Report Examines States' Fairness In Funding Education

Education Week (10/12, Cavanaugh) reported that a study of "fairness" in school funding "released Tuesday by the Education Law Center" examined the amount of money states "provide to education" and "whether they direct sufficient resources to the poorest schools." The authors measured fairness based on "the average state and local revenue spent per pupil," how the funding is distributed between schools, "the state's effort to fund public schools," and "the share of school-age children attending the state's public schools, as well as the median household incomes of students in private and public schools." The study, titled "Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card," shows that Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, and Wyoming "scored relatively well on all of" the categories, while Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, and North Carolina "generally rated poorly across all or most of" them.

 

The New York Daily News (10/12, Kolodner) reported that "New York spends more on education overall than most other states, but researchers call its funding methods 'regressive.'" Because "Wealthy districts rely on high property taxes to fund their schools - a luxury many poor districts do not have," a wealthy New York school district was able to spend about $3,000 more per student in 2008 than a district "with at least 30% of the students living in poverty."

 

New Jersey's Star-Ledger (10/13, Calefati) reports that "New Jersey distributes a greater share of its education funding to school districts with low-income students enrolled, an effort for which the state received high marks on" the analysis. "But the data evaluated for the center's first annual funding formula report card do not reflect the $820 million cut Gov. Chris Christie made to education spending this spring, raising questions of whether the cuts will erode the state's funding fairness in the future."

 

The Virginian Pilot (10/12, Roth) reported that the analysis ranked Virginia as one of "six states with the worst track record on funding education." Virginia got "a 'D' grade for the amount of money it dedicates to schools" and "a 'D' for the equity of distribution, measured by how well states direct money to poorer school districts." CNBC (10/13) also covers the story.