Equity in School Funding
EQUITY IN SCHOOL FUNDING!
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 was enacted to provide state and local school districts with additional resources to ensure students in high-poverty schools receive a quality education and an opportunity to learn. Within the original Act of 1965 a Comparability Requirement, which requires districts to spend equal funds on high-poverty schools and low-poverty schools before receiving federal Title I funding, was created to make sure state and local districts have the necessary resources to support equity for high-poverty schools. However, loopholes within the Comparability Requirement have limited the ESEA from fulfilling the original purpose of providing adequate and equitable resources to low-income students. A key loophole allows states and districts to exclude actual teacher salaries from their comparability calculations, which means more affluent, low-poverty schools can spend significantly more on teacher salaries than high-poverty schools.
NCQE Demands Congress Close the Comparability Loophole and Enhance ESEA by supporting HR 5071:
1. Requiring Actual Staff Salaries be included when determining comparability between high-poverty and low-poverty schools.
2. Requiring School Districts to Provide State Officials with Information about School-Level expenditures that Demonstrate Comparability before they receive Title I Funds
3. Conducting annual Comparability Audits to determine Districts’ compliance with the law
4. Allowing Schools flexibility on how they spend their additional resources
Every student deserves an opportunity to learn and succeed. Close the Comparability Loophole to provide low-income students adequate and equitable resources that prepare them for college and a meaningful career.
