Join this petition and ask Congress to require reporting of per pupil spending at schools by using actual staff salaries.
Background: Congress appropriates supplemental school funds, like Title I, to benefit low income students. But current reporting methods make it difficult to tell where these and other funds are actually spent.
Title I law directs school districts to omit staff salary differences for years of service, when reporting per pupil spending at schools. Consequently, most school districts report per pupil spending as though each teacher, at each school, earns the school district average teacher salary.
Independent studies have shown, the trend is for lower-paid teachers to work in schools serving high proportions of low income students (see https://alwaysthere.info/comparability.aspx). The current reporting practices tend to overestimate the amount spent at low income schools.
The petition asks Congress to change 1 word in Title 1: the revised law would state that staff salary differentials SHALL BE included in spending reports, rather than SHALL NOT BE included. In this manner, the public will know how much is actually spent at each school, and can better evaluate whether investments are paying off.
We the undersigned ask that the word "not" be deleted from the following portion of the Title I law:
(2) (B) DETERMINATIONS-For the purpose of this subsection, in the determination of expenditures per pupil from State and local funds... staff salary differentials for years of employment shall [not] be included.
The intent is to require school districts to use actual salaries, rather than district averages, in reporting spending by school. This is necessary for the public to know how much is spent per school, and whether the investments are paying off.
Thank you for caring about school spending transparency!
