By Yesenia Robles
(From The Denver Post, April 1st, 2011)
In an attempt to close funding disparities between high- and low-poverty schools, a bill introduced in Washington, D.C., on Thursday would force districts to be more detailed in reporting school-by-school funding, closing a longtime loophole.
The bill, introduced by Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Thad Cochran, R-Miss., targets districts that collect federal Title I funding for high-poverty schools.
“All too often, well-intentioned policies hatched in Washington do not work the way they were intended,” Bennet said in a release. “We are one of only three developed countries to pump more money into affluent schools than low-income schools. That needs to change.”
When federal Title I funding was started, it was meant to be an additional resource on top of other funds to help students in need get on an equal academic playing field.
To make sure that’s the case, districts first have to show they are allocating their state and local resources equally among all schools before getting any federal Title I assistance.
But a loophole in the law allows school districts to skirt the equality issue by accounting for teacher salaries — usually the district’s largest expenditure — on a districtwide basis, rather than school by school.
If the accounting were school by school, greater amounts of state funding would have to flow to high-poverty schools before the Title I money would be approved.
Charlie Barone, director of policy for Democrats for Education Reform, who endorsed the bill, said high-poverty schools often have a larger share of lower-paid teachers.
“In dollar terms, it’s not fair,” Barone said. The Title I money is “real money that can be the difference between additional instruction, textbooks for every student or added technology.”
In a study compiled by Bennet’s staff, examining districts in a few states — not including Colorado — the disparity between low- and high-poverty schools is estimated as high as $1,000 per student.
In addition to closing the loophole, the bill also makes the maximum allowed variation in funding between schools 3 percent instead of the 10 percent allowed now.
Districts would either have to shift teachers so salaries are equal in all schools or find another way to pad the funding at schools that spend less on teacher salaries.
A spokeswoman for the Denver Classroom Teachers Association said the union does not have enough information on the bill to take a position yet.
If the bill is passed, districts will be given a three-year phase-in period to experiment with policy changes to fix their funding inequities.
A spokesman for Bennet said the senator is not promoting any one solution for all districts to fix the inequities but would rather encourage all districts to be innovative and find the best solution for them.