Fund the Child
Tackling Inequality and Antiquity in School Finance
Karen Hawley Miles, Thomas B. Fordham Institute, June 2006
Funding that truly “follows” the child means moving a real dollar amount between school budgets as a specific child moves between schools or even districts. The school that the child attends then decides how to spend the funds. The system we propose is not a set percentage of education dollars to be spent in the classroom—it is a fundamental shift in the philosophy of public education funding. Buildings, programs, and staff positions are not funded—kids are.
This paper is a call on policymakers to transform the school funding system in service of meeting our high ambitions for student learning. We envision a transparent system in which:
- funding from all levels follows every student to whatever public school he or she attends;
- the amount varies according to the student’s needs;
- funding arrives at schools as real dollars that can be spent flexibly, with accountability gauged by results rather than inputs, programs, or activities.