Afton Partners

The share of the federal budget that goes toward children, including education spending, dipped to just below 2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product in 2018—the lowest level in the decade. That’s one main conclusion from a new Urban Institute report on federal spending focused on children, including K-12, health care, nutrition, and various tax benefits. However, the report also found that the share of federal aid for children that’s targeted specifically at those from low-income families has grown recently, reaching 61 percent of such spending in 2018. The organization forecasts a gloomier outlook for fans of Washington spending on kids in the next decade. In 2029, interest payments on the national debt are expected to significantly outpace federal spending on children, the Urban Institute says. The report states that share of the budget dedicated to children will get squeezed not just by interest payments on the debt, but also by the growth of mandatory spending on programs like Social Security and Medicare that will serve an aging population.

Nearly every district in the country receives at least some money through Title I, the $15.4 billion federal program to help educate low-income students. Yet few completely understand the formulas used to provide those funds from year to year. Policymakers have long debated ways to update Title I, which dates back to the original Elementary and Secondary Education Act. A National Center for Education Statistics’ report released this month details how big a challenge it will be for Congress to overhaul support for the country’s neediest students. The more than 250-page report is worth a read, but Education Week highlights five critical things to understand.

Overall, the report found that the federal government gave the most Title I dollars to the most densely and the least densely populated areas – namely, large cities and remote rural areas. While the poorest districts had the highest total Title I allocations per child at about $1,400, and the least-poor districts – those with the lowest poverty – had the lowest total Title I allocations per child, the latter still received more than $1,000 per child. Notably, 95 percent of children helped by Title I dollars are on the receiving end because of a rule that allows schools where more than 40% of enrolled students qualify for Title I to use the funding for all students, regardless of whether they are eligible. That means that even though there are only about 12 million students considered eligible, Title I money ends up flowing to about 25 million students – nearly half of all public K-12 students in the U.S.