Education Department: Districts Short-Changing Poorer Schools

According to the New York Times (12/1, A29, Dillon, Subscription Publication), a Department of Education report found that "tens of thousands of schools serving low-income students are being shortchanged because districts spend fewer state and local dollars on teacher salaries in those schools than on salaries in schools serving higher-income students." Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, "Low-income students need extra support and resources to succeed, but in far too many places, policies for assigning teachers and allocating resources are perpetuating the problem rather than solving it." According to the Times, a "loophole" in the part of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act requiring districts to show they spend at least as much of their money on poor schools getting federal money as on more affluent schools "allowed school systems to report educator salaries to Washington using a districtwide pay schedule, thus masking large salary gaps between the higher-paid veteran staffs in middle-class schools and the young teachers earning entry-level pay in poor parts of the district."

 

The Washington Times (12/1, Wolfgang) reports, "More than 40 percent of low-income schools don't get their 'fair share,' the report says, despite federal requirements that districts spend "comparable" amounts of money at poorer schools eligible for Title 1 funding." Duncan said, "Children who need more are getting less." However, he "conceded that districts are technically in compliance with federal law as it is currently written" and that "only action by Congress...can close the loophole."

In the "Answer Sheet" blog of the Washington Post (12/1) Valerie Strauss writes that the report's "findings won't surprise anybody who follows equity issues in public education funding, as high-poverty schools have long had fewer resources than wealthier ones." The report also found that "providing low-income schools with comparable spending would cost as little as 1 to 4 percent of the average district's total school-level spending."

 

The "Politics K-12" blog of Education Week (12/1, Klein) reports, "Duncan singled out a few districts he thinks are doing a good job making sure high-poverty schools aren't shortchanged," and he "highlighted" part of a Senate bill reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act addressing the issue. However, "some folks worry that closing the comparabilty loophole could lead to forced teacher transfer" or "needless bureacratic maneuvering as districts try to balance the books"

In the "Next" blog of the Chronicle of Higher Education (12/1), Jeff Selingo notes, "College presidents have been getting older over the past two decades," and questions if "this generation of college presidents, who in some ways contributed to the myriad problems facing colleges today-especially on cost, are in the best position to lead innovation in the future." Reuters (12/1), the "Sentienl School Zone" blog of the Orlando Sentinel (12/1, Roth), and the "K-12 Zone" blog of the Houston Chronicle (12/1, Mellon) also cover this story.