Education Funding
Public Schools Fully Funded for 2026-2027
Public schools are fully funded for FY2027 under the Mississippi Student Funding Formula (MSFF). The MSFF replaced the Mississippi Adequate Education Program in 2024 as the state funding mechanism for public schools. Prior to that, Mississippi’s public schools endured 16 consecutive years of underfunding that resulted in a cumulative, unrecovered loss of $3.5-billion.
In recent years, Mississippi increased salaries for teachers and assistant teachers. At the same time, surrounding states have boosted teacher salaries, making Mississippi once again last in starting salary and average salary for public school teachers.
Targeted investments in pre-k, literacy, and elementary reading and math coaches have yielded strong academic results for Mississippi students. The 2026 Legislative Session brought additional investments in literacy and math supports to boost achievement in middle grades.
To be successful, children need high quality early childhood education, an excellent teacher in every classroom, an excellent leader in every school and district, and enough time on task to master the skills our standards require.
Many districts need resources to hire teachers for advanced classes, including STEM and high-tech programs such as robotics, expand counseling and remediation services, hire dyslexia therapists, provide extended school day programs, and purchase books, technology, and materials to enhance teaching and learning.
Some districts remain in desperate need of facilities funding as buildings age and become more expensive to maintain every year, a particular concern in districts without a strong local tax base. Research shows that when learning environments are improved, achievement gains follow – a clear case for investing state funds in school facilities in low-wealth districts.
Mississippi Student Funding Formula
Mississippi’s new funding formula, adopted by the Legislature in 2024, is very much like the old formula, the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP). It begins with a base student cost that is determined by an objective formula which has four components:
- Instructional
- Administrative
- Ancillary & Support
- Operations & Maintenance
FY2027 Base Student Cost: $7,201.77
Additional needs-based funding is added in nine categories as percentages of the base student cost, as was the at-risk component of the MAEP. This is the primary way that more funding is directed to higher-need districts. The nine components and their associated “weights” are:
- Poverty – 30%
- English Language Learners – 15%
- SPED I – 60%
- SPED II – 110%
- SPED III – 130%
- Gifted – 5%
- CTE – 10%
- Concentrated Poverty – 10%
- Sparsity (district qualifies if fewer than 8 students per mile)
Needs-based funding for a district is based on the percentage of students qualifying in each category.
Read a full description of calculations for base student cost and needs-based funding here.
The local contribution is the portion of the total district funding that is the responsibility of the local school district and is generated through local property taxes. A district’s required local contribution is the value of 28 mills or 27% of the total district funding (base cost and needs-based funding), whichever is less. In the new formula, the 27% is applied after the needs-based/weighted funding is added, so it requires more of wealthier districts than did the MAEP.
District state funding allocation =
[Net enrollment * (Base student cost + Needs-based funding/weights)] – Local contribution
Note that the new formula uses net enrollment, not average daily attendance, which also helps low-wealth, rural districts that tend to have higher rates of absenteeism.
There will be a full recalculation of the formula every four years (just as with MAEP) and in the intervening three years, the base student cost is adjusted for inflation by multiplying 25% of the prior year’s base student cost by the 20-year average annual change in the rate of inflation rounded up to the nearest tenth of a percent.
Written into the legislation is a provision that says that the base student cost can never be lower than the prior year’s base student cost. Another provision in the law allows the Legislature to use the lower prior-year base cost in years in which state revenue declines.
