd like to know I mean that's a a a good chunk of money there695 million and non matrix
if you would please just introduce yourself
Speaker 34
1:18:14
for the record and then amaze us with your intelligence. greg rogers department
Speaker 200
1:18:20
of Education so senator note the building fund does not have it's not a partnership fund that is the the funds that districts have whether it was saving from countyp from foundation funding or their millage that they passed for doing building projects that they put in the building fund to support any projects that they have have going on in that in that school district so each school district
may have their own building fund yes ma'am that and they had because as part of qualifying one of the things is there's many things they use that building fund for it's for all sorts of projects for upkeep they have to do around their their school district as well as if they are requesting partnership funds they had to have what their participation amount based off the wealth index and that is where they would have their part of any partnership project that they were looking to do with
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:19:12
us well havenn't we been given since
as long as I I've been up here I think it started in 2005 money appropriated to that division of academic facilities and transportation ma yes ma'am that there is a the theres as said
Speaker 203
1:19:31
earlier there is the partnership program that that's where they have that we have
Speaker 200
1:19:36
for building projects that warm safe and dry projects I guess is how I refer to it that was part of yes it was set back then as as part of the adequacy program to have warm safe dry to assist
districts with making sure their buildings are warm
Speaker 206
1:19:50
and safe and dry so that partnership program has been around for
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:19:54
a while and and as to my mind it seems like we've been appropriating at least5 million every regular session so yes there's an
Speaker 200
1:20:05
appropriation about that but that's because we have projects that are going on a a rolling cycle so it usually takes about3 to5 years if a school's building a school to get everything done and everything going on with the bill page on that so that's the
appropriation we the funding for it wasn't a line item in the RsA until 2024 and now that was a one time fund that we come to p to Alc and request how much money we want to pull out of that one time funds to do partnership programs for the next cycle
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:20:37
and so is that the the whole s scheme now that you got to go through
Speaker 200
1:20:44
Alc come to ALc and make a request for how much money we are seeing from approved partnership
projects then we come to ALC and request those funds to be moved into the partnership program from
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:21:01
restricted reserve fund since its inception in 2005 where we just put the money over there in that
division now we have it placed in some restricted reserve that is not necessarily for division of no it still is but instead of having it
Speaker 200
1:21:17
built in the thought was at the time when it was moved in 2024
session that this is supposed to be for one time fun, not a reoccurring expenditures because the schools aren't going to keep building schools so instead of having a line on built in RsA that was around60 million dollars. the general assembly set aside I want to say it was500 million dollars and we had to come ask for that how much we see for the current cycle how much we believe what we're going to need for partnership program projects and so we come to ALC ask for how much we have for thosegra those projects and then the rest of it stays and restrictors are
Speaker 206
1:21:54
I think there's around 290 million still in that fund
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:21:58
since we started it. and it's left to that division to screen the applications and then make recommendations of which to approve Yes, there is the division gets perceived
Speaker 200
1:22:08
so districts have to do master plans and they had to show how what they believe their AdM is going to be going to the need for the the life of the buildings they're currently in. there's a whole thing of of application they have to do and
then based off the projects they have in that match plan there is review from the facilities department that goes through and makes sure that it meets all the criteria for qualifying for a partnership
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:22:35
program and the master plan is for a number of years they had to redo
Speaker 213
1:22:40
that they have to it's5 years I think but they can they have to redo it every
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:22:46
two years. OK and and I'm glad you mentioned that500 million dollars because that's what it was when we first appropriated
money back in 2005. it wasn't5 million it was half a billion we
Speaker 200
1:22:59
did the one time funds this I wanna say it's 2024 we did half the500 million that we set in restricted resire before then the appropriation that I have is for the number of projects we have going on in the facilities partnership so I understand what you're saying and I yes ma'am I
Speaker 215
1:23:14
remember that bill it was a long bill thick bill that we a lot of us didn't understand it OK thank you
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:23:24
Senator Love you recognize thank you Mr Chair for allowing me to
ask a question let let me just for my knowledge. Now everything within the matrix.ing within the matrix is matrixx is what we consider to to be able to provide adequate education is that is that correct that's correct and then everything that's non matrixxes maybe I guess I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say I'm just gonna say what we deem not to be essential
to providing a adequate education is that the the
Speaker 55
1:24:03
non matrixx there are expenditures that districts are just they are these are spending from the district so these are just what the
Chair
Unverified
1:24:10
districts have deemed what's necessary for their individual districts. so and they just happen to be items that are not included
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:24:18
