te These data do not support an hypothesis that school districts with Indian enrollments receive a disproportionately small share of federal funds. Conversely, they do not support a contention that such school systems receive significantly larger federal financial support than other school districts. Review of the data across school districts indicates that they differ considerably in the total amounts of per pupil federal aid they receive and in the proportion that such aid constitutes of their total educational funding. The difference in the proportion of federal aid is even more marked since some of the lowest expenditure school districts receive some of the highest amounts of aid and the highest spending districts also receive relatively small federal aid allotments per pupil. Of the 48 school districts with 10% or more Indian enrollment, 18 receive allotments per pupil of at least $100 under the national average; nine had per pupil expenditures of at least $200 below the national average. in this enrollment category in high average per pupil expenditure metropolitan central school districts. Of the 48 school districts with over 10 percent of Indian enrollment, 36 or 75 percent were below the national average measured by enrollment category and metropolitan status. Twenty-seven reported per pupil expeditures of less than $600 compared with the national average for all enrollment categories of $796 during the 1970-1971 school year. A validation of the above findings based on similar data for the preceding school year was undertaken for the critical enrollment category 300-2,499. Using both average national per pupil expeditures and average per pupil expenditures by state, similar results were obtained. In the sample of 309 school districts with reported Indian enrollment, 61.2 percent and 60.5 percent had per pupil expenditures less than the respective national and state averages. The samples of 99 school districts with Indian enrollment greater than 10 percent indicated that 76.8 percent were below the national average for this enrollment category. Of the 99 school districts in the sample, 68 had per pupil expenditures of less than $66 and 35 had less than $500 compared with the national average of $712 for school year 1969-1970. The consistency of these findings (based on a much larger sample) with the previous findings reinforces a conclusion that school districts with significant Indian enrollments are not receiving sufficient funds from all sources to assure equitable educational opportunities. Federal Contributions to Revenue Table 8 presents the number and percent of school districts in the sample that receive federal revenues as a proportion of total revenues below the national average for each of the six enrollment categories. In four of the categories, the proportion below the national average is above 50 percent, in two, below 50 percent. A weighted average of the total sample indicates that about half (52 percent) of the Indian school districts are below the national average and about half are above the national average. In the 300-2,499 enrollment category, the average federal contribution per pupil was $86.54 compared with a national average figure of $60.98. In the under 300 enrollment category, the average federal contribution per pupil was $54.48 compared with a national average of $73.95. TABLE 8.-NUMBER AND PERCENT OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS WITH THE PERCENT OF FEDERAL REVENUES TO TOTAL REVENUES BELOW THE NATIONAL AVERAGE Source: U.S. Office of Education, Office of Indian Education, Unpublished data. These data do not support an hypothesis that school districts with Indian enrollments receive a disproportionately small share of federal funds. Conversely, they do not support a contention that such school systems receive significantly larger federal financial support than other school districts. Review of the data across school districts indicates that they differ considerably in the total amounts of per pupil federal aid they receive and in the proportion that such aid constitutes of their total educational funding. The difference in the proportion of federal aid is even more marked since some of the lowest expenditure school districts receive some of the highest amounts of aid and the highest spending districts also receive relatively small federal aid allotments per pupil. Of the 48 school districts with 10% or more Indian enrollment, 18 receive allotments per pupil of at least $100 under the national average; nine had per pupil expenditures of at least $200 below the national average. 77-577-77-11 |