Because education lacks standard accounting practices, fairly comparing per-pupil expenditures across states is next to impossible. What constitutes per pupil expenditure in one state is different from another, and how expenditures are reported depends on who's doing the reporting.

McShane discovers that D.C. Public Schools under-reported its per-pupil spending by approximately $9,000 in a Census Bureau report. While DCPS has made several significant positive strides in recent years, until the district gets its spending under control, all of these positive developments are going to get lost in its perception as a bloated, ineffective bureaucracy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which the supplement-notsupplant requirement works against the goals of Title I and to offer suggestions for alternatives that better promote the responsible use of Title I funds.

With state budgets under considerable strain, the time has come for the federal government to take a hard look at the capacities of state education agencies to fulfill progressive education mandates.

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The federal government can and should play a limited but important role in helping the nation address the challenge of  improving the productivity of education spending.