Targeted Spending

By Jennifer Park

Most school finance experts agree that it costs more to educate students from poor families or those who are at risk of academic failure. “Districts and schools are now, for the first time, being held specifically accountable for helping at-risk students learn. States have an obligation to provide them with sufficient funding to accomplish the task,” says Kevin Carey, a senior policy analyst with the Education Trust, a research and advocacy group in Washington.

State policymakers seem to agree.

According to a survey by the Education Week Research Center, 43 states and the District of Columbia have some kind of mechanism in place to provide extra money for students who are deemed at risk. The Education Week survey of the education departments in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, conducted in the fall of 2004, sought to learn more...