Ohio needs to fix its method for counting and funding low-income students
“This academic year, Ohio will allocate $563 million in Disadvantaged Pupil Impact Aid (DPIA)—one of the components of the overall school funding formula. These dollars are intended to cover the costs of providing supplemental services, such as high-dosage tutoring, extended learning time, and other interventions. Additional funds for low-income students remain essential to the state funding system, but lawmakers must improve the way dollars are steered to districts and charter schools. The underlying problem is that Ohio misidentifies thousands of higher-income students as ‘economically disadvantaged,’ which in turn thins the dollars available to support students who are actually low-income.”