United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Health, Education, and Human Services Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-01-28 monographic deposited born digital 247 p. GA 1.13:HEHS-98-36 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-36 P0b002ee18037ec9d f:he98036 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-36 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-36 HEHS-98-36 School districts Federal/state relations Public schools Disadvantaged persons Intergovernmental fiscal relations Aid for education Economically depressed areas State/local relations Students Head Start Program Other Written Product HEHS Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed state and federal efforts to target poor students and the funding gaps between districts with high and low proportions of poor students, focusing on: (1) the extent to which state and federal funding is targeted to districts on the basis of the number of poor students; and (2) the effect of state and federal funding on the amount of funds available to high-poverty compared with low-poverty districts.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) school finance systems in over 90 percent of the states had the effect targeting more state funds to districts with large numbers of poor students in school year 1991-92, regardless of whether the system explicitly intended to do so; (2) the extent of the targeting varied widely, however; (3) New Hampshire targeted poor students the most, providing an additional $6.69 per poor student for every $1 provided to each student; school finance systems in four states (Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, and New York) had the effect of targeting no additional funding per poor student; (4) the national average was $.62 in additional state funding; (5) federal funding was more targeted than state funding, providing an average of $4.73 in additional federal funding per poor student nationwide for every $1 provided for each student; (6) because federal funds were more targeted than state funds, the combination of federal and state funding increased the average additional funding per poor student from $.62 to $1.10 nationwide for every $1 provided for each student; (7) reported changes in federal education programs and state school finance systems since school year 1991-92 would probably result in federal funds being more targeted than state funds; (8) state and federal funding reduced but did not eliminate the local funding gap between high- and low-poverty districts in many states; (9) high-poverty districts had less local funding per weighted pupil in 37 of the 47 states GAO analyzed; (10) when GAO added state and federal funds to local funds for GAO's analysis, only 21 states still had such funding gaps, and these gaps were smaller in each state; (11) nevertheless, about 64 percent of the nation's poor students live in these 21 states; (12) nationwide, total funding levels in low-poverty districts were about 15 percent more than those in high-poverty districts; (13) although targeting helped close the funding gap, the percentage of total funding from state and federal sources was more important in reducing the gap; and (14) gaps were smaller in states whose combined state and federal share of total funding was relatively high. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-36/html/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-36.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-36/pdf/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-36.pdf GAO/HEHS-98-36 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-98-36 Other Written Product GAO/HEHS-98-36; School Finance: State and Federal Efforts to Target Poor Students; School districts Federal/state relations Public schools Disadvantaged persons Intergovernmental fiscal relations Aid for education Economically depressed areas State/local relations Students Head Start Program