The Louisiana Department of Education needs to strengthen its processes to ensure the annual student count for the Minimum Foundation Program is accurate, according to a performance audit released today by Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera.
The report says the state education department “does not ensure that school systems and schools correct errors in the data submission process, which results in potentially ineligible students being included in the initial MFP allocation at the start of the fiscal year.”
The state auditor’s findings are contained in a report requested by the Legislature in 2014 to examine the accuracy of student counts for the Minimum Foundation Program, the state’s chief mechanism of financing elementary and secondary education in Louisiana.
In 2014, the average share of the state MFP cost per student was $5,060. The formula’s total has grown by $422 million from fiscal year 2008 to 2014, from roughly $3.14 billion to about $3.57 billion.
“The responsibility for ensuring accurate student counts lies with the individual schools, school systems, and ultimately with LDOE,” the audit says, adding the department should “enhance its use of error reports and use data analytics” to identify mistakes in the student counts.
The report says auditors used data analytics to identify roughly “1,000 students, totaling approximately $3.9 million, who appeared potentially ineligible” in the MFP student counts in October 2012 and February 2013.
In its official response to the audit, the education department agrees with several recommendations to address the issue, such as working with with the Office of Planning and Budget, the architect of the governor’s annual state budget recommendations, to incorporate student enrollment projections into the MFP budget. The education department says it has also developed a methodology for projecting student enrollment based on historical trends that anticipates increases and decreases for the upcoming fiscal year similar to other states.
