I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 754 

To amend the weighted child count used to determine targeted grant amounts 

and education finance incentive grant amounts for local educational agencies under title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 

1965. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 5, 2015 

Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania (for himself and Ms. SLAUGHTER) introduced 

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 

the Workforce 

A BILL 

To amend the weighted child count used to determine targeted grant amounts and education finance incentive 

grant amounts for local educational agencies under title 

I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 

1965. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘All Children are Equal 

5 Act’’ or the ‘‘ACE Act’’. 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
2 

•HR 754 IH

1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Section 1125AA of the Elementary and Secondary 

3 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6336) is amended— 

4 (1) by amending the heading to read as follows: 

5 ‘‘SEC. 1125AA. INCREASE GRANTS PER FORMULA STUDENT 

6 AS THE PERCENTAGE OF ECONOMICALLY 

7 DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN IN A LOCAL 

8 EDUCATIONAL AGENCY INCREASES.’’; 

9 and 

10 (2) by amending subsection (a) to read as fol11 lows: 

12 ‘‘(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find13 ings: 

14 ‘‘(1) The current Basic Grant Formula for the 

15 distribution of funds under this part does not ade16 quately target funds for schools with the highest 

17 concentrations of economically disadvantaged stu18 dents. 

19 ‘‘(2) The poverty of a child’s family is much 

20 more likely to be associated with educational dis21 advantage if the family lives in an area with high 

22 proportions of poor families. 

23 ‘‘(3) The current formulas for distributing Tar24 geted and Education Finance Incentive Grants is in25 tended to allocate more funds per formula student to 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
3 

•HR 754 IH

1 local educational agencies with higher concentrations 

2 of such students. 

3 ‘‘(4) These formula use two weighting systems, 

4 one based on the percentage of the aged 5–17 popu5 lation in a local education agency that is eligible to 

6 receive funds under this title (percentage weighting), 

7 and another based on the absolute number of such 

8 students (number weighting). Whichever of these 

9 weighting systems results in the highest total 

10 weighted formula student count for a local edu11 cational agency is the weighting system used for 

12 that agency in the final allocation of Targeted and 

13 Education Finance Incentive Grant funds. 

14 ‘‘(5) Since the amount available to be distrib15 uted through these formulas is fixed by congres16 sional appropriation, any gain in allocation share by 

17 one local educational agency causes a loss to other 

18 local educational agencies. 

19 ‘‘(6) The number weighting alternative is often 

20 favorable to very large local educational agencies, 

21 even if the agency’s formula student percentage is 

22 low. But because smaller local educational agencies 

23 simply do not have enough students to gain from 

24 number weighting, they are rarely better off under 

25 the number weighting alternative. 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
4 

•HR 754 IH

1 ‘‘(7) The Congressional Research Service has 

2 compared the funding allocations of each local edu3 cational agency for school year 2008–2009 under 

4 the current dual weighting system with the funding 

5 allocation it would have that year if all local edu6 cational agencies had their student count weighted 

7 only by percentage weighting. 

8 ‘‘(8) This data shows that the use of number 

9 weighting in these formulas has shifted funding 

10 from smaller to larger local educational agencies not11 withstanding the level of poverty in either. This is 

12 contrary to the intent of Congress, which is to direct 

13 more funding per formula student to local edu14 cational agencies with high concentrations of pov15 erty, as measured by the number of formula stu16 dents as a percentage of the aged 5–17 population 

17 of the local educational agency. 

18 ‘‘(9) As a result of this unintended consequence 

19 of the number weighting system, 338 of the 340 

20 local educational agencies that have over 38.25 per21 cent formula students gain nothing from number 

22 weighting under the Targeted Grant program, 281 

23 of them actually lose funding because of number 

24 weighting, and 83 of those 340 highest poverty local 

25 educational agencies would actually be better off if 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
5 

•HR 754 IH

1 Targeted Grant funds were allocated using the Basic 

2 Grant formula with no weighting system at all. 

3 ‘‘(10) Congress has a responsibility to correct 

4 this unintended inequity by reducing the power of 

5 the number weighting system relative to the percent6 age weighting system so that local educational agen7 cies with high percentages of poverty but low num8 bers of students are not disadvantaged under the 

9 formulas used for grants under this part.’’. 

