The Funding Gap 2007

The Education Trust has released their annual report looking at the difference in the amount of money that states spend on high and low poverty school districts; Vermont, for example, spends more than $2,000 a child less per student in high poverty districts. I think there's a big flaw in their analysis because they take teacher salaries into acccount--a method pioneered by the University of Washington's own Marguerite Rosa--but it's still a voice in the chorus that we should be aware of.

The good news for us is that Washington State comes off pretty well; the gap between the low and high poverty districts is $23 in favor of the high poverty, a testament to the equality (but not necessarily the fairness) of our funding system.

The report is a short, interesting look at an area of school finance; you can find it at the first link above.