Formula Fairness Campaign: End Discrimination Against Disadvantaged Rural Students in the Title I Funding Formula

The Congress has begun hearings to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) No Child Left Behind -- Title I formula reform must be on the agenda!

Go to www.formulafairness.com

ARLINGTON, Va., Feb. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Is the education of a disadvantaged child in an urban school worth more than the education of a disadvantaged child in a rural school?

(Logo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100225/DC60795LOGO )    

Concerned citizens and organizations across the country are joining the Formula Fairness Campaign to fix what's wrong about the formula for distributing federal funds for the education of disadvantaged students in public schools.  

Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind) provides federal funding to local school districts to help meet the educational needs of disadvantaged students.  

The formula by which these funds are distributed is badly flawed.  

One provision sends more money for each disadvantaged student in a large, low-poverty district and less money for each disadvantaged student in a small, high-poverty district.  It's called "number weighting."  

Another provision sends more money to states that spend more per pupil on public education – wealthy states – and less to states that spend little – poor states.  This lets states where support for education is weakest dictate how much federal funding goes to help disadvantaged students.

To learn more about  formula injustices, go to www.formulafairness.com.

The Formula Fairness Campaign  is based on this simple principle:  The education of a disadvantaged child in a small, rural school is worth as much to the nation as the education of a disadvantaged child anywhere.  

The Campaign's objective is to end Title I formula discrimination against disadvantaged rural students.  

The Formula Fairness Campaign is sponsored by the Rural School and Community Trust.   To learn more about the Rural School and Community Trust, go to www.ruraledu.org.

Campaign Co-Sponsors include:

• Arkansas Rural Education Association
• California Small Districts Association
• Center for Rural Affairs
• Missouri Association for Rural Education
• Montana Small Schools Alliance
• National Rural Education Advocacy Coalition
• Organizations Concerned about Rural Education
• Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools
• Rural Community Alliance (AR)
• Rural School and Community Trust
• Save Alabama's Small Schools
• South Carolina Rural Education Grassroots Group
• Texas Rural Education Association

SOURCE Rural School and Community Trust