10 SEC. 3. TARGETED GRANTS TO LOCAL EDUCATIONAL 

11 AGENCIES. 

12 Section 1125(c)(2) of the Elementary and Secondary 

13 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6335(c)(2)) is amend14 ed— 

15 (1) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘The 

16 amount’’ and inserting ‘‘Except as otherwise pro17 vided in subparagraph (D), the amount’’; 

18 (2) by redesignating subparagraph (D) as sub19 paragraph (E); and 

20 (3) by inserting after subparagraph (C) the fol21 lowing: 

22 ‘‘(D) FISCAL YEAR 2016 AND EACH SUC23 CEEDING FISCAL YEAR.—Notwithstanding sub24 paragraph (C) or any other provision of this 

25 paragraph— 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
6 

•HR 754 IH

1 ‘‘(i) for fiscal year 2016, subpara2 graph (C) shall be applied— 

3 ‘‘(I) in clause (ii), by substituting 

4 ‘1.35’ for ‘1.5’; 

5 ‘‘(II) in clause (iii), by sub6 stituting ‘1.8’ for ‘2.0’; 

7 ‘‘(III) in clause (iv), by sub8 stituting ‘2.25’ for ‘2.5’; and 

9 ‘‘(IV) in clause (v), by sub10 stituting ‘2.7’ for ‘3.0’; 

11 ‘‘(ii) for fiscal year 2017, subpara12 graph (C) shall be applied— 

13 ‘‘(I) in clause (ii), by substituting 

14 ‘1.2’ for ‘1.5’; 

15 ‘‘(II) in clause (iii), by sub16 stituting ‘1.6’ for ‘2.0’; 

17 ‘‘(III) in clause (iv), by sub18 stituting ‘2.0’ for ‘2.5’; and 

19 ‘‘(IV) in clause (v), by sub20 stituting ‘2.4’ for ‘3.0’; 

21 ‘‘(iii) for fiscal year 2018, subpara22 graph (C) shall be applied— 

23 ‘‘(I) in clause (ii), by substituting 

24 ‘1.05’ for ‘1.5’; 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
7 

•HR 754 IH

1 ‘‘(II) in clause (iii), by sub2 stituting ‘1.4’ for ‘2.0’; 

3 ‘‘(III) in clause (iv), by sub4 stituting ‘1.75’ for ‘2.5’; and 

5 ‘‘(IV) in clause (v), by sub6 stituting ‘2.1’ for ‘3.0’; and 

7 ‘‘(iv) for fiscal year 2019 and each 

8 succeeding fiscal year, subparagraph (C) 

9 shall be applied— 

10 ‘‘(I) in clause (i), by substituting 

11 ‘2,262’ for ‘691’; 

12 ‘‘(II) by striking clause (ii); 

13 ‘‘(III) in clause (iii), by sub14 stituting ‘1.2’ for ‘2.0’; 

15 ‘‘(IV) in clause (iv), by sub16 stituting ‘1.5’ for ‘2.5’; and 

17 ‘‘(V) in clause (v), by sub18 stituting ‘1.8’ for ‘3.0’.’’. 

19 SEC. 4. EDUCATION FINANCE INCENTIVE GRANT PROGRAM. 

20 (a) STATES WITH AN EQUITY FACTOR LESS THAN

21 0.10.—Section 1125A(d)(1)(B) of the Elementary and 

22 Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 

23 6337(d)(1)(B)) is amended— 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
8 

•HR 754 IH

1 (1) in clause (iii), by striking ‘‘The amount’’ 

2 and inserting ‘‘Except as otherwise provided in 

3 clause (iv), the amount’’; and 

4 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

5 ‘‘(iv) FISCAL YEAR 2016 AND EACH

6 SUCCEEDING FISCAL YEAR.—Notwith7 standing clause (iii) or any other provision 

8 of this subparagraph— 

9 ‘‘(I) for fiscal year 2016, clause 

10 (iii) shall be applied— 

11 ‘‘(aa) in subclause (II), by 

12 substituting ‘1.35’ for ‘1.5’; 

