Marketplace this morning mentioned a new report from the Urban Institute on education funding. The report says that South Dakota does a poor job of getting more funding to the low-income students who can benefit from more K-12 funding the most, with districts serving more poor students getting $694 less in local funding per student on average than districts with financially better-off students. Interestingly, South Dakota state government makes some progress in balancing out that difference, directing an average of $446 more per student to districts with financially disadvantaged kids. Making an even bigger difference is the federal government, which gets $1,366 more per student on average to districts with poor students. That federal help makes us one of the four states (with Ohio, New Jersey, and Alaska) witha net “progressivity” of K-12 funding that exceeds $1,000.
Adjusted for local wages, South Dakota’s per-student funding is $14,189 for students in poverty and $13,701 for students not in poverty.
The Urban Institute study is interesting, but it doesn’t report what specific enhancement is made to the education of less wealthy students.. I’m more familiar with intra-district boosts for schools with a high percentage of poor students. In RCAS the federal Title 1 funding went to designated schools for decreased student teacher ratios, a literacy program, etc. We also received funds to enhance education of Indian students.