Editorial: Closing the education gap

Federal money that is supposed to narrow the education funding gap between poor and wealthy students is being distributed in a way that actually widens that gap, a new report says.

The study released Wednesday by the Education Trust, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., examined the distribution of federal Title I funding, which is designed to help states increase per-child spending for low-income students. The amount of Title I money that a state receives is based on its number and concentration of poor students and also the state's average per-pupil expenditure.

The Education Trust studied per-student state expenditures and Title I funding for the 2003-04 school year. It found that the Title I program actually sent more money to states that spent the most on their students. Students in states that didn't spend as much per student typically received less Title I money.

For example, Massachusetts spent the most per student nationally - $7,966 - and it received $2,310 in Title I funding for each of its 112,570 poor students, the report says. Nevada, which spent $6,362 per student in the 2003-04 school year, received only $897 per child from the Title I program for its 59,296 poor students. Nevada received the second-least amount of Title I funding out of the 49 states studied.

We don't begrudge poor students in other states who are receiving more generous Title I allotments. But the distribution formula needs to be more equitable. Each state's share of Title I money should be proportionate to the number of low-income children living there. Children who live in impoverished communities need this money, no matter how much - or little - their states can give.

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