School Funding In Birmingham: Stretching Education Dollars

BIRMINGHAM, AL —Alabamians hear it more often than they should: the state consistently ranks last or close to last in the country in education every year. Schools in the inner cities are failing, schools in rural areas are not making the grade, and funding for classrooms is among the lowest in the country. But why?

Alabama increased its K-12 formula funding by 1 percent per student last year. But that funding is still far below pre-recession levels: 15 percent less per student after adjusting for inflation.

Alabama was 45th nationally in spending per student at $9,636 in 2018. The Education Trust Fund is funded primarily through taxes, the largest of which are the individual and corporate income tax, sales tax, utility tax, and use tax.

The state divvies up tax dollars through a formula, mainly based on the number of students and schools, but then deducts the equivalent of 10 mills of property tax. That's a big deduction in wealthy areas, where property values are high, and a small deduction in rural areas. It's meant to help poorer systems.

This means that when the economy is hurting, so are Alabama's schools. To make up for budget shortfalls, local school systems have to raise local property taxes to help fund their schools.

Most of the suburban Birmingham school systems have done so - including Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Hoover, Homewood and Trussville.

Because the state of Alabama has a low minimum millage rate (10 mills), property tax revenue for schools is one of the main reason for the low education budgets. A mill equals one-tenth of one cent of a property's assessed value.

According to the Alabama Department of Revenue, Birmingham City Schools collected 24 mills in 2018. The last millage rate increase was in 2015 when now-mayor Randall Woodfin was the president of the Birmingham Board of Education.

By comparison, Mountain Brook's millage rate is already at 99 mills, and a vote in September is taking place to raise the millage rate to 109 mills.

Stretching Education Dollars

Birmingham City Schools are trying to make the most of what they are working with - which is significantly less than what neighboring schools systems have, despite having exponentially more schools and students.

Since the hiring in Dr. Lisa Herring as superintendent in 2017, BCS went from having 22 schools with a F on their report card to ending the year with five. Overall, they improved from a grade of 66 in 2016-2017 to a 68 in 2017-2018.

"Progress means we’ve seen growth, some of the growth and gains that we’ve seen are in doubles digits for our students and achievement. We celebrate that," said Herring regarding the school progress report in January. "Progress means a continued focus on attendance, we continue to make certain that our scholars are at school every day. Progress also means that there’s more work to do, we accept that there is work ahead but we celebrate that Birmingham Schools is moving in the right direction."

Funding Sources

Where does Birmingham's school system gets its funding? The system currently spends $10,792 per pupil, slightly above the state average.

Here is the breakdown of funding sources for Birmingham City Schools:

• State Revenue Sources: $128,865,505
• Federal Revenue Sources: $45,727,072
• Local Revenue Sources: $114,773,034
• Other Revenue Sources: $8,440,184
• State Revenue Source Per Pupil: $5,470
• State Revenue Source Per Pupil Rank: 124
• Federal Revenue Source Per Pupil: $1,941
• Federal Revenue Source Per Pupil Rank: 19
• Local Revenue Source Per Pupil: $4,872
• Local Revenue Source Per Pupil Rank: 15
• Other Revenue Source Per Pupil: $358
• Other Revenue Source Per Pupil Rank: 52
• Total Revenue Source Per Pupil: $12,641
• Total Revenue Source Per Pupil Rank: 25