High-Poverty Schools and School Funding – Florida

Many high-poverty schools ‘shortchanged’ in Central Florida, By Lauren Roth, January 12, 2012, Orlando Sentinel: “At Hiawassee Elementary in Orange County, where nine out of every 10 students lives in poverty, the school district spent about $2,065 per student on teachers and other staff during the 2008-09 school year. By contrast, the county’s Lake Whitney Elementary, where only about 10 percent of the students are poor, spent about $2,710 on staffing per student that year – nearly a third more. Across Central Florida, school districts spend less per pupil to staff many of their highest-poverty schools despite federal rules intended to make sure every poor school gets its fair share, according to an Orlando Sentinel analysis of federal data…”