Avoid punitive accountability. We believe accountability is important but it must not be accompanied by measures that further jeopardize the students who are already at risk. If Title I is expected to close the achievement gap, then conditions must be placed on how states and school districts use the other 97 percent of the funds. Maintain the overall objective of the federal Title I program. The federal Title I program was designed compensate for what experts agree is the uneven and unfair funding for education at the local level due to reliance on property tax.
Federal regulations insure that the funds reach targeted schools.
Ensure that Title I funds continue to be targeted to the schools serving the highest percentages of very poor families and to the poorest school districts. Title I, originally passed in 1965, was designed to address the correlation of low student achievement with family poverty. A strong federal Title I program is even more important during the 2001 Reauthorization because during the past 36 years, the poor have been increasingly abandoned in city schools as middle class families have moved to the suburbs. Declining student achievement is correlated with the isolation and concentration of families in poverty in specific districts and specific schools. The President has proposed that schools where children post low test scores be given two years to improve.