MS HB270

State Department of Education shall conduct a feasibility study to identify school districts and individual schools with cost-effective operations and high academic achievement, focusing on eliminating top-end administrative and operational costs.

Department must evaluate resource allocation practices by analyzing operating costs per student, operating costs per program, and staffing costs per student to ensure resources support student instruction.

Department shall develop a financial solvency review process analyzing district revenues, expenditures, student-to-staff ratios, fund balance changes, enrollment, tax rates, audit reports, and first-quarter financial data for the current and following two school years.

Department must create an electronic-based program for districts to submit financial information, allowing districts to enter estimated data before budget adoption and providing alerts for abnormal student-to-staff ratios, rapid fund balance depletion, and budget discrepancies.

Districts with projected deficits within three years must submit interim financial reports and develop department-approved financial plans; failure to comply results in an accredited-warned status assignment by the State Board of Education.