State Sen. Don Gaetz reports that funding for K-12 will remain about the same per student for the upcoming school years:
Escambia County will earn $6,577.03 per student in 2010, a slight increase over this year’s $6,575.88. But the district will have $6,569,828 less in income next year ($258,669,285 compared to $265,239,113) because of 1,008 fewer students. Escambia’s budget reduction is solely because of less enrollment, not because of state budget decisions.
Santa Rosa County schools will earn a small amount more per student ($6,476.38 compared to $6,478.60 next year) but will have less funding overall because of a projected loss of 323 students. Like Escambia, Santa Rosa’s year-to-year revenue decline is largely related to a drop in enrollment, unusual for Santa Rosa schools. For that reason, total operating funds will decline from $161,009,632 to $158,975,105 or a loss of 1.26%.
Okaloosa County will lose less than one half of one percent in operating revenue, not the 15%-16% reductions mentioned in news stories and meetings. Okaloosa’s per student funding will be $6,656,79 or $21.17 less than the current year. Overall, the district will have $193,236,510 in operating funds for 2010. This year the district is spending $193,996,917.