The Formula In A Nutshell

    Title I provides four kinds of grants to public school districts.
  1. Basic Grants provide funds to LEAs in which the number of children counted in the formula is at least 10 and exceeds 2 percent of an LEA's school-age population.
  2. Concentration Grants flow to LEAs where the number of formula children exceeds 6,500 or 15 percent of the total school-age population.
  3. Targeted Grants are based on the same data used for Basic and Concentration Grants except that the data are weighted so that LEAs with higher numbers or higher percentages of poor children receive more funds. Targeted Grants flow to LEAs where the number of schoolchildren counted in the formula (without application of the formula weights) is at least 10 and at least 5 percent of the LEA's school-age population.
  4. Education Finance Incentive Grants (EFIG) distribute funds to states based on factors that measure:
    • a state's effort to provide financial support for education compared to its relative wealth as measured by its per capita income and
    • the degree to which education expenditures among LEAs within the state are equalized.

School districts can receive one or more of these grants, but all the grant funds are combined into one lump sum and there is no distinction between them as far as the permitted uses of the funds or the reporting requirements.

Each of the four grants has a slightly different formula, and Congress appropriates money separately for each grant program. But the building blocks of all four formulas are the same:

First, Title I assumes that the educational needs of disadvantaged students can be met by spending 40% more than it takes to meet the educational needs of students who are not disadvantaged.

So, to calculate that amount for each district, the number of Title I students in the district is multiplied by 40% of the statewide average per pupil spending in that district's state. This amount is called the district’s "authorization." The authorization is calculated separately for each of the four grant programs.

The national "authorization" is then calculated by summing all individual districts' authorizations.

But, Congress never appropriates enough money to fully fund the national "authorization." Therefore, a district's authorization is NOT the actual amount it will ultimately receive. Instead, a district’s authorization simply determines its share of the national authorization, and that share is multiplied by the amount of money actually made available by Congress for that grant program.

Title I is a sharing pool. The formula determines each state’s and each district’s share of the amount appropriated by Congress. Because the formula determines shares of an arbitrarily fixed sum of money, any provision that gives a greater share to some districts, necessarily takes away from other districts.

Therein lies the rub when it comes to the issues addressed in the Formula Fairness Campaign.