Bused Students May Soon Take Federal, State Funds With Them

San Diego youngsters who are bused to schools away from their inner-city neighborhoods may soon for the first time be taking federal and state funds with them.

San Diego city schools have long received as much as $12- million a year in special federal and state aid for use at schools with large numbers of students from low-income families. Most of those students are members of minorities and some need help to master basic skills.

But there’s a hitch. Several thousand of those students take part in the San Diego Unified School District’s voluntary integration plan.

And when they get on the bus, the funds remain behind at their neighborhood schools. However, that may soon end because of changes Congress made last year in federal law governing use of these funds. The changes allow schools to use 5% of the funds for innovative programs.

The Board of Education is today expected to approve setting aside $300,000 from those funds for schools attended by students under the integration program.For example, La Jolla and Bird Rock elementary schools would receive thousands of dollars beginning next fall to assist in paying for extra instruction or counseling to help students bused from Southeast San Diego neighborhoods.

While the amount of money is relatively small part of the total program, principals say any extra help will be gladly received.

“I’ll spend every penny I get,” promised Principal Patricia Tisdale at Toler Elementary in Clairemont, which could receive $6,400 in extra funds under the proposal. “We probably will put it into more teacher assistance, into more counseling, into perhaps more parent communication--there are a lot of possibilities,” said Tisdale, whose school receives many Latino students from Southeast.

At present, funds are distributed only to schools with high numbers of low-income family students and low individual standardized test scores. Schools get $270 a year for each of those low-income student who scores low on math or reading tests, and $540 if they fall into the bottom quarter on both tests. Students whose native language is not English also qualify the school for $540. The total number of eligible students is almost 33,000.

Under the district’s voluntary integration program, parents in low-income, minority neighborhoods are encouraged to send children to schools in predominantly white areas. About 2,170 of these children are bused to 55 elementary, middle and junior high schools in the San Diego Unified district.

But these schools receive only $150 in district money for each student attending under the integration plan, no matter now much additional instruction and counseling they need. District administrators now propose to give the elementary, middle and junior high schools another $79 for each low student test score--or a maximum of $158 per student--for a total of $297,909 for 55 schools. The proposal recommends against providing money for 500 bused high school students because funds are limited and the impact of compensatory education is greater with students in early school years.

San Diego could spend up to $600,000 under for bused students. But administrators want to reserve $300,000 for new classroom ideas by teachers for getting better results out of the compensatory program.

The program to aid low-income family and minority students over the past 20 years has been less successful than hoped for when measured by student gains, according to Frank Till, assistant superintendent for educational services.

As a result, Till wants some discretionary money available for teacher experimentation, which if successful could be applied to the larger program.