13 ‘‘(bb) in subclause (III), by 

14 substituting ‘1.8’ for ‘2.0’; 

15 ‘‘(cc) in subclause (IV), by 

16 substituting ‘2.25’ for ‘2.5’; and 

17 ‘‘(dd) in subclause (V), by 

18 substituting ‘2.7’ for ‘3.0’; 

19 ‘‘(II) for fiscal year 2017, clause 

20 (iii) shall be applied— 

21 ‘‘(aa) in subclause (II), by 

22 substituting ‘1.2’ for ‘1.5’; 

23 ‘‘(bb) in subclause (III), by 

24 substituting ‘1.6’ for ‘2.0’; 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
9 

•HR 754 IH

1 ‘‘(cc) in subclause (IV), by 

2 substituting ‘2.0’ for ‘2.5’; and 

3 ‘‘(dd) in subclause (V), by 

4 substituting ‘2.4’ for ‘3.0’; 

5 ‘‘(III) for fiscal year 2018, clause 

6 (iii) shall be applied— 

7 ‘‘(aa) in subclause (II), by 

8 substituting ‘1.05’ for ‘1.5’; 

9 ‘‘(bb) in subclause (III), by 

10 substituting ‘1.4’ for ‘2.0’; 

11 ‘‘(cc) in subclause (IV), by 

12 substituting ‘1.75’ for ‘2.5’; and 

13 ‘‘(dd) in subclause (V), by 

14 substituting ‘2.1’ for ‘3.0’; and 

15 ‘‘(IV) for fiscal year 2019 and 

16 each succeeding fiscal year, clause (iii) 

17 shall be applied— 

18 ‘‘(aa) in subclause (II), by 

19 substituting ‘1.0’ for ‘1.5’; 

20 ‘‘(bb) in subclause (III), by 

21 substituting ‘1.2’ for ‘2.0’; 

22 ‘‘(cc) in subclause (IV), by 

23 substituting ‘1.5’ for ‘2.5’; and 

24 ‘‘(dd) in subclause (V), by 

25 substituting ‘1.8’ for ‘3.0’.’’. 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
10 

•HR 754 IH

1 (b) STATES WITH AN EQUITY FACTOR GREATER

2 THAN OR EQUAL TO 0.10 AND LESS THAN 0.20.—Section 

3 1125A(d)(2)(B) of the Elementary and Secondary Edu4 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6337(d)(2)(B)) is amend5 ed— 

6 (1) in clause (iii), by striking ‘‘The amount’’ 

7 and inserting ‘‘Except as otherwise provided in 

8 clause (iv), the amount’’; and 

9 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

10 ‘‘(iv) FISCAL YEAR 2016 AND EACH

11 SUCCEEDING FISCAL YEAR.—Notwith12 standing clause (iii) or any other provision 

13 of this subparagraph— 

14 ‘‘(I) for fiscal year 2016, clause 

15 (iii) shall be applied— 

16 ‘‘(aa) in subclause (II), by 

17 substituting ‘1.35’ for ‘1.5’; 

18 ‘‘(bb) in subclause (III), by 

19 substituting ‘2.025’ for ‘2.25’; 

20 ‘‘(cc) in subclause (IV), by 

21 substituting ‘3.038’ for ‘3.375’; 

22 and 

23 ‘‘(dd) in subclause (V), by 

24 substituting ‘4.05’ for ‘4.5’; 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
11 

•HR 754 IH

1 ‘‘(II) for fiscal year 2017, clause 

2 (iii) shall be applied— 

3 ‘‘(aa) in subclause (II), by 

4 substituting ‘1.2’ for ‘1.5’; 

5 ‘‘(bb) in subclause (III), by 

6 substituting ‘1.8’ for ‘2.25’; 

7 ‘‘(cc) in subclause (IV), by 

8 substituting ‘2.7’ for ‘3.375’; and 

9 ‘‘(dd) in subclause (V), by 

10 substituting ‘3.6’ for ‘4.5’; 

