Every fall and winter, Missouri schools take part in what may seem like a routine data task: reporting student enrollment on Count Day. But this process is more than a clerical requirement. The numbers submitted on these days drive state funding, federal allocations, and accountability systems that shape the resources and opportunities available to students across the state.

To calculate school funding, Missouri currently uses a model that estimates the cost of adequately educating a child and subtracts out what can be raised locally through taxes to arrive at the total aid provided to a school. The current model was developed nearly 20 years ago in 2005. There is contention with a few key pieces of the funding formula, some of which were addressed this year with the passage of Senate Bill 727, and some that persist.