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School Board of Indian River County Critical Millage Justification Fiscal Historical Summary April 14, 2020 Background Article IX, section 1 of the Florida Constitution establishes the State of Florida's commitment to funding kindergarten through grade 12 education, as follows: "The education of children is a fundamental value of the people of the State of Florida. It is, therefore, a paramount duty of the State to make adequate provisions for the education of all children residing within its borders. Adequate provisions shall be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high-quality system of free public schools to allow students to obtain a high-quality education." In 1973, the Florida Legislature enacted the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) and established the State policy on equalized funding to guarantee to each student in the Florida public education system the availability of programs and services appropriate to his or her educational needs that are substantially equal to those available to any similar student notwithstanding geographic differences and varying local economic factors. To equalize educational opportunities, the FEFP formula recognizes: (1) varying local property tax bases; (2) varying education program costs; (3) varying costs of living; and (4) varying costs for equivalent educational programs due to sparsity and dispersion of the student population. The FEFP is the primary mechanism for funding the operating costs of Florida school districts. A key feature of the FEFP is that it bases financial support for education upon the individual student participating in an educational program rather than upon the number of teachers or classrooms. FEFP funds are primarily generated by multiplying the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) students in each of the funded education programs by cost factors to obtain weighted FTE students. Weighted FTE students are then multiplied by a base student allocation and by a district cost differential to determine the base funding from State and Local FEFP funds. Program cost factors are determined by the Florida Legislature and represent relative cost differences among the FEFP programs. In addition to the base funding allocation, two major allocations funding sources within the FEFP are the Supplemental Academic Instruction Allocation and Exceptional Student Education (ESE) Guaranteed Allocation. The accompanying table contains selected line items from the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP). The items were selected because they contain the bulk of the recurring State and Local funds provided in the FEFP and give the best insight into the district's General Fund revenue. The revenue provided in the First Calculation of FY 2007-2008 and the Third Calculation of FY 2019-2020 were compared to the revenue projected in the House Bill 5001 First Calculation of FY 2020-2021. The State and Local recurring revenue in the FEFP First Calculation of FY 2007-2008 were the highest levels, benchmark funding before the "Great Recession". Since the First Calculation of FY 2007-2008 inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI -All Urban Consumers (CPI -U) U.S. City Average) has reduced the purchasing power of the 81