New Report
Reveals Major Funding Gaps in School Districts Educating Low-Income
or Minority Students
Looking behind the
averages of state per-pupil spending on education, the Education
Trust found most states are under-funding school districts with
high proportions of students who are low-income or minority. "The
Funding Gap: Low-Income and Minority Students Receive Fewer Dollars,"
released in August 2002, details this national problem and finds school
funding equity varies dramatically by state.
The worst offender,
New York, has a yawning gap of almost $2,200 per-pupil annually, which
means about $54,000 per classroom and $880,000 for a 400-pupil elementary
school. Based on information from the 1999-2000 school year (the most
recent available), the study found that the states shortchanging high-poverty
districts most, after New York, are Pennsylvania, Illinois, Montana
and Michigan. States with the largest gaps for districts with high minority
enrollments, are New York, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas. Interestingly,
the highest courts in many of these states have found for defendants
in education finance litigations.
On the other hand,
some states have succeeded in improving funding equity, often states
where plaintiffs have prevailed in fiscal equity or adequacy suits.
In New Jersey, for example, the funding gap changed from $587 per-student
less for low-income students to $324 more, from 1997 to 2000. Connecticut,
Kentucky, Massachusetts and Tennessee have also made significant progress.
After adopting higher
academic standards and more rigorous accountability measures
in recent years, most states have not yet aligned their funding
systems with these mandates to provide a genuine opportunity
for low-income and minority students to succeed. Similarly,
the new federal No
Child Left Behind legislation requires states to improve
performance among all groups of students, but does not yet
require equitable or adequate funding to support these goals.
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