Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) today asked the Secretary of Education to review and explain why the state of Mississippi, with its high poverty rate, receives less in federal funding for low-income students than other states.
Cochran serves on the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee that today convened a hearing to review the FY2012 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education.  At the hearing, Cochran questioned the distribution of Title I funding, which is given to school districts with high percentages of low-income students.
“This committee and the Department of Education should be looking at the apparent inequities in Title I allocations.  While Mississippi has more children in poverty than all states except the District of Columbia, it gets $1,318 per Title I-eligible student while other states with similar student populations get three times as much,” Cochran said.  “This disparity should be looked at.”
According to a 2010 analysis of the Title I program by the Rural Schools and Community Trust, Mississippi has the highest concentration of children in poverty and received $1,318 per eligible student.  In comparison, Wyoming received $3,149 per student.

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