Percent of Students in Districts with Census Poverty Rate over 20%

Fair School Funding: Core Principles  States should provide varying levels of funding to ensure equal educational opportunities to children with different needs.  A “progressive” finance system allocates more funding to districts with high levels of student poverty; a “regressive” system allocates less to those districts; and a “flat” system allocates roughly the same across districts with varying needs.

State & Local Revenue per Pupil Low PovertyHigh Poverty State A (Low revenue, poverty “flat”) State B (Avg. implicit base rev., highly regressive) State C (Avg. implicit base rev., progressive)

Southwest

Mid-Atlantic

Gulf Coast

Pacific

North Central

Funding Level State Predicted State & Local Revenue Rank Wyoming $19,5201 Alaska $17,9672 New York $17,3753 New Jersey $16,8174 Connecticut $15,6935 Arizona $7,89947 Idaho $7,50948 Oklahoma $7,44949 Utah $7,37950 Tennessee $7,30651

State Funding Distribution StateAt 0% Poverty At 30% Poverty High/LowGrade Utah $5,772$9,157159%A New Jersey $13,961$19,805142%A Ohio $8,993$12,301137%A Minnesota $10,026$13,043130%B Massachusetts $12,598$15,550123%B North Dakota $10,774$8,57780%F North Carolina $11,111$8,69978%F New Hampshire $13,958$10,84978%F Illinois $11,312$8,70777%F Nevada $10,561$7,97476%F

Funding Effort State Per capita GDPEffort IndexGrade Vermont $36, A New Jersey $49, A New York $49, A New Hampshire $40, A Indiana $36, A Arizona $35, F Tennessee $34, F North Dakota $44, F South Dakota $44, F Delaware $61, F

Does Fair Funding Mean Better Student Outcomes?

What Happens When States Make Smart and Equitable Investments? CA, 230

What Happens When States Make Smart and Equitable Investments? CA, 230

State Pre-K Enrollment Source: The State of Preschool 2011, The National Institute for Early Education Research

Poverty: What Can We Do?  Fair School Funding: Essential precondition to improving high need schools and boosting achievement  Key to teacher quality/equity; supplemental programs for at-risk, ELL students  State school finance reform: “Deep Resistance”  Federal Policies: subsidize state finance inequity; use federal funds to leverage states to improve funding fairness

Poverty: What Can We Do?  Access to high quality Pre-K for every low income child, and every child in a low income community  State Pre-K Systems: unify Head Start, Child Care and Public School Pre-K  Right to attend school in safe and educationally adequate facilities  State capital program – assess need, ensure financing