Notable Quotable:
“When districts pay for teachers using average salaries, it creates a loophole that allows for vast differences in dollars spent per student at the school level. These differences in actual spending on disadvantaged students circumvent the federal and state legislative intent to create specific funding streams like Title I or state funding to support low-income students. In fact, when dollars are not attached to the students and schools are given staffing positions with average salaries instead of dollars, low-income students often receive less funding than non-disadvantaged students despite the government intent to support at-risk students with extra resources.” – Lisa Snell, Director of Education, Reason Foundation
Student Based Budgeting in the News:
Nation’s Fifth Largest School System to Adopt Student-based Budgeting in 2017-18
Nevada’s Clark County School District is officially set to implement student-based budgeting beginning in 2017-18 after a bipartisan panel approved the law’s regulations. According to Gov. Brian Sandoval, “The language approved by the commission, passed with unanimous bipartisan support, puts the decisions that have an immediate impact in our classrooms directly in the hands of parents, teachers and principals, which is where it belongs.”
U.S. Department of Education Releases Proposed Rules
A new proposal would allow districts to use a weighted-student formula to show compliance with the Title I supplement-not-supplant rule under ESSA.
California’s School Districts Scrutinized for Funding Inequities
The state’s Local Control Funding Formula has improved transparency, but districts such as Los Angeles Unified and West Contra Costa Unified face lawsuits for diverting funds meant for low-income students.
Student Based Budgeting 101:
A ‘Productivity Agenda’ that is Good for Kids
Giving school leaders the flexibility to decide how resources are used can allow them to make the most of their human capital, writes Edunomics Lab’s Marguerite Roza.
State Education Funding Interactive by EdBuild
FundED is a tool that provides information on each state’s funding laws including an interactive map that allows for easy comparisons.
Best Practices Spotlight:
Budgeting for Equity: Average vs. Actual Teacher Salaries
An infographic by Allovue and Reason Foundation explains the differences between allocating funding based on average and actual teacher salaries and how this ultimately affects equity.
Follow School Finance Groups and Experts on Twitter:
· Center for American Progress @EdProgress_
· Education Research Strategies @ERStrategies_
· Center for Reinventing Public Education @CRPE_UW
· Afton Partners @aftonpartners
· Edunomics Lab @EdunomicsLab
· Public Impact @publicimpact
· EdBuild: @EdBuild
· Reason Foundation @LisSnell
· Reason Foundation @AaronGarthSmith
· Reason Foundation @TKoteskey76