Charleston County Schools to Reap Benefits from New Proposed Funding Option

Charleston County Schools to Reap Benefits from New Proposed Funding Option

The Charleston County School District may soon witness a significant change in its resource allocations towards schools. A proposed funding plan is being considered to potentially provide more resources to support students in poverty, special education, or those who are multilingual.

About the Funding Option

The new funding model called the Weighted Student Funding Model was presented at the Charleston County School District’s Committee of the Whole Budget Workshop on Monday night. This model comes with a $30 million cost, aiming to prioritize funding according to individual student needs at each school rather than merely the number of students — the method being employed traditionally in school district funding.

The model’s introduction comes as a response to the increasing number of students in poverty attending non-Title 1 schools, an issue current funding models are unable to sufficiently handle. “We see in places where models like this are used, improve student outcomes, particularly for the groups of students that we’re focusing on here,” stated Superintendent Anita Huggins.

How the Model Works

The Weighted Student Funding Model, if approved, will ensure that schools with students who are in poverty, special education, or multilingual would receive additional resources such as staff members or programs, given these students would be considered urgently in need and hence weighed higher than other students.

The funding ratio would be 6 to 1 for high schools, 4 to 1 for middle schools, and 3 to 1 for elementary schools. For instance, if a high school with a total enrollment of 600 students has 240 students in need, using the proposed ratio, the school would count for 640 students and secure the resources to cater to the enlarged number.

Chief Academic Officer Michelle Simmons emphasized the importance of prioritizing elementary-level support stating, “If you eliminate, mitigate, erase all the risk factors as early learners, at four- and five-year-olds, we won’t be playing catch up and trying to intervene at the higher grades.”

Scope of Impact

The Charleston County School District could potentially become the first district in the state to adopt the Weighted Student Funding Model if approved. Simmons shared that this funding formula would indeed benefit all scholars across the system, not just a select population.

The system could also effectively manage ESSER funded programs as federal pandemic money wanes. The plan’s $30 million cost already considers ESSER program impact reports, summing up over $5 million.

If the district transitions to a Weighted Student Funding Model, Huggins pointed out that it would maintain academic gains, increase support for all students, sustain effective ESSER programs, and enhance school autonomy.

Model in Progress

The proposed model, still under discussion, accentuates the district’s pursuit of a more individually attuned and equitable distribution of resources. Further details and finalization are pending as the budget has not yet been completed.