WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA), the leading Congressional advocate for equity in educational opportunity, hailed the U.S. Department of Education report on school expenditures today as building a compelling case for Fattah's bill to close a loophole and provide more resources for schools that serve low-income students. 

"This valuable report provides the hard data for what we have known all along about unequal funding in our schools," Fattah said. "And that is what underlies the need for my Fiscal Fairness Act that has won bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate."

The report, released by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at a national press conference call, found that 40 percent of schools serving large numbers of low-income students are receiving less state and local aid than are schools serving their wealthier peers in the same school district. 

"This finding calls into question the effectiveness of the current so-called 'comparability' requirement in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which my legislation seeks to reform," Fattah said.

"This report only confirms what we have observed for decades: The children in the greatest need are receiving the least resources.  No one thinks that's a formula for success," Fattah said.

"I want to thank Secretary Duncan for this valuable research.  He has called for a national conversation about where our resources are going, and where they're needed.  This report is going to help address that very issue."

"Comparability" requires that school districts show a level funding base across schools before adding federal aid.  The federal Title I dollars are meant to compensate for the additional costs of educating children in concentrated poverty. 

"The Education Department's report documents on a national scale that instead of providing additional money, school districts frequently use Title I money to fill holes left by state and local expenditures," Fattah said. 

With the ESEA up for reauthorization, Congressman Fattah is the author of the ESEA Fiscal Fairness Act, H.R. 1294 to close the loopholes that allow these inequities to continue.  Fattah's reform plan has won partners across the Capitol, where Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Thad Cochran (R-MS) have introduced the companion bill as S. 701. 

The U.S. Department of Education report, a survey of 13,000 school districts, and an accompanying policy brief, analyze school level expenditures from the 2009 school year: "The Potential Impact of Revising the Title I Comparability Requirement to Focus on School-Level Expenditures." (Follow links on www.ed.gov for the news release, full report and policy summary).

Senate Education Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Ranking Member Mike Enzi (R-WY) recently introduced a reauthorization of ESEA, borrowing largely from the Fattah legislation and its Bennet-Cochran counterpart. 

SOURCE Office of Congressman Chaka Fattah

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