in the matrix. OK cause I'm looking at slide41 and I'm looking at food service funding and
I'm wondering why that is not within
Speaker 220
1:24:31
the matrix if it's school if it's food service funding
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:24:37
excuse me I mean do you I know that you're not the one you're our staff but I'm just saying give me the definition of what is under food service funding because I would just think that we we would deem that as in something that is cent for adequate education so
Chair
Unverified
1:25:00
first note for food service I do believe there's some federal funds included in that so that might impact that a little bit but in short what's deemed essential for districts would be up to the decision of the committees and that has not been included as part of the matrix but there are some federal funds that are included I think with this food service fun
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:25:20
there. OK, so you're saying this body has not deemed food service as it's not been a part
Chair
Unverified
1:25:27
of the matrix which is what the
committees used to determine what to provide foundation funding for what they deemed to be
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
1:25:36
an adequate education. so now this is just a comment to my colleagues
you all we're talking about food service not being part of the matrix and not being able to provide an adequate education. I think that we need to begin to think about what we are including in the matrix and what we're not because I truly believe that food service is going to be something that we would deem as
part of an adequate education so thank you thank you Mr Chair for indulging me thank you senator
and and just a quick comment on that obviously as the matrix has evolved over time you know we're we're 20 plus years into it as it's evolved over time there are additional things that have been added and it's up to the purview of the committee to do so and there's also as you see a number of things that are are funded outside of it obviously food services is something that we do fund as a state and I believe we've made an increased commitment to that especially even this last session. so those things are being funded to schools they
just may not be aligned item of within this formula necessarily again we can we can choose to make changes to the formula should we should we decide
to do that Representativer you're recognized for a question
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:26:46
you Mr Chairman this question here let's just say that you have a building project that's gonna be over a 30 year period and it's gonna be $10 million you've got a wealthy district and then you got poor districts is this
money that's coming back to those poor districts is that money actually gonna be a bigger percentage than what it would be for a big school and a wealthier school want to make sure I understand your question
Speaker 106
1:27:19
in relation to like the found in terms of the facility funding
Chair
Unverified
1:27:24
if you're referring to the facilities partnership funding which is a a primary a big use of in terms of building plans. I would defer to the department on
that question. and I think what factors they include in in in thatx I think there's a lot of different factors
Speaker 55
1:27:43
that are included in those decisions but I'm not sure if I've answered
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:27:48
what you were that that's that's close but what what I wonder is let's say that the basic funding are foundation is $8 million you know I mean excuse me $1000 per student OK out of that 8000 we may only be paying for
15-20% of some districts because they're poor districts OK? but then you build a building I just wondered if the same percentage is used on that as building part as it would be on the part that actually is set up in a way that's based on the wealth of the
district so I think some of your question might
Speaker 55
1:28:34
be better answered by the department I will note that the
Chair
Unverified
1:28:40
the matrixx lines and what's included in the total7,771 there is no line item specifically for buildings or building construction it's operations and maintenance central office expenditures but facilities funding specifically is separate from that and there's multiple sources that districts can use for that. um, but that wouldn't be necessarily part of the foundation funding amount and how that gets the wealth would be I would defer to the
Speaker 163
1:29:01
district on or the department on other ways yes ma'am and and you know you see a part
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:29:10
here where you say well we need7 meals extra meals to to do what
we need to do you know that may not be near as much percentage wise paid for by local as it would be local which is a poor district compared to a richer district. I just wonder if there's some kind of balance in there think would have to defer to the department on
Speaker 55
1:29:34
that one they're they can better speak to the how the wealth factor stand so members I'm gonna ask that as
as these ladies have done an outstanding job of putting the adequacy information together let's let them stick to that we we can get we can we can definitely go down a lot of roads to a lot of different questions especially for the department you know I may even just schedule agreg day and we can just sit and talk to Greg for hours upon end should he should he be willing to entertain us but let's let's try and stick with with the presentation that they've got and get those questions answered and then we come up with additional questions let's do that so I'm gonna allow you guys to go ahead and just move on,
you know just a real real quick follow up on on the dyslexia since we were talking about that appreciate the the discussion think that's an important discussion personally I think that we we should find a way to continue to enhance our our funding of dyslexia and that's something again that we can make it just a choice to do as a committee. I I personally fall out on if we can if we're identifying more kids, I think it's probably to the to the student's benefit that we over identify as opposed to under identifying but the the funding side of it is certainly
something we can address as we move through this process so
Speaker 106
1:30:52
you're recognized continue So I'll wrap up the non matrixxx section with some additional key findings so
