State Education Funding: The Poverty Equation

An exploration of how much and how equitably states fund schools with concentrated poverty

Nicole Katz, October 2, 2019

Originally published onFutureEd.

The correlation between socioeconomic status and academic achievement doesn’t just apply to individual students—the concentration of poverty in schools matters, too.

Schools with concentrated poverty require more state funding in order to best serve their students. But it’s not just about how much; to be equitable, states must spend enough money on these schoolsandspend it well.

In this paper, we identify four levels of funding equity, assess where states fall on the spectrum, and highlightthe importance of strategic resource allocation in achieving equity for all students.