Cross-posted from the Teacher Beat blog

By Stephen Sawchuk

Certain states will see a Christmas bonus-sized increase in their cut of federal teacher-quality funds, while other will have to start looking for spare change under the couch cushions, thanks to a major change in how the cash is doled out.

The Every Student Succeeds Act, signed into law today by President Obama, makes a raft of changes to school accountability, interventions, and the U.S. Secretary of Education’s authority. One of the lesser-noticed changes concerns the $2.3 billion state teacher-quality grants program, also known as Title II.

In essence, the new formula weights states’ poverty counts more and their overall population less. It also gradually gets rid of the baseline amount each state received under the grant program from 2001 onward. (Background in this blog item.)

The big question is how this is going to affect states and districts. The law phases in the new formula gradually, so there aren’t any sudden or drastic shifts. Over time, though, there’s a definite movement of funding away from rust-belt states towards Southern states. And thanks to a Congressional Research Service analysis, we now have some good projections.

Assuming an appropriation of about $2.3 billion each year for the next decade, here’s what the CRS projects by the time the new formula is fully phased in, in FY 2023:

• States/territories whose annual allocation would decrease by $10 million or more: Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico.
• States whose annual allocation would increase $10 million or more: California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas

Want all the numbers for each state? See the chart below.