Chair
Unverified
1:30:58
first with our three year trends so total spending on non matrixx items continue to remain over $2 billion over the last three school years spending on non matrixx items using foundation funds has consistently been highest for instructional aids
and spending from all sources on non matrixx items was highest for nontechnology related facility expenses and then for the 25 school year regular districts spent3 times more than charter districts per student on non matrix items districts with enrollment with ADM is going to be between351 and500 had the highest non matrixx per student spending and then F districts spent the most per student on non matrixx
items when compared across school district letter grades and finally there were three items identified by superintendents in the last three adequacy surveys mental health services school safety and dyslexia support. and that wraps up non matrix and I'll pass over to Leah for the last section
Speaker 227
1:32:18
OK so we'll go over total spending so this section will include
Speaker 228
1:32:26
This section will include spending on both matrixours and non matrix resources for the total amounts and so for the last three years you can see that less than half of total spending was come has been spent from foundation funding in the last three years the in total total spending has increased a little over5% with most of that increase taking
place between the 23 and24 school years This as I mentioned this includes both non matrix and matrix resources and so this would be the totals from the slides Adrian and Elizabeth have just presented. and so looking at those totals and calculating it into this amount about 2 or actually more than 2/3 of the total spending was on matrixours and each of the three years so looking at a per student
amount for all resource spending for districts in the last three years you can see that districts spent a little more than double each school year more than the foundation amount provided according to the matrix amount and so that771 for 2025 overall from all fund sources districts spent a total of $15,819 per student and that additional $8000 was made up from other fund sources which Adrian went over a couple of those yesterday
So by district type you can see and as a reminder there most of these students 94% of the students are in regular districts and so the population size for that for that bars larger and most schools sorry most district spending at the highest amounts were in the F districts and the smallest school districts the F districts also had the smallest population but the they spent $20,000 per student and $20,000 also in the smaller districts
with students fewer than350 and as the district size increases spending tends to decrease as well with the exception of the districts of the 1500 student count and5,000 we per student spending increases to over $16,000 per student. So moving on to key findings for total spending in 2025, the spending on
matrixxours accounted for the highest percentage of total expenditures and so that's that69% followed by the non matrixours at31%. and from that point we look at spending by matrixx lines and so classroom teachers accounted for30% of total spending in 2025 followed by operations and maintenance central office and special education teachers and if you recall these survey results that we presented earlier thatelizabeth went over those amount those matrix lines are also consistent with the top ive
matrix items that superintendents were reporting needing more funding for Overall all all remaining matrixxlis accounted for less than3% of total spending. So looking at some threeyear trends for the last school years total total per student funding as I mentioned was more than50% from all fund sources for each of those years more than what they were provided in foundation funding by Fundsource if you were divide out the amount of
spent amount districts spent from foundation funds 95% went to matrixsources and5% went to non matrixours. More per student per student
Speaker 229
1:36:18
findings you can see that in all district types they spent more than $10,000
Speaker 228
1:36:24
per student when looking at the per student spending amounts by districts size and I'll note that the
student count is based on current current year ADM while the foundation funding amount is based on the prior year ADM and so there is a difference in the number of students being funded here but overall the highest amount of spending was in those 20,000 per students in those districts I noted in the lowest amounts were spent in the B school districts and charter districts as well with less than $12,000 per student in charters and C districts those second in the
highest percentage of students had the second highest expenditure per student as well. this takes us to our last batch of key findings which is including data limitations to our analysis is bel our staff. we're unable to complete a full expenditure analysis because of those two matrix lines that we went over earlier the classified salary enhancement lines and the other employee health insurance. Those were added in recommendations in the 22 adequacy study and due just to the constraints of our
abilities to go through the financial accounting handbook in apppscan data we're not able to identify what expenditures are attracted to those line items and so because as Adrian mentioned yesterday, without definitions for each of those matrix lines were also limited to the front source definitions and classifications outlined in desi's financial accounting handbook it's difficult for us to identify with certainty which classifications should be mapped to each of those lines and so for an accurate comparison to what metrixx is funding and what foundation
funding is being spent on compared to the line items and those expenditures it's difficult to do so without an apples to apples comparison. lastly a commingling of the multiple fund sources also makes it difficult to disaggregate what is not spent from foundation funds and so while we have a clear trend as you've seen throughout this presentation we can identify what was spent from foundation and what was spent from categorical and supplemental funds which we'll go over in part two but it makes the commingling of other sources including federal dollars
prevents us from identifying exactly which for fund sources and revenues are making up expenditures and with
