GAO Documents Persistent School Inequities

By David J. Hoff

State and federal money has narrowed the funding gap between high- and low-poverty school districts, but failed to equalize spending in the states with most of the nation's poor children, according to a report from Congress' research arm.

The U.S. General Accounting Office concludes that the heavy reliance by schools on property-tax revenues is unfair to poor areas.

"Despite state and federal efforts to close the funding gap, the most important factor determining the size of the gap was the tax effort of high-poverty districts compared with low-poverty districts," says the report, which was set for release to...