Ed Money Watch

At Ed Money Watch we talk a lot about funding formulas for various federal grant programs. We’ve written about proposed changes to the ESEA Title II funding formula in the House Students Success Act, the need for improvements to the Title I formula, and even idiosyncrasies in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act formula. Congress has designed each of these formulas to account for factors such as population size and poverty rates or numbers when distributing federal funds to states and school districts. But another factor – something known as “small state minimums” – always seems to run roughshod over the intended target populations.

Small state minimums are intended to ensure that small states receive a basic level of funding under each federal grant. Often, the formula sets the minimum at a certain percentage of the total appropriation that Congress provides that year – like the 0.5 percent minimum in the Title II formula. The idea behind small state minimums has merit: just because some students live in small states doesn’t mean they are less deserving of equitable shares of federal funding. But do small state minimums always work as lawmakers intended? Or do they overcompensate and provide small states with disproportionate amounts of funding per student?

To answer this question, we compiled data on total student enrollment and total state Title I, IDEA, and Improving Teacher Quality State Grant allocations in 2010. We then computed the allocation per pupil for each state and ranked them. This analysis suggests that existing federal funding formulas for those programs do disproportionately benefit small states, though some formulas do so more than others.

The ten smallest states in the nation are the District of Columbia, Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Alaska, Montana, Rhode Island, and Hawaii, in that order. Their total enrollments range from a little over 69,000 to just over 180,000 in 2010. As expected, many of these states receive more in federal funding on a per pupil basis than their larger peers.

This is most consistently the case with Title II Improving Teacher Quality State Grants where the first nine smallest states receive nine largest allocations per pupil, in exact order of enrollment. This is because the formula ensures each state 0.5 percent of the total allocation, or just over $14 million in 2010. If the formula did not include small state minimums, each of these states would have received closer to $3 or $4 million under the program.  In fact, each of the small states receive dramatically more than the average allocation per pupil of $60. The District of Columbia received $202 per pupil, almost four times the national average.

Small states also fare well under the Title I formula, which should theoretically be driven by student poverty. DC, Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Rhode Island all rank in the top 10 in terms of Title I allocation per pupil. Of these states, only DC has a particularly high particularly high census poverty rate at 30.8 percent. The rest all fall in the bottom half of states in terms of poverty rates. These states received over $348 per pupil in Title I, and as much as $686, compared to the national average of $294.

IDEA Part B allocations are least influenced by the small state minimum provisions, but some effect is not all-together absent either. Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, and Rhode Island each rank in the top 10 in allocations per pupil. Rhode Island has the highest rate of students participating in special education at 18.1 percent, so the high allocation it receives may be justifiable. But the rest of the states don’t fall among the top ten states with special education participants, even though they receive nearly $300 per pupil or more in IDEA funds compared to the national average of $233. Interestingly, DC, which is a small state and has a high percentage of special education students (16.3 percent) ranks only 21st in terms of IDEA Part B allocation.   

Clearly, small state minimums have a significant influence over how federal education funds are allocated to each state to the point where these small states are disproportionately benefiting from federal funds. This is not to say that Congress should eliminate the minimums entirely. But this analysis suggests that Congress should consider the implications of the minimums and perhaps readjust the formulas produce a more equitable distribution of funds. Just as students in small states deserve their fair share, so do students in large states.

Click here to view these data for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley warns of ‘tough’ state budget
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley plans to release two fiscal year 2013 budget proposals – one for education funding and another to lay out the state’s general operating budget – early next month.  However, Governor Bentley says, the plan will not reallocate any money from the Education Trust Fund to the general fund as he had originally proposed last month; a statutory change to combine the budgets would allow funds currently earmarked for education to be used for other budget items. New caps on spending from the Education Trust Fund will result in slight cuts in education spending for public K-12 schools and colleges. Education spending totaled about $5.6 billion in fiscal year 2012, and in 2013 that total is expected to drop by about $130 million. Governor Bentley has also pledged to veto any tax increases the state legislature may pass, including a proposed increase to the state cigarette tax. More here…

