After the presidential administration called Thursday for dismantling the Department of Education, future distribution of federal Title Ⅰ funds for high-poverty schools could be up in the air.
In mid-Missouri, many rural school districts rely on these funds.
Tipton R-VⅠ School District in Moniteau County uses Title Ⅰ funding to hire reading and math specialists, said superintendent Terry Robinson.
“Title funds are part of our funding because we're not that affluent and we don't have a large local property tax base to draw on,” Robinson said. Tipton receives federal funds through the Department of Education’s Small Rural School Achievement Program.
Robinson said there is currently no indication that Tipton will lose their federal funding, but the district is looking at the potential impacts of changes in how the funds will be distributed.
The Trump administration’s stated goal in working to close the Department of Education is to increase state authority over education policy.
“It's always been the primary responsibility of every state to educate the students within their state,” Robinson said. “Unfortunately, Missouri has not always made that the highest priority.”
Mexico School District superintendent Troy Lentz also said he’s unsure how moving Title Ⅰ distribution to the state level would work.
“I don't know enough details about their plans to do that if there is no U.S. Department of Education,” Lentz said. “So I'd say at this point it's a wait and see for sure.”
Mexico School District also uses Title Ⅰ rural grants to fund salaries for reading specialists. Lentz said these specialists are especially important in a district like Mexico, where the rate of students who receive free and reduced-price lunch is higher than the state average.
“A lot of times when kids come from tough places, they're a little bit behind when they start school,” he said.
Both Robinson and Lentz said if federal funding is cut, their districts would be unable to sustain funding from their own budgets.
