Report: Ohio, Ky., relatively fair in school-fund allocation

This from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

In most states, school districts whose students are predominantly low-income or minority get the least public funding, a new report says.

But Ohio and Kentucky in recent years are reversing that trend.

A study by the Education Trust, a Washington-based education think tank, shows Ohio and Kentucky bucking the national trend of short-changing disadvantaged public schools.

School districts across the country spent on average $938 less per pupil at high-poverty districts than at low-poverty districts in 2005, the most recent year studied. The funding gap has widened since 1999, according to EdTrust.

Similarly, high-minority school districts were funded at $877 less per pupil than districts with few or no minorities. That funding gap narrowed since 1999, the report found.

"Many of the school districts with the greatest needs often receive the least funding, begging the question of whether we're setting some students up for failure," wrote Carmen Arroyo, EdTrust research director.

EdTrust based its analysis on census reports and federal education statistics...

...Kentucky in 1999 spent $801 more per student in high-poverty districts than in affluent districts. By 2005 it improved that to $878 more per impoverished student.

The state also wiped out its gap affecting high-minority schools.