New ESSA Provisions Will Put Schools Under Greater Scrutiny by their Communities
January 16, 2020
In Wisconsin and nationwide, new provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act will require states “to report per-pupil spending and spending source by school in each district instead of by the district as a whole.” This new addition to the law is meant to foster “greater financial transparency than schools were previously asked to provide.” The new provisions will also make it easier for communities to see “how spending is broken down in districts that have multiple schools, such as districts with multiple elementary schools.” While greater transparency “will provide more information to schools and communities,” it also “opens up the opportunity for people to misinterpret or mischaracterize the data,” according to Senior researcher Anne Chapman of the Wisconsin Policy Forum.