How Grades 6-12 get robbed in federal education funding
This graphic comes from a new report by the Alliance for Excellent Education called “Why ESEA Must Fill the Missing Middle,” a reference to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which, in its current version is known as No Child Left Behind, and is now being rewritten by Congress. The report shows how federal funding is concentrated in the early years and in college — and gives “paltry” sums to middle and high school in comparison to early childhood, elementary schools and post-secondary education.
The report notes that several programs designed to boost student achievement in high school have been cut in recent years, and it says:
Moreover, the High School Graduation Initiative (HSGI), the only federal program dedicated exclusively to high school improvement by supporting dropout prevention and reentry programs, was eliminated in FY 2015.This decline in funding exacerbates the problem of the “missing middle.” The term “missing middle” refers to the inequitable distribution of federal funds between grade spans, so namedHow Grades 6-12 get robbed in federal education funding - The Washington Post:
