Congress Begins to Tackle Title I Teacher Comparability

When the Obama Administration released its Blueprint for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Ed Money Watch published a post bemoaning the lack of details about teacher comparability provided in the document. Teacher comparability refers to a current provision of Title I that requires school districts to provide equitable state and local resources to both their low-income (Title I schools) and their higher-income (non-Title I schools). We have long supported strengthening teacher comparability provisions, so we were glad to see that a bill recently proposed in the House seeks to dramatically change the current teacher comparability provisions for the better.

The bill introduced by Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) yesterday, called the ESEA Fiscal Fairness Act, corrects some of the major flaws in the existing teacher comparability law. These changes will better ensure that any federal Title I funds are used to provide additional services to low-income students on top of the baseline provided through state and local funds.

School districts currently demonstrate that they are meeting the comparability requirements under Title I by comparing state and local resources (i.e. per pupil expenditures) provided to their low-income Title I schools and their higher-income non-Title I schools. To meet the comparability requirement, resources provided to the Title I schools cannot be more than 10 percent below those provided to non-Title I schools. The Fiscal Fairness Act would raise that bar to 3 percent, meaning that Title I schools must get at least 97% of the resources provided to non-Title I schools.

The bill would also restrict the way school districts define resources when demonstrating comparability. Currently, districts can compare total per pupil expenditures, per pupil staff salary expenditures, or student-instructional staff ratios between Title I and non-Title I schools. They can even present district-wide staff salary schedules as proof that they are meeting the comparability requirement.

Instead of these proxies for resource distribution between Title I and non-Title I schools, the Fiscal Fairness Act would limit the way districts can demonstrate comparability to total per pupil expenditures of state and local funds only, including all salaries and non-personnel expenditures (except any additional funds spent on English language learner or special education instruction). Such a change ensures that districts do not opt to use less rigorous methods to demonstrate comparability — methods that misrepresent the amount of state and local funds Title I schools actually receive.

Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, the proposed legislation would mandate that districts include any staff salary variations due to years of experience, incentive pay, bonuses, and other compensation in their per pupil expenditure calculations for Title I and non-Title I schools. The current rules allow districts to overlook such variation in teacher pay, perpetuating the uneven distribution of teachers. Because more experienced, and therefore higher paid teachers tend to work in higher-income schools, low-income Title I schools employ primarily less experienced, lower-paid teachers. As a result, higher-income schools receive a greater share of state and local funds to pay for their teachers than low-income schools.

The Fiscal Fairness Act would require school districts to submit plans for how they intend to achieve the higher bar of comparability within three years. Because the bill also prohibits districts from forcefully transferring teachers to different schools, they will have to come up with innovative ways of redistributing expenditures among Title I and non-Title I schools. Such methods could include incentive pay programs to attract more experienced teachers to low-income schools, new compensation mechanisms that take into account other factors besides experience, or career ladder programs that provide opportunities for teachers to take on new roles and be compensated for them.

The teacher comparability requirements under Title I are currently flawed, reinforcing the unfair distribution of resources among Title I and non-Title I schools. Title I was initially intended to provide additional funds for services for low income students. But the severely weak teacher comparability provision has allowed many districts to use Title I funds to replace state and local funds where they are most needed. Congressman Fattah’s bill would achieve important changes to the teacher comparability provision that would help restore Title I to its original purpose. We hope it receives the support it needs in the House and Senate.

For more details about the teacher comparability provision and to read about our proposals to change the provision, see here.