Speaker 227
1:38:46
that we'll take any questions thank you
Speaker 34
1:38:53
Members you have questions on this portion. p re s ent ed
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
1:38:59
gonzalez worth than you recognize thank you for your presentation. you mentioned about the it's it's kind of tough or difficult
to identify some of these items because of the commingling or you're just not quite sure how what would we what would need to be done to provide clarity for those line items if it's not if it's not being done now. I don't it's just a question cause I've heard several times in our questions we we can't really determine that based on the way the data is entered or
Speaker 20
1:39:36
ok Representative gonzalez so then we the financial accounting
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
1:39:42
handbook has the codes for funds and we expenditures that we use and so some of our difficulty is when there's not a fun code or an expenditure code attached to a particular item and and the department produces that financial accounting handbag and that is in statute that they're required to produce it and there are there are specifics in that statute
about specific funds and specific expenditures that are required to have their own thank you
Speaker 62
1:40:19
Are there additional questions by members
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:40:26
Senator flowers so so it seems as though several items including
this classified employee salary enhancement and other employee health insurance has no definition in my did I understand that to be the case as well as gifted and talented
Speaker 228
1:40:50
even though required As as far as the matrix line items and so that the two lines you mentioned excluding gifted and talented because that was not identified in the matrix the original discussions in 2003 and then again in 2006 had broad descriptions used for those resources but there have never been any explicit definitions written for those matrix lines now seems
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:41:18
like we have some work to do in terms
of defining these terms that are included in the mares matrix if I could go back too because I was was
looking at this LEA indebtedness in the this um43 on page 22 and I
was wondering what what is that how how are we
indebted to the tune of372 $3 million now that's that educational agency we have state and local and the department ofed has a state they used to I don't
know if they still do or not SEA but
this is non matrix how and and we're dealing
with iss is am I right about that that local education agent in our state education agency at the department has indebtedness
I mean I'm trying to understand it's non
Speaker 106
1:42:56
matrix but it's an indebtedness. yes, so this refers to this is at the dis is districtle so this is any kind of debt the debt the districts may be accu accruing typically with facilities is a big driver of that I believe for the LEA for the LEA refers to the districts so each individual districts have projects that may need paid over many
Chair
Unverified
1:43:19
years or so they're there's typically just typical debt that may come along with any kind of construction
projects or along the like but anything further I might defer to the department to further clarify but those are typically what
Speaker 117
1:43:42
definition for it I don't think we have an explicit
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:43:47
defin don't have didn't have had never thought of
LEA being a associated with building but
rather special needs and an agency that is supposed to be supervising or at least following up on administering special needsenator flowers an LA is local education association and so that's just
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
1:44:13
another way of identifying a district and ALE is an alternative learning environment and that's what's going to be connected to special needs but the LEA is just referring to the local education
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:44:32
agency or a district is that how do capital improvements get in that I'm not understanding this. I mean LEA I've never seen it associated with anything other than alternative learning or special needs I can't speak to that specifically lie like she said is that when
Speaker 55
1:44:50
we use it it's just an identity it's a number it's a number that we use to identify districts for a multitude of purposes and the
Chair
Unverified
1:44:58
term LEA indebtedness comes from that financial accounting
handbook so it's a term of how the department is categorizing several different expenditure types so that's where that comes from and those are typically encapsulating any kind of those facility building
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:45:19
type of expenses I'm really confused about
that if greg from the department has any comment on that this is strange to me and you
you mentioned a some kind of financial booklet or something where is that
Speaker 55
1:45:39
so that's a it's a like she's like Lu said that's a statutory requirement that the department is required it's a it's a very extensive book that's used to track help for our appscan says it's the data system refers to appscan which is where all districts are inputting their
Chair
Unverified
1:45:57
expenditures that they're using for spending and that is a handbook that's used for analysis purposes to help
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
1:46:07
identify which codes mean which to mean what that's publicly available we're happy to send you a copy of that and we'd
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:46:18
be happy to send you the the de definition for the LA
indebtedness. Yes, I'd like to see that because I mean I'd just like to see that and because we have in the department SA which is a state education though agency and I don't understand this I
mean I've never heard of LEA being associated with some capital improvement
so senator one portion of the adequacy binder which is not completely full right now but staff can get to us as a a term and a definition portion and so the staff will provide that which gives us the whole gamut of of acronyms and and everything that they refer to. so we're
gonna have staff make sure that's included in your binder. OK and and the other
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:47:08