UMaine System freezes tuition; board urged to fix aging campus buildings
This week the University of Maine System’s board of trustees decided to freeze student tuition for the 2013 academic year at 2012 levels. Although the board has approved the tuition freeze, the decision is conditional on the school’s ability to design a budget for each campus that will not require excessive cuts. As a result, further approval is required before the proposal takes effect. According to the board, tuition has not held constant from year to year in 25 years. The decision to hold tuition at 2012 levels came in spite of a report that many of the campuses will require substantial infrastructure investments over the coming years. According to an examination of the campuses, 69 percent of the system’s square footage includes buildings that are at least 25 years old and are therefore more likely to need major renovations within the next five years. More here…

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s budget would boost aid to local schools, cut positions – and raise some taxes
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick this week released his fiscal year 2013 budget proposal. The plan includes $32.3 billion in spending, with over $4 billion of that directed to public K-12 schools – an all-time high for public education in the state. The education plan also funnels an additional $10 million to efforts to close the state’s achievement gap, and adds $10 million over fiscal year 2012 levels to the state’s community college system. To support 3 percent spending increases in the overall budget, Governor Patrick calls for raising additional tax revenue through taxes on candy, soda, cigarettes, and other items. Additionally, revenue is expected to exceed last year’s totals by about $940 million as a result of broader economic growth. The two houses of the legislature will produce their own versions of the budget and are expected to pass a bill to be signed by the governor before the new fiscal year begins on July 1. More here…

Idaho schools chief has plan to offset teacher pay cuts
As part of his education reforms project, “Students Come First,” Idaho Public Schools Chief Tom Luna originally planned to divert money in fiscal year 2013 from teacher salaries to classroom technology projects and performance-based bonuses for teachers. But this week Luna proposed that the state instead offset the $19 billion in diverted teacher pay and benefits with a portion of the $29 million in state revenue that Governor Butch Otter was planning to stash in a rainy day account for education. The state already cut $14.7 million in teacher pay in fiscal year 2012 to fund the reform initiatives, so Luna is trying to preserve teacher salaries for next year. In his budget recommendation, he says that salaries should take priority over the pay-for-performance provisions in his education reform plan. In total, Luna’s budget proposal includes $1.27 billion for public K-12 education for fiscal year 2013, a $57 million increase over fiscal year 2012 levels. More here…

The recently-released House ESEA draft reauthorization bill makes substantial changes to the federal role in public education. Among other changes, the proposal significantly loosens requirements on how states and local school districts can spend education dollars. While more state and local control is a popular mantra, we would like to offer a few words of caution on a few provisions in the House bill. Mainly, these changes to existing law would essentially allow states and school districts to use federal funds previously intended to benefit specific, high-need populations however they see fit without requiring consistent state and local support.

1. First, the bill would move several existing programs to Title I, Part A of the law. These programs, which provide specific funding streams to local school districts for services for migrant students, neglected and delinquent students, English language learners, rural students, and Indian education, would be moved to the same section that funds grants for low-income students. Currently, these programs are authorized and funded under various titles and subparts of NCLB separate from Title I, Part A. This change would enable Congress to provide a single appropriation for all Title I, Part A programs, blurring the lines between funding for the programs. Under the bill these five programs would total 9.0 percent of the annual Title I Part A allocation, which would be set at $16.7 billion for 2013.
   
   At the same time, the bill includes a “flexibility” provision that would allow states and school districts to merge funds from these five programs, as well as set-asides for state administration and school improvement, and use them for any purposes covered by those programs or Title I, Part A Education for the disadvantaged. Under current law, states and districts are only allowed to transfer up to 50 percent of funds allocated under the Education Technology program (which is not funded in current law), the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program, and the school choice program into their Title I, Part A accounts. The five programs listed in the proposed flexibility provision are not included in any current flexibility provisions. Under the House proposal, states would have to notify the U.S. Department of Education and school districts would have to notify their state agencies if they intend to use any of the funding streams for alternative purposes. However, the proposal does not explicitly require states or districts to report how they repurposed the funds, what they were used for, or what programs or services were eliminated due to the flexibility.
   
   By allowing states and districts to merge funds from several funding streams targeted for specific high-need populations, the House bill would give them license to overlook the needs of some students in exchange for others. While giving state and district leaders more autonomy and control over federal funds to tailor services to their students’ needs is important, these specialized federal programs exist to serve students that are typically ignored.


