Some states would lose big money with proposed education funding changes
Congress’s debate about rewriting the nation’s main education law has featured high-profile disagreements over testing, vouchers andschool accountability, but there is another issue that has just as much potential to derail the legislation: Money.
A forthcoming amendment from Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) would change the formula used to allocate Title I funds, a move that would create big winners and losers among the states.
Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia would gain Title I dollars, which are meant to educate poor children. But that leaves 14 states that would see cuts, including big losers New York (whose districts would lose $310 million), Illinois ($188 million) and Pennsylvania ($120 million).
“Every county in my state will lose money,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), whose state stands to lose about $40 million per year, a 20 percent cut. Mikulski, speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, said she plans to vote in favor of rewriting the No Child Left Behind law — unless it includes the Burr amendment.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), whose state stands to lose $22 million, called the Burr amendment a “poison pill” that could pose a real threat to the underlying legislation, which he supports. “An amendment like that, if it passed, it could knock the whole thing sideways,” Kaine said in an interview. “Other than that, I feel really good about this bill getting out of the Senate.”
The federal government sends about $14 billion in Title I funds to the nation’s schools, doled out via a complicated set of formulas that favors states with large populations and wealthy states that spend a lot on education. Rural states, and states with smaller populations, tend to receive less on a per-pupil basis.
Burr’s amendment would attempt to correct for that bias and would streamline the current set of four Title I formulas into one simpler formula. It essentially would dole out money based on the number of poor children multiplied by the national average of the cost to educate that child.
Many states in the South and West would see an infusion of federal dollars: Texas would get an additional $192 million; California $118 million; and Florida $106 million. North Carolina, Burr’s home state, would get an Some states would lose big money with proposed education funding changes - The Washington Post: