By Andrew Pillow
A program designed to reduce inequality, may actually be inequitable in and of itself.
Title I is the government’s main mechanism to close the funding gap between poor, and more affluent school districts. The program gives money to schools that serve predominantly low income families. But a new report finds that the algorithm used may actually favor certain schools over others. Specifically, the formula tends to preference larger school districts.
A brief summary of the findings via US News says:
“One of the main reasons for this is that the formula takes into consideration either the rate of poverty in a district or the number of poor students, but not both. This leads to larger school districts getting more money than smaller, often poorer districts – the opposite of what Title I was intended to do.”
Many Indianapolis Public Schools depend on Title I funding. There are many competing ideas on how to better allocate funding. We will cover those ideas in upcoming stories in the blog.
Read the report here.