Feds Release School Spending Guidance
January 25, 2019
Andrew Ujifusa reports for Education Week that federal education officials have “released proposed guidance to schools about a provision of the Every Student Succeeds Act that prohibits schools from cutting state and local money from education and simply filling the hole with federal funding.” This guidance “clearly states that districts do not need to ensure that there is equal per-pupil spending between Title I schools (those with relatively high shares of low-income students) and non-Title I schools.” Additionally, the guidance says that districts don’t have to “make their method for ensuring federal dollars don’t replace state and local money easily accessible to the public—specifically, the district doesn’t have to post it on its website.” The guidance also notes that “districts can’t simply use per-pupil spending data to show compliance with ‘supplement-not-supplant.’”