The federal Race to the Top Fund education reform initiative will not achieve its objectives of improving high needs districts and schools, and the educational performance of the nation's low income students, without requiring states to provide adequate and equitable school funding.

In comments filed on proposed guidelines for the Race to the Top, a group of state and national organizations criticized the US Department of Education for failing to address the level of state effort to provide adequate and equitable school funding, and to increase that effort for high needs and chronically under-funded school districts. The organizations include Education Law Center (NJ and national), the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (NY and national), the Alliance for Quality Education (NY), and the Georgia School Funding Association (GA).

The groups underscored that the reform goals of Race to the Top require local school districts to be adequately and equitably funded through their state school finance systems. Adequate school funding is especially critical in light of the focus of the Race to the Top on high needs districts and schools, and on improving the distribution of effective teachers to these districts. These are the very districts and schools in low wealth communities that "are most often inadequately and inequitably funded or chronically under-funded through existing state school finance systems," the organizations advised federal policymakers.

"In short, Race to the Top will have little chance of achieving the reform objectives established by Congress, and sustaining those objectives in future years, unless states assure the provision of adequate and equitable school funding to high needs districts," the comments state.

The organizations also expressed deep concern over the failure to require states to provide and fund well planned, high quality preschool to all three- and four-year olds in high needs districts, and to require states to plan and finance repair and replacement of dilapidated and overcrowded facilities in those districts. "These are essential pre-conditions" to addressing teacher equity and better learning in our nation's most challenging educational environments," the comments note.

The organizations are calling on the Education Department to revise the proposed guidelines to require low school funding states to increase their overall funding level, and to demonstrate that, on average, districts with higher poverty rates receive higher total state and local revenues.

Prepared: September 1, 2009

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