WRM Briefing Prompts Floor Speech on Title I Equity


Last Updated: July 28, 2014
 

This article appeared in the July 2014 Rural Policy Matters.

Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

The July 11 Capitol Hill briefing by Rural Trust of its biennial report, Why Rural Matters 2013–2014 (WRM), prompted Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson, R-PA, to call for reforms to the funding formulas in Title I, the federal program that provides extra educational funding for children living in extreme poverty.

Thompson has long been an advocate for fixing the Title I formulas, which as currently structured provide more per pupil funding for children living in deep poverty who attend large school districts than for very poor children who attend smaller districts. Thompson was lead sponsor of the All Children are Equal Act (HR2485), which attempted to remove this discrepancy from the formulas.

In a one-minute floor speech following the briefing, Thompson said about WRM: “This important research document gives policymakers and the public fresh insight into the social and economic contexts that influence educational outcomes and also reinforces how these conditions must be better understood—including in the context of how the federal government allocates Title I funding.”

Thompson went on to challenges his colleagues on the issue saying, “I believe this body can do better ... our children deserve as much.”

Read more:

See Rep. Thompson’s floor speech here:

Why Rural Matters 2013–14

Formula Fairness Campaign, which addresses Title I Funding Equity

 

Read more from the July 2014 Rural Policy Matters.