Require school-level spending of equity-targeted funds and transparent expenditure reporting¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

A fiscal accountability strategy ensuring equity-targeted dollars reach intended students: the report calls on state leaders "to require that districts spend 75 percent of dollars received for low-income students and English Learners at the school where the student attends, beginning in the next fiscal year, and report expenditures for these equity-targeted categorical funds at the school level." It also recommends school-level expenditure reporting under ESSA with a uniform chart of accounts, citing Illinois's two-year collaborative implementation as a model, and Delaware's requirement that 98% of staff funding follow students to their schools.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A uniform chart of accounts with consistent business rules for expenditure categories across all districts, and financial reporting aligned to formula weights so spending can be mapped back to target per-pupil amounts.

Constraints¶

• The report warns that without such systems, as in California's Local Control Funding Formula, equity-targeted dollars may be redirected to wealthier-neighborhood schools or central office costs.

Target Learners¶

• Low-income students and English Learners in Michigan K-12 schools, and the families and advocates monitoring their schools' funding

Target Learning Goals¶

• Ensuring equity-targeted funding reaches classrooms serving high-need students and building evidence for continued equity-focused investment

Related Strategies¶

• State-level advocacy actions to strengthen school improvement supports for identified schools

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• The Education Trust–Midwest. (2021). Engine of Inequality: Michigan's Education System. https://midwest.edtrust.org/advocacy/