Provisions to Ensure Every Student Succeeds
July 13, 2016
Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, authored an article in The Hill highlighting the disproportionate funding between white students and students of color. Since programs for students of color often receive less funding than their white counterparts, legislation is needed to ensure funding is allocated equally. Within ESSA, the “supplement, not supplant” provision mandates that “districts may not disinvest in their schools and then use federal funds as a replacement”. The National Urban League sees these provisions as necessary to attain resource equality in schools. Their 2016 State of Black America Equality Index showed a 23 percentage point gap in equality between Black and white students, with 70 percent of Black and Hispanic students attending high-poverty schools. According to Morial, stipulating that schools cannot divest in Title I schools will help ensure “the promise of this civil rights law is met and every student succeeds.”