We weren’t the only ones who jumped out of our chairs when Gov. Mike Beebe mentioned a big issue of ours during this State of the State address the other day.

Hendrix Professor Jay Barth and education advocates across The Natural State did the same. Barth writes in this week’sArkansas Times:

Most of last week’s news coverage of Governor Beebe’s address to legislators laying out his priorities for the new legislative session focused on the biggest ticket items with long-term ramifications for the state budget. But, an item early in the speech that received almost no media coverage has more immediate ramifications for the children of the state’s most challenged families.

Just after rightly praising the historic progress that the state has made in the area of public education in the last decade, Beebe said, “Money that comes into Arkansas meant to close achievement gaps is often stashed away instead of being spent efficiently on the very purpose for which it was intended.”

One has to be pretty deep in the weeds of Arkansas education policy to know what Beebe was referencing. As part of its response to the Lake View case, the General Assembly enhanced per pupil education spending in the state but also provided additional funds to districts with significant rates of poverty to be spent on a long list of programs meant to close the achievement gap. How much districts get depends on the percentage of students who come from families eligible for free or reduced school lunches under the National School Lunch Act (NSLA). In some districts, many NSLA funds are being “stashed away” rather than being spent to aid students.

He goes on to cite our research that shows many districts aren’t spending this money each year, but stockpiling it year after year. And districts that do spend it aren’t necessarily spending it on programs that our research shows are the most effective way to close the achievement gap.