Legislative analyst explains Arkansas' ESA poverty funding, cautions on data distortions from federal meal programs

Nell Smith of the Bureau of Legislative Research told the Senate Education Committee that Arkansas's Enhanced Student Achievement funding (formerly National School Lunch State categorical funding) is distributed to districts based on the number of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch and the concentration of poverty in each district. "ESA funding provides additional money to school districts to help with the educational challenges that come with high concentrations of students in poverty," Smith said.

Smith traced the program's name change to Act 1083 of 2019 and explained the state uses a three-tier per-student rate structure. In the briefing Smith cited per-student figures as transcribed in the presentation materials (transcript: $526 for the lowest tier, a middle-tier figure transcribed as $1,051, and a highest-tier figure transcribed as $15.76) and warned the "70 percent cliff"…