Title I federal funding supplements State and local funding for low-achieving children, especially in high-poverty schools. The program provides assistance to schools with high numbers of percentages of children from low income families and was established under Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 War on Poverty. The program today is directed toward helping failing students achieve proficiency on state academic achievement standards. Districts who have more than 40% of students from low-income households can use the funding for all students for school-wide programs, not only the low-achieving ones. Districts with lower poverty levels, must use the money for targeted programs.
In the overall scheme of local education funding, Title 1 is small potatoes, still the program gives a good idea which districts are coping with higher concentrations of low-income students. It can also show patterns of where poverty is moving.
Alpha News took a look at the allocations in Minnesota since Governor Mark Dayton took office 2010. While overall state funding fell, from $3.1 million to $2.4 million, some districts saw huge increases in Title 1 dollars.
Of the 328 Minnesota districts with displayed data on the U.S. Department of Education’s website, 232 districts saw their funding go up, and 96 saw their funding stay the same or go down. The biggest recipients of Title I funds–$22 million per year each– are Minneapolis and St. Paul schools which had small drops in funding, at -7% and -2% respectively. Large suburban districts saw increases, like Anoka-Hennepin (20%), Eden Prairie, (111%), Osseo (52%), Lakeville (239%), and Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan (196%).
The top 25 districts which saw increases over the five years are scattered across the state:
- St. Michael-Albertville 334%
- Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose 300%
- Lakeville 239%
- Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan 196%
- Randolph 188%
- Elk River 171%
- Plainview-Elgin-Millville 148%
- Milroy 148%
- Dover-Eyota 144%
- Eagle Valley 142%
- Kasson-Mantorville 141%
- Hastings 141%
- South Washington County 138%
- Round Lake-Brewster 131%
- Farmington 122%
- Cedar Mountain 119%
- Nashwauk-Keewatin 112%
- Eden Prairie 111%
- Westbrook-Walnut Grove 107%
- Stillwater Area 101%
- Morris Area 92%
- Forest Lake 92%
- Jordan 90%
- Orono 89%
- Ada-Borup 89%
Take a look at the entire state and see where your local school district ranks:
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