Ohio improves funding for high-poverty schools

from The Tribune Chronicle

WARREN — In a six-year period, only three states in the nation were able to go from providing less funding to their high-poverty school districts to providing more.

Ohio was one of them.

A study was released Thursday by The Education Trust that provides a state-by-state analysis of funding trends from 1999 to 2005, comparing the resources available to districts serving the highest percentages of low-income students and students of color to the resources available to districts with low percentages of those same students, a news release states.

The study shows that Ohio was among 10 states that increased funding equity between its low- and high-poverty districts by more than $200 per student.

Ohio also was noted along with Maryland and Wyoming for moving from providing high-poverty districts with less per student to more per student.

It was also among five states where high-minority districts received at least $1,000 more per student than those with low numbers.

For example, a chart shows that in Ohio, districts with high poverty levels in 2005 received $73 more per student than those with low poverty rates, while schools with high minority rates in 2005 received $1,032 more per student than those with low minority rates.

‘‘Some of the issues involved in ensuring that every single child in this nation has an equal shot at a good education are complex, but making sure that school districts are funded fairly isn’t one of them,’’ the report states.