Quite frankly, we're much more sympathetic this year because of the changes, and if the waiver request was because of big disruptions, I'm sure the department would have looked sympathetically at that. We want to know the formula and how it was developed, so we can say to our LSCs and people who are laid off how it was done. Now that the Title 1 allocations have been made for the current school year, a number of individuals and groups are urging the School Board to reconsider the way poverty is calculated in Chicago. This has long been a controversial issue in Chicago, with blacks and Hispanics tending to favor different formulas. The Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform has called for a blue ribbon task force to assess various formulas, hold public hearings and discuss alternatives.
Federal law gives school districts wide discretion in devising a formula.
In recent years, Chicago has used both AFDC and free and reduced-price lunch counts, giving equal weight to each. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the lunch count is the most common measure used by school districts. After conducting exhaustive research, New York City concluded that its formula of 60 percent AFDC and 40 percent free and reduced-price lunch was flawed for a number of reasons. The biggest surge among uncounted kids was among Hasidic Jews who are very poor, and hospitals put them on Medicaid. Now, New York looks at two sets of data for each school and picks the set that gives the school the highest count.