Emails, R.J. DeSilva, communications officer, Legislative Budget Board, May 17-18, 2016

3:53 p.m.

We use LBB data for local, state and federal funding amounts for public education, TEA data on students in average daily attendance (ADA), and Consumer Price Index (CPI) values from the Comptroller's office. We calculate that when adjusted for inflation, total public education funding per ADA in FY 2017 is $10,111, compared to an inflation adjusted funding of $10,078 in FY 2003, or $33 per ADA higher. We also note that $527.4 million in instructional materials funding that normally would have been appropriated in FY 2017 was front loaded into FY 2016 due to the passage of House Bill 1474. Including this amount would increase the FY 2017 per ADA amount to $10,216, or $138 per ADA higher than inflation-adjusted FY 2003.

The source of the statement you're checking may be using different data points such as measures of inflation or constant dollar year.

R.J. DeSilva

Communications Officer

Legislative Budget Board

5:02 p.m.

May 18, 2016

There doesn't appear to be a consensus in economics or education policy regarding whether CPI or IPD is a better measure of inflation for public education spending.

The CPI is well-known, and we're often asked to do analysis adjusting for inflation using CPI. Additionally, we have historically applied CPI as a deflator to other parts of the state budget. Beginning with the 2014-15 Fiscal Size-up, we uniformly use CPI for any inflation-adjusted analysis across all areas of the budget, including public education.

R.J. DeSilva

Communications Officer

Legislative Budget Board