Parents and principals representing San Diego Unified schools that receive Title 1 money, earmarked for low-income kids, voted in favor of reshuffling the money to benefit the highest-poverty schools, at the expense of slightly better-off schools. The plan would also focus more money on elementary and middle schools, in an attempt to close the achievement gap before it starts.
I wrote about the plan earlier this month, before details were available. Wednesday night, school district staffers presented a school-by-school breakdown showing who would win, and who would lose, under the current plan versus the new scenario.
Deputy Superintendent Geno Flores added that the school district could help the losing schools by redistributing another set of funds previously aimed at English-learning students. That money would be redistributed to schools based on their number of underachieving students.
Compared to other scenarios, reshuffling the Title 1 money and changing the English-learning funds would leave the smallest number of schools losing funds, Interim Superintendent Bill Kowba said.
Overall, 23 representatives voted for the new plan, 12 voted for the current distribution, and three representatives voted for alternatives.
The group’s recommendation has no force, but will be presented to the school board next Tuesday, when the board will make its decision. Past attempts to redistribute the money have been controversial, stirring up opposition from schools with a lower percentage of low-income students, who say they rely on their Title 1 funds.