2. Next, the House bill would allow any school that receives Title I, Part A funds to provide school-wide services, regardless of the percentage of students living below the poverty line, at that school. Currently, the No Child Left Behind Act only allows schools with poverty rates over 40 percent to use their Title I funds to provide school-wide services. This program is based on the assumption that all students at schools with such high poverty rates would benefit from additional services. In contrast, schools with poverty rates below 40 percent can use their Title I funds to implement interventions and services targeted just to eligible low-income students. Although the proposal would maintain the separate Targeted program, it seems unlikely that schools would opt to continue targeted programs when they could spread the funds among their whole population.
   
   By eliminating the poverty threshold for school-wide programs, the bill would allow schools with relatively small low-income populations to use their Title I, Part A funds to provide services to their entire student population, the majority of which would not otherwise be eligible for interventions or additional services. Those schools would no longer have to provide targeted services to just their high-need students, meaning these students could get lost or overlooked in the shift.


3. Finally, as we’ve written before, the House bill would eliminate the maintenance of effort provision of Title I, allowing state and local governments to cut per pupil or overall funding for education for districts but remain eligible for Title I funding. Current law allows a local school district to receive Title I Part A funds in an upcoming year only if state and local governments provided the district with at least 90 percent of the funding (per pupil or overall) that they provided in the preceding year. In other words, a district that received $8,000 per pupil in 2010 in state and local funds, must have received at least $7,200 per pupil (90 percent of $8,000) in 2011 to receive Title I funds in 2012.
   
   Assuming that states and local governments would take advantage of this change and cut their education funding, federal funds could begin to account for a much higher percentage of per pupil education funding (currently around 10 percent). It is somewhat ironic that lawmakers that typically support limiting the federal role in education would support a bill that has the potential to increase the percentage of education spending the federal government supplies while allowing state and local governments to cut their own spending.

Each of these changes would have a great impact on how states and school districts are held accountable for the use of federal Title I funds. But all together they would allow states and school districts to dramatically change how they use federal funds for education, practically turning Title I into an all-purpose block grant. These changes, in the name of local control, could make the nation's highest-need students more vulnerable than ever.

Though fiscal year 2011 – the year most education funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 were set to expire – has come and gone, some states are still clinging to their ARRA Title I funds. These funds are intended to provide additional services for low-income students and are distributed by formula among states and school districts. In an effort to give states the opportunity to use all of their Title I funds from the stimulus bill, last September the Department of Education gave states permission to apply for waivers that would allow them to obligate any remaining ARRA Title I funds through the end of fiscal year 2012. Previously, those states have to obligate the funds September 30^th, 2011 and spend them by January 3^rd, 2012.

This was a significant development for several states that initially faced obstacles in distributing their ARRA Title I funds to districts. In some cases, states had tens of millions of dollars remaining on October 1st, 2011. But it appears that the vast majority of states had at least some money lingering in their ARRA accounts at the end of the 2011 fiscal year. Where do those states stand today? 

According to Department of Education spreadsheets on outlaid and remaining ARRA Title I funds, only six states had used every single one of their ARRA Title I dollars as of January 13, 2012. Those states are Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, and Vermont, an interesting collection of states with widely varied budget deficits during the economic downturn.

Most states have somewhere between 0.1 percent and 2.0 percent of their funds remaining, meaning they have about 8 months to spend anywhere from a few thousand dollars (Connecticut and Alaska, for example) and several million (Ohio, Texas, and California, among others). In total, over $175 million is still unspent, 1.8 percent of the total $10 billion made available.

But a few states have really lagged in getting their funds out the door. Puerto Rico is the biggest offender – it has $70.0 million in funds remaining, 17.3 percent of its original allocation under ARRA Title I. Nebraska comes in second with 14.2 percent, or $6.8 million in remaining funds. North Dakota, the District of Columbia, and New Jersey round out the top five, each with over 5.0 percent of their funds remaining.

It is likely that the states with relatively small proportions of their funds remaining will have little trouble obligating and spending their ARRA Title I funds between now and September 30^th, 2012. But the states with significant remaining balances will have to engage in some thorough and thoughtful planning to make sure they don’t lose any of these funds at the end of the year.

To download a table containing these data for all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, click here.