U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) on Tuesday proposed a bipartisan bill to amend the weights used to determine the amounts for targeted grants and education finance incentive grants for local school districts under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Rep. Thompson sponsored the All Children Are Equal (ACE) Act, H.R. 4565, alongside original cosponsor U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) to fix how federal grants are distributed under Title I, which is intended to combat the effects of poverty on student achievement.
“In rural America, one in five children are living in poverty and are often put at an educational disadvantage simply based on their zip code,” Rep. Thompson said. “The ACE Act levels the playing field for impoverished students and ensures funding is equitably distributed in accordance with the original intent of the law.”
The congressman noted that the current formula ends up diverting funding from higher poverty school districts to more populous school districts, regardless of their actual poverty rates.
If enacted, H.R. 4565 would eliminate the number weighting system used to distribute Title I grants to ensure that school districts are treated equally based upon their percentages of poverty, rather than population, according to his office.
“No child should be put at a disadvantage because of their geographic location or the size of their school,” said Rep. Thompson. “The ACE Act is simply about parity and promotes equity under the law.”
Rep. Panetta said that the current federal formula to allocate Title I funds leaves too many kids in small schools behind.
“That’s why I’m proud to support this bipartisan legislation to update federal K-12 funding and ensure that we’re prioritizing schools with the highest concentrations of poverty,” he said. “Doing so will help us target the areas of greatest need, regardless of size, and result in millions more in additional support for low-income students in California’s 19th Congressional District and across our country.”
The School Superintendents Association, the National Rural Education Association, the Small School Districts Association, the Association of Education Service Agencies, the National Rural Education Advocacy Consortium, the Rural School and Community Trust, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, California County Superintendents, and YouthBuild USA endorsed the measure.