11 ‘‘(III) for fiscal year 2018, clause 

12 (iii) shall be applied— 

13 ‘‘(aa) in subclause (II), by 

14 substituting ‘1.05’ for ‘1.5’; 

15 ‘‘(bb) in subclause (III), by 

16 substituting ‘1.575’ for ‘2.25’; 

17 ‘‘(cc) in subclause (IV), by 

18 substituting ‘2.363’ for ‘3.375’; 

19 and 

20 ‘‘(dd) in subclause (V), by 

21 substituting ‘3.15’ for ‘4.5’; and 

22 ‘‘(IV) for fiscal year 2019 and 

23 each succeeding fiscal year, clause (iii) 

24 shall be applied— 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
12 

•HR 754 IH

1 ‘‘(aa) in subclause (II), by 

2 substituting ‘1.0’ for ‘1.5’; 

3 ‘‘(bb) in subclause (III), by 

4 substituting ‘1.35’ for ‘2.25’; 

5 ‘‘(cc) in subclause (IV), by 

6 substituting ‘2.025’ for ‘3.375’; 

7 and 

8 ‘‘(dd) in subclause (V), by 

9 substituting ‘2.70’ for ‘4.5’.’’. 

10 (c) STATES WITH AN EQUITY FACTOR GREATER

11 THAN OR EQUAL TO 0.20.—Section 1125A(d)(3)(B) of 

12 the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 

13 U.S.C. 6337(d)(3)(B)) is amended— 

14 (1) in clause (iii), by striking ‘‘The amount’’ 

15 and inserting ‘‘Except as otherwise provided in 

16 clause (iv), the amount’’; and 

17 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

18 ‘‘(iv) FISCAL YEAR 2016 AND EACH

19 SUCCEEDING FISCAL YEAR.—Notwith20 standing clause (iii) or any other provision 

21 of this subparagraph— 

22 ‘‘(I) for fiscal year 2016, clause 

23 (iii) shall be applied— 

24 ‘‘(aa) in subclause (II), by 

25 substituting ‘1.80’ for ‘2.0’; 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
13 

•HR 754 IH

1 ‘‘(bb) in subclause (III), by 

2 substituting ‘2.70’ for ‘3.0’; 

3 ‘‘(cc) in subclause (IV), by 

4 substituting ‘4.05’ for ‘4.5’; and 

5 ‘‘(dd) in subclause (V), by 

6 substituting ‘5.4’ for ‘6.0’; 

7 ‘‘(II) for fiscal year 2017, clause 

8 (iii) shall be applied— 

9 ‘‘(aa) in subclause (II), by 

10 substituting ‘1.6’ for ‘2.0’; 

11 ‘‘(bb) in subclause (III), by 

12 substituting ‘2.4’ for ‘3.0’; 

13 ‘‘(cc) in subclause (IV), by 

14 substituting ‘3.6’ for ‘4.5’; and 

15 ‘‘(dd) in subclause (V), by 

16 substituting ‘4.8’ for ‘6.0’; 

17 ‘‘(III) for fiscal year 2018, clause 

18 (iii) shall be applied— 

19 ‘‘(aa) in subclause (II), by 

20 substituting ‘1.4’ for ‘2.0’; 

21 ‘‘(bb) in subclause (III), by 

22 substituting ‘2.1’ for ‘3.0’; 

23 ‘‘(cc) in subclause (IV), by 

24 substituting ‘3.15’ for ‘4.5’; and 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS
14 

•HR 754 IH

1 ‘‘(dd) in subclause (V), by 

2 substituting ‘4.2’ for ‘6.0’; and 

3 ‘‘(IV) for fiscal year 2019 and 

4 each succeeding fiscal year, clause (iii) 

5 shall be applied— 

6 ‘‘(aa) in subclause (II), by 

7 substituting ‘1.2’ for ‘2.0’; 

8 ‘‘(bb) in subclause (III), by 

9 substituting ‘1.8’ for ‘3.0’; 

10 ‘‘(cc) in subclause (IV), by 

11 substituting ‘2.7’ for ‘4.5’; and 

12 ‘‘(dd) in subclause (V), by 

13 substituting ‘3.6’ for ‘6.0’.’’. 

Æ 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with BILLS