State Funding and the Equal Educational Opportunity of Language Minority Students: The Texas Public School Finance Mechanism and the Extent to Which English Language Learners Are Equitably Served

This quantitative study examined state and local funding and district spending \npatterns for English language learning (ELL) students in Texas. The purpose of this \nstudy was to examine the vertical equity of the state public school funding system from \n1997-2007 for purchasing educational resources for ELL students. Vertical equity was \noperationalized through a research-based framework that places ELL students at risk of \nacademic failure. Regression analysis examined vertical equity through (a) the extent to \nwhich the quantity of ELL students within districts predicted the TPSFM funding output \nfor ELL students in districts over 10 years and (b) the extent to which, when districts are \ngrouped by like-sized populations of ELL students within each of the 10 years, the \nquantity of ELL students within districts with like-sized populations of ELL students \npredicted the TPSFM funding output for ELL students. The findings revealed that from \n1997-2007, the ELL student funding component was not found to be a statistically significant predictor for district spending on ELL students in any given Texas district. \nThe present study therefore concludes with a discussion of policy implications and \nrecommendations for further study. Within the current punitive culture for student \nassessment results and annual yearly progress measures, these findings indicate that \nprograms serving ELL students may be constrained to produce results in areas where \nthey are not equitably funded to be able to do so. In the daily life of school operations, \nteachers and administrators may be well aware that the state's mechanism does not \nsupply adequate funding for the education of ELL students, therefore the results of this \nstudy may serve policy makers to clearly see the elephant of inequitable funding \nstanding in the classroom.