{
  "id": "R44898",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R44898",
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  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
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      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 586052,
      "date": "2017-07-17",
      "retrieved": "2020-01-02T14:18:36.069179",
      "title": "History of the ESEA Title I-A Formulas",
      "summary": "The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is the primary source of federal aid to K-12 education. The ESEA was last reauthorized by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; P.L. 114-95) in 2015. The Title I-A program has always been the largest grant program authorized under the ESEA. Title I-A grants provide supplementary educational and related services to low-achieving and other students attending elementary and secondary schools with relatively high concentrations of students from low-income families.\nThe U.S. Department of Education (ED) determines Title I-A grants to local educational agencies (LEAs) based on four separate funding formulas: Basic Grants, Concentration Grants, Targeted Grants, and Education Finance Incentive Grants (EFIG). The current four formula strategy has evolved over time, beginning with the Basic Grant formula when the ESEA was originally enacted in 1965. The Concentration Grant formula was added in the 1970s in an attempt to provide additional funding for LEAs with high concentrations of poverty. During consideration of ESEA reauthorization in the early 1990s, there was an attempt by the Senate to replace the two existing formulas with a new formula (Education Finance Incentive Grant (EFIG) formula) that would better target Title I-A funds to concentrations of poverty. A compromise on a single new formula was not reached; nor was there agreement on eliminating the existing formulas or only adding one of the new formulas created by the House (Targeted Grant formula) and the Senate (EFIG formula). As a result, funds are allocated through four formulas under current law.\nThis report begins with an overview of key policy issues and underlying tensions that have factored into the evolution of the Title I-A formulas. These include issues related to the selection of poverty measures and identification of formula children, determination of the role state expenditures on public K-12 education would play in allocations, the use of state minimum grant and LEA hold harmless provisions, determination of the relative emphasis to place on percentages versus counts of formula children when targeting Title I-A funds on areas with high concentrations of poverty, and the tradeoff between transparency and complexity with respect to the formulas.\nThe report then traces the evolution of the Title I-A formulas and identifies the reasons offered for changes to them, as expressed in committee reports, floor debates, and to a limited extent, congressional hearings. The report concludes with three appendices. Appendix A provides historical appropriations data for the Title I-A formulas dating back to FY1980. Appendix B provides a summary of major changes that have been made to the factors that comprise each of the four Title I-A formulas that are currently authorized from their initial enactment through the ESSA. Appendix C provides a list of selected acronyms used in this report.",
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          "name": "Elementary & Secondary Education"
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  "topics": [
    "Appropriations",
    "Education Policy",
    "National Defense"
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}