Tax dollars are one of the main ways schools are funded. While money also comes from the state’s funding formula, grants and other donations, most schools could not function without tax dollars.
For Nixa Public Schools, the yearly cost to educate a child is $8,572, based on data from the 2014-15 school year. While the number fluctuates year to year, that means at the end of the 13-year educational life of a child at Nixa, it costs roughly $90,000 to educate them.
If a child has special needs, it can cost between three to five times more – $270,000 to $450,000 – to educate them during their 13 years in school.
This is why community support for schools is so important. A community invests in their children to give all students an education so they have the opportunities to become the next scientist, teacher, doctor, lawyer, business owner or whatever they want to do to be a contributing member of the community.
In the Nixa Public Schools district, homeowners paid $817 per $100,000 of their home value in 2014-15. Over the 13-year educational life of a child – kindergarten to 12th grade – Nixa Public Schools would receive a total of $10,488 in real property taxes per $100,000 of that home’s value.
That means it would take approximately nine $100,000 houses to pay for the education of one student over the course of their 13 years in Nixa. That, of course, does not take into account any special needs or additional services that the district is legally required to provide.
Most of the tax money that comes into a school is from property taxes. However, for growing communities all over southwest Missouri, this can be a problem since it can take a few years for a district to receive tax dollars from new construction.
Jan. 1 is tax day, meaning a home or business would be assessed based on their real and personal property as of that date. Property taxes are then due to the county tax collector by the end of that year, Dec. 31. That also assumes everyone pays his or her taxes. Christian County has a high rate of collection, but not everyone pays.
Nixa then receives its large property tax payment in January, which means the district will have educated all the children in that new home for over a year before they actually receive their portion of the taxes generated from that property. Districts must predict growth from new construction in order to budget accordingly since they may not receive money from all homes that year.
The same time frame is true for new commercial or industrial construction. Nixa is always excited to see new construction of businesses, but it still takes a while to receive tax dollars.
Since property taxes are one of the main ways schools survive, we like to see fair and accurate property assessment. It enables us to plan. When assessments vary greatly from year to year, it can be difficult to budget.
Schools must plan out their entire year months before any student enters the classroom and all of that planning is based only on the best data received from previous years. If you were told your personal budget could fluctuate greatly from year to year and still had to make an educated guess on what it might be, planning would be difficult.
In order to help plan and prepare as a growing district, Nixa strives to maintain a three-month reserve in our balances if at all possible. This is especially important in light of uncertain public school funding over the last several years.
When the state doesn’t fully fund the education formula and then also withholds funding for various reasons, in addition to the new construction dollars not flowing in immediately, schools must do some major planning.
Nixa’s ending balances must help float our boat until we receive our large property tax payment in January. As the largest employer in Christian County, 75–80 percent of our expenditures are salaries. We will always believe the teacher is the best educational resource we can give students. Anything else is a tool to help enhance what the teacher and other staff members do to educate the child.
Above all, educating students requires long-range planning – ending balances play a major role in accomplishing that goal.
Brenda Rantz is the executive director of finance and board treasurer for Nixa Public Schools. She can be reached at brendarantz@nixaschools.net.
