A report by the Alliance for Excellent Education says that high-poverty high schools are not receiving their fair share of federal Title I funding, as compared to elementary and middle schools.
Title I is the federal government’s main form of subsidizing low-income students’ education, and high schools enroll nearly 25 percent of the nation’s low-income students. But according to the report, many high-poverty high schools are ineligible to receive the funds because of the methods used for measuring poverty rates at schools.
The report suggests several ways to alleviate the disparity. Its main suggestion is to use a “feeder pattern” to assign poverty levels to high schools, instead of judging Title I eligibility by the number of students claiming federally subsidized free and reduced-price lunches.
