Federal formula, skewed against rural schools, now used for stimulus; webinar scheduled

The formula used to determine who federal funds are distributed by the U.S. Department of Education may be unfair to small, rural school districts. Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act is designed to help students at risk for failure due to poverty. "The way the formula works, a small school district with a high percentage of poor students earns less per student than a large school district with a smaller percentage of poor students," Caitlin Howley writes in the Daily Yonder. "As a result, small rural districts receive a far smaller share of Title I funds, even if they serve larger percentages of impoverished students."

This disparity has become more important because it is now being used to determine how economic-stimulus money is distributed. President Obama seemed to signify his support for small rural schools when he invited a student from one to sit next to Michelle Obama during his address to Congress. But the Rural School and Community Trust points out that under the current system, the student's school "in rural South Carolina receives $1,057 for each student qualifying under Title I," writes Howley. "Dillon has a student poverty rate of 38.5 percent. However, the nearby Greenville school district — one of the largest in the state — receives $1,467 for each eligible student, but its poverty rate is only 13.8%."

The trust adds: “The poorest 800 rural districts enroll almost a million students and have an average poverty rate of 35.52 percent. They get a little over $1,200 per poor student in Title I stimulus. Among the seven urban districts with the largest enrollment of poor students, only Detroit has a higher poverty rate than the rural 800 and all seven get more per poor student in Title I funding—in both the regular federal budget and the stimulus package.”

Howley suggests that the only way to fix the problem and eliminate the disparity is to eliminate weighting by the number of eligible students. "Title I funds would then go to districts with high poverty rates, regardless of their size," adds Howley. (Read more) The trust will conduct a webinar Wednesday, April 29 at 2 pm EDT on "Innovative Ways for Rural Schools to Invest Title I Stimulus Funds." To register, click here.