Federal support helps advance education reform. Federal funding provides flexibility to states and local school districts in designing their own programs to improve student achievement, ensure quality teachers, and meet the special needs of students. Federal programs target assistance to those most in need. Targeted federal programs have been essential in addressing national concerns not addressed by individual states. Similarly, a 1999 Department of Education report found that federal education dollars were much more targeted to high-poverty school districts than were state and local funds.
Federal dollars go directly to the classroom.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, between 1980 and 1999, federal on-budget support for elementary and secondary education declined from 11.9 percent to 7.7 percent of total expenditures. In constant dollars, federal elementary and secondary education funding increased by 17.7 percent, only slightly outpacing enrollment increases of 13.1 percent. Record enrollment levels. Enrollment in K-12 public schools in the fall of 2000 reached 47 million students, an increase of over 200,000 students in just one year. Since 1990, public schools have enrolled a total of 5.8 million more students, an increase of 22 percent.