Rural Schools Cry Foul Over DeVos' Change to Achievement Program Criteria
Summary
"If this decision is not reversed, the department risks denying thousands of students living in rural Maine the chance to reach their full potentials," Collins said. In years past, the department distributed a part of the Rural Education Achievement Program funds for poor communities based on the percentage of students who qualify for free of reduced-priced lunch, which is often used as a proxy for low-income families. The REAP fund is a special program that Congress created in 2002 under the No Child Left Behind Act to help rural districts that cant compete for federal grants. The criteria currently reads that the funds should be distributed based on "the percentage of children from families with incomes below the poverty line." That debate has flared again in recent years as more districts started qualifying all their students free and/or reduced price lunch as part of an effort to expand the meal program.
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