thing Mrsier you had mentioned before that there is a a work b ook or
work schedule or something in our notebook are we supposed to be taking notes and writing notes or something in that worksheet or something sod of your binder
section 1d it should have it should be a recommendations worksheet
I wantd it's a lot to flip through I'm there with you
so so the recommendations worksheet and so as you've heard of talk about in the past previously in the adequacy process we would typically take that worksheet at the end of at the end of the process so go through all of these hearings gather all this information and then we would be presented the the joint committee will be presented to the worksheet and
would then go in and make their individual recommendations. Senator English and I as we kind of evaluated the process to see how could how we could be more efficient in it. we wanted to go ahead and provide that now so that as we're going through the different specific categories and have these discussions of the members can go in and go ahead and and approach the worksheet with their current information, their current knowledge and and go ahead and start and kind of get ahead of the game so that we're not trying to think back on6 months 8 months,10 months of work and try to remember what we
did so but that worksheet is there for you to to continue to evaluate and and put information in as we're going through this
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:48:53
process and make your own recommendations. and so we we will be making this report for fy
28. the recommendations that we make the recommendations are due the end of October. we'll make those recommendations as again separate
committees senate house or as a joint committee which would be ideal. We present those recommendations and then historically those
recommendations have been acted on in the following legislative session for the next biennium. So the recommendations we take so this this last last time inoctober of of 24october November of 24 we had the recommendations we came out with roughly a 2.48% increase each year and that's what was acted on in the in the adequacy bill that that was run in the 25 session we'll do the same thing we'll make the recommendations we'll run a bill in 27th session that is a reflective of those recommendations
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:49:47
which will be for 20 fiscal year
2829 it'll be for the school years of2728,2829, yes. so this could our our current a our current adequacy recommendation which was passed in 25 was for the 2526 school year and the 2627 school year. the per pupil funding them out. So the next one will be for the 2728,28,29
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:50:11
school years thank you so you know I've been making little notes on
on these sheets these charts that you all are giving us so I'll just put these in my binder is that you need yes ma'am yeah whatever you think
is most effective for you try to figure out where where in the workshop mate use
Speaker 247
1:50:31
use the worksheets as much as you want togain the only
thing that we typically ask is don't take those home with you because they have a hard time getting back has been our experience. So take the take take that spend as much time every time you're down here in LittleRock spend as much time as you want to on them. OK
thank you. OK, members there are no additional questions so I'm gonna make a recommendation if the committee would so entertain me I'm gonna make a recommendation that we take this next part the part two, and we're going to move that to a meeting in May which will be after the fiscal session. yespresentative inn it my my you are yes ma'am thank you
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
1:51:18
Mr Chairman. I had a couple of questions for ADE if you if I
can, if I may. what's the nature of those questions? I'm I'm trying so what I'm trying to
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
1:51:33
do is kind of help us to to cohesively land this plane today to help you do that too I had some questions
about AlE Id forgot to ask him yesterday so ALEe is actually more comprehensively addressed in the next presentation and so
let me let me kind of finish where I was going I think that'll help context so my recommendation do you have another question besides ALE? OK. so my recommendation to the committee is going to be that that we take part two of of what was going to be presented today I would ask that you go read through it so you've got exhibit B2 take your exhibit B2 whether you do it online whether you do it in paper read through this because it's looking at things like categorical it's looking at ALE it's looking at EA funds all of the other things that's
it's very very detailed and then we will have we will schedule a May meeting after the fiscal session in that May meeting we will go over exhibit or the the second portion of what was going to be presented today and we will also make that our our GregRogers afternoon as well so that we can kind of hit all those things together so if there are there are questions for staff on the presentation we'll address that then if there's questions for the department we'll also address that then to kind of comprehensive look at it and seeing no additional
Unknown speaker
1:52:51
questions joint education is ad jo ur n ed
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. 2026 Adequacy Study: Resource Allocation Part I [Exhibits B1-B2]
C. 2026 Adequacy Study: Resource Allocation Part II [Exhibits C1-C2]
D. Other Business
E. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Representative Keith Brooks Chair
Unverified
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
Speaker 25
Speaker 34
Speaker 27
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
Chair
Unverified
Representative Rick Beck
Unverified
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
Speaker 88
Speaker 48
Speaker 125
Speaker 123
Speaker 106
Speaker 55
Speaker 20
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
Speaker 163
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
Speaker 180
Representative Steven Walker
Unverified
Speaker 196
Speaker 200
Speaker 203
Speaker 206
Speaker 213
Speaker 215
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 220
Speaker 227
Speaker 228
Speaker 229
Speaker 62
Speaker 117
Speaker 247
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified