On the campaign trail, President Obama pledged: "You don’t reform our schools by opposing efforts to fully fund No Child Left Behind." He said that in his biggest education speech of the general election campaign.
The economic stimulus package was a down payment on fulfilling that promise. Under the law, the Title I grants to districts for the education of disadvantaged students will receive $10 billion, split over fiscal years 2009 and 2010. The money makes up almost half of the difference between the program's fiscal 2008 appropriation ($13.8 billion) and what NCLB advocates consider full funding for fiscal 2007 (the final year for which the law set authorization levels).
But once the stimulus money runs out, will Congress and Obama have the money to replace it? That's a big question, especially if you look at the fiscal 2009 appropriations bill under consideration in the House.
Under that bill, funding for school districts under Title I would rise to $14.5 billion—a 4.3 percent jump. That would leave a steep climb for the program to receive $25 billion in fiscal 2011.
Will President Obama change or modify the current NCLB Title I funding scheme/formula to include needs based on free and reduce lunch counts?
Our district is very small (abour 170 pupils), located in Rural San Diego. Because of our locations, we do not qualify for Title I funding. I believe the current formula is based on census Data...and not based on the needs of pupils. We have lots of pupil from lower income areas that attend our school, and are receiving free and reduce lunch.
We desperately need NCBL Title I funding, but we do not qualify.
Daniel,
I may have missed something in your brief statement, but if I read and interpreted what you are saying, " you have a lot of poor kids" at your school. The secret percentage for a school to qualify for Title I funds is 35% and in some cases even lower. IN other words if at least 35% of kids in your school receives free and reduced lunches, YOUR SCHOOL SHOULD BE GETTING TITLE I funds. However, it may be your school board or principal is refusing the money for some reason that you and others should investigate.
The problem in our area? We have too many folks skimming off the top of our more than $4 million pot from the feds, and whatever is left goes to programs decided upon by the LBOE. It is tragic that we have kids who do not meet standards, but we carry over almost 1/2 Million dollars in Title I funds from year to year. All of the poor kids don't even get the same research based reading programs!
Hope this helps, and if I am misinterpreting Title I funding, I look forward to hearing from other readers of this blog.
The following information is from the USDOE. I have included a link for those who have Title I questions.
Schools enrolling at least 40 percent of students from poor families are eligible to use Title I funds for schoolwide programs that serve all children in the school.
Schools with poverty rates below 40 percent, or those choosing not to operate a schoolwide program, offer a "targeted assistance program" in which the school identifies students who are failing, or most at risk of failing, to meet the State's challenging performance standards, then designs, in consultation with parents, staff, and district staff, an instructional program to meet the needs of those students.
http://www.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html
The two different programs for Title I funds? Targeted Assistance and Schoolwide programs.
I hope this helps.