VALLEY SHORTCHANGED? LAUSD MAY SHIFT FEDERAL DOLLARS TO INNER-CITY SCHOOLS.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

Already squeezed by a series of drastic budget reductions, San Fernando Valley schools face losing millions of dollars under a proposal to shift federal funds to inner-city schools with higher concentrations of poor students.

The Los Angeles school board today will vote on whether to change the formula for distributing so-called Title I money. At stake is how the Los Angeles Unified School District shares the more than $100 million in funding it gets each year to enhance the education of poor and disadvantaged students.

Two advisory groups for the school district, composed of parents and LAUSD staffers, have recommended raising the threshold for schools to qualify for Title I funding - a move that would disproportionately impact the Valley.

Currently, schools with at least 40 percent of students classified as poor receive the funding. The new formula calls for a threshold of 65 percent - the cutoff point used for many years until the board lowered it by a contentious 4-3 vote during the previous school year.

If the old formula were resurrected, 37 schools in the San Fernando Valley would lose their Title I status and, along with it, more than $3.6 million in funding. The money has paid for smaller class sizes, after-school programs, tutoring for failing students and other programs.

Downtown board member Jose Huizar is leading the charge for the change, arguing that high-poverty schools need more resources to make an impact.

``By lowering (the threshold) to 40, you are diluting the effectiveness of the dollars. These little dollars the schools get are not impacting student achievement,'' he said.

``When you go to schools that are in the 40 to 65 percent (poverty) level, it's usually in the wealthier areas where the schools can draw from the community to get resources.''

School board President Caprice Young, who represents the West Valley, where many of the schools with 40 percent to 65 percent poor students are located, fought hard last year to lower the funding requirement and is now leading a campaign to keep the 40 percent eligibility criteria.

``Valley schools would be hit by far the hardest,'' she said.

Districtwide, 554 schools qualified this year for Title I funding. In the San Fernando Valley, 163 schools were eligible for a share of the federal monies.

If the funding formula were changed, local District A in the Northwest Valley would be the most heavily impacted because it has 20 schools with 40 percent to 65 percent poor students. Local District B in the East Valley has three schools, and District C in the Southwest Valley has 14 schools in that category.

But even with the lower threshold, the bulk of the Title I funding currently benefits schools outside the Valley. Schools with a minimum of 65 percent poor students received $235 per student last year, $51 more per pupil than schools with fewer poor students.

The proposed differential for next year is $90 more per pupil for schools with a poverty rate of 65 percent to 100 percent.

Bernetta Reade, mother of two children at Anatola Elementary School in Van Nuys and Holmes Middle School in Northridge, said it's unfair to shortchange poor kids in the Valley.

``We have kids here in the Valley who need help. We have middle-class parents who need help in this economic downturn,'' she said.

``There is this perception somehow everyone who lives in the Valley is above median income or above low income. We are not.''

Anatola Elementary School, for example, has a poverty rate of 64.61 percent, or 325 students on free or reduced lunch, or who come from families on welfare. Holmes Middle School's poverty level stands at 61.15 percent, with 996 students classified as low-income. Anatola received $59,600 this year in Title I funding, and Holmes $183,632.

Reade, who is active at her children's schools and Local District A, said Title I funding has helped pay for a homework club, computer lab and Saturday school at Holmes, as well as supplies. Losing the funding, the Valley mother said, would be a major blow because there are precious few resources for schools these days.

In addition to low-income students from their surrounding neighborhood, Valley schools educate an estimated 12,000 students from the inner city, who are bused in from predominantly low-income areas because their neighborhood schools are overcrowded.

Young contends that Huizar is hurting his own constituents by supporting the higher threshold.

``If you raise the bar back up, the money doesn't follow the kids (who are bused),'' said Young. ``The inner-city kids really get ripped off.''

Norm Isaacs, principal of Millikan Middle School in Sherman Oaks, said that without the Title I funding, he would have to work hard to secure outside grants to pay for supplemental programs for failing students.

``I think it's terrible taking money from one group to give it to another. I think we need to find a way to not pit one school against another,'' he said.

Millikan, which has 43.91 percent of its students classified as poor, received $173,860 in Title I funding last year. The money paid for English and math intervention programs that have been credited with helping the school raise student achievement. Millikan was named last week as a California Distinguished School in part because of academic excellence.

``The additional funds are the only extra money we really have to give the children the added services,'' he said. ``Based on our test scores, the children have had tremendous growth. Again, it's because of the funds and the way they are used.''