All Children Are Equal Act Gains Sponsors, Garners Attention


Last Updated: December 30, 2011
 

This article appeared in the December 2011 Rural Policy Matters.

Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

The All Children are Equal (ACE) Act (H.B. 2485) gained two more Congressional co-sponsors this month. Representative Tim Bishop (D-NY) and Representative Phil Roe (R-TN) became the 17th and 18th members of Congress to add their names to the list of the bill’s co-sponsors.

ACE addresses the problem of “number weighting” in the formulas that distribute federal Title I funding to schools for the education of disadvantaged children. Because of number weighting, the count of students eligible for Title I funding can be artificially inflated in large districts. The effect is the diversion of Title I funding from smaller rural and urban districts, no matter how high their poverty rate, to larger districts, no matter how low their poverty rate. As a result, many large low-poverty districts receive much more Title I funding per eligible child than do many high-poverty smaller districts.

If adopted, ACE would base the weighting system on the poverty rate of the district, with higher-poverty districts getting larger amounts of Title I funding per eligible child.

The Education and Workforce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives is likely to consider ACE soon after Congress reconvenes in January.

Important Attention for the Formula Fairness Campaign

ACE and the Formula Fairness Campaign, which has led the effort to eliminate number weighting in the Title I formulas, also received an important attention boost this month from Thompson’s Title I Monitor, the most widely read and respected newsletter covering Title I issues. You can read the post in the “Title I-Derland” blog. From the blog you can link to the full story by clicking on the highlighted words Title I Monitor in the third paragraph.

Title I Monitor is normally available on a subscription basis, but this special report is made available through the open-site blog in anticipation of high levels of interest. The report includes a thorough analysis of the number-weighting issue as well as a description of how poverty concentration is defined under Title I.

You can learn more about ACE, number weighting, and the Formula Fairness Campaign, including how you and your organizations can become involved at the Campaign website at www.formulafairness.com.

Read more:

Formula Fairness Campaign:

Formula Fairness Campaign blog, Blogging Through the Title I Swamp, for posts covering ACE co-sponsorship by Representative Roe and Representative Bishop and Title I Monitor coverage: :

Link to Title I-Derland blog post and Title I Monitor story:

Read more from the December 2011 Rural Policy Matters.