The Orange County Schools wants to “even out” the number of students who receive a free or reduced lunch (F&R) across the district. They plan to cap the number of F&R elementary school students at 38 percent. (Currently, Wake County Schools buses students around to “even out” the number of F&R students across