Funding Backpacks

Paul T. Hill, of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, often has forward-thinking reform ideas that I would like to see implemented to scale.  Recently, in a paper called “School Finance in the Digital-Learning Era”, he submits an idea to alter our school funding model to assigning per-pupil dollars to actually be per pupil.  Hill suggests creating a student “backpack” or personal account of the funds allotted to them that parents could direct to the educational services they select as best-designed for their children.  Essentially, this is to enhance the marketplace for technological education providers that might better meet learning needs of 21^st century learners.  A family could mix and match funds in their account to provide public education in various forms.  An effect from this idea would be increased competition in that education organizations would improve their performance to attract those “backpack” dollars.

I’m all for improved educational performance and revising our funding model however I have two main problems with Hill’s concept.  States are already managing the distribution of funds to hundreds of districts. Ensuring adequate and equitable funding in this model is taxing on resources as is, but considering what it would take to manage thousands of individual student accounts with a wide variety of providers seems like an exponential burden on state finance systems.

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We need funding reform.  We need to leverage technology more.  We need thinkers like Paul Hill bringing innovation.  We must consider the effects on all children and people we have agreed to serve.  All of these must be accomplished together.