Funding Student Needs: A Review of State Funding Policies for English Learners and Students From Low-Income Backgrounds

Addressing the needs of all student groups is paramount for ensuring equitable access to learning opportunities and fostering high academic success for all students. Students in the United States come from a diverse range of backgrounds, bringing with them knowledge, experiences, and other assets that inform the way they learn, but may also come with different learning needs that require greater support. Among the student groups that may require such additional support are English learners (ELs) and students from low-income backgrounds.

National testing data show that English learners and students from low-income backgrounds exhibit lower achievement than their peers, and these rates are lower still for students who are both ELs and from low-income backgrounds. This underscores the layered challenges for students who are in both categories and the importance of additional support to help them achieve their potential.

To better assess whether states adequately fund schools based on their students’ needs, it is essential to understand (1) different funding approaches to supporting those various needs and (2) research on the dollars required to truly provide the learning opportunities most likely to promote student success. From an analysis of state legislative and policy documents, this report reviews how states’ school funding programs currently address the needs of English learners and students from low-income families.

Given the great disparity in wealth and property values in communities and the reliance on local property taxes in education funding, the amount of funding available to schools can vary greatly. States therefore play a critical role in providing adequate and equitable funding to ensure that every child has access to a high-quality education.

Previous research finds that increased spending leads to a range of positive and longer-term life outcomes, including higher educational attainment, higher graduation rates, more significant earnings post-graduation, and lower incidences of poverty. Additional funding can help schools organize to provide both social service and academic support to students from low-income families and see more robust growth in outcomes. Increased funding for ELs can help with resources to implement high-quality English language development, which may include bilingual education. These resources may consist of additional supports such as ongoing professional development, smaller class sizes, paraprofessionals, translation services for parents, and support for home-to-school communications.

There are myriad ways that states fund their public K–12 education systems, although most state funding systems fall into one of two categories. Student-based systems (36 states, including the District of Columbia) provide a base amount of money for each student, with additional weights or funds for specific student groups, such as English learners or students from low-income backgrounds. Resource-based systems (nine states) set amounts based on the resources needed, primarily staffing positions, to educate all students. In a resource-based system, the state provides funding to public schools based on a ratio of students to school positions (teachers, principals, counselors, librarians, etc.). Four states have a hybrid system combining some facets of both a student- and resource-based formula, and the remaining two states have unique funding systems.

Funding for English Learners

We found that for the 2023–24 school year, 49 states provide separate, additional funding for students who are English learners on top of base funding for schools. Thirty-three states funded EL students through an additional weight in their funding formula, with weights ranging from a high of 2.49 (249% additional funding) in Vermont to a low of 0.025 (2.5%) in Utah, with a median weight of 0.25 (25%). Ten states fund their EL programs by providing a dollar amount per student, while three states fund additional staff positions in schools based on the number of EL students they have.

Funding for Students From Low-Income Backgrounds

We further found that 44 states currently provide unique funding for “at-risk” students. All 44 states classify students from low-income families as at-risk, which is defined in various ways. Almost half of these (21 states) provide additional funding to local education agencies based on the density, or concentration, of low-income/at-risk students enrolled, recognizing that as concentrated poverty increases, the costs of achieving any given level of educational outcomes increase significantly.

Dual Funding

Our review found that 37 states provide dual funding for students who qualify as both English learners and from low-income families. Students in these states are eligible for additional funds offered to address the learning needs of being both an English learner and qualifying as low-income/at-risk. Thirty-six of these states provide funds that add the unique weights offered for each student group, while one state, New Jersey, adjusts the funding weights for students who meet both criteria.

Establishing the level of funding to meet student needs is typically done through costing studies. A review of five school finance studies conducted between 2016 and 2023 recommended additional funding for ELs and at-risk students by applying weightings to their funding. The studies sought to estimate the funding required to help all students reach state standards, finding that equivalent per-pupil amounts depended on a range of factors that include each state’s educational standards, the relative costs of resources (e.g., teacher salaries) in each state, the particulars of each state’s approach to funding, and the costing method used.

We further identified 11 states that provide dual funding for EL students and students from low-income backgrounds where it was possible to accurately estimate the per-pupil funding amount for each student group. We found great variation both in terms of their joint funding for ELs and low-income/at-risk students and in terms of the proportion allocated to each student group. Total estimated additional funding ranged from $904 to $16,161.

Thus, states that are considering how to allocate funds to EL students and those from low-income backgrounds will need to consider their own context in determining how their funding approaches align or misalign with states across the nation. States that have experienced demographic transitions with higher proportions of ELs and students from low-income backgrounds should consider updated costing studies to accurately assess the extent of student need and whether funding formulas are meeting that need. Evaluation of student needs should include consideration of the costs needed to meet state learning standards. Given the different nature of resources needed for ELs and students from low-income backgrounds, states should consider the feasibility of providing dual funding to support these student groups.

Funding Student Needs: A Review of State Funding Policies for English Learners and Students From Low-Income Backgrounds by Michael Griffith and Dion Burns is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

This research was supported by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Raikes Foundation, Skyline Foundation, and Stuart Foundation. Additional core operating support for LPI is provided by the Heising-Simons Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Sandler Foundation, and MacKenzie Scott. We are grateful to them for their generous support. The ideas voiced here are those of the authors and not those of our funders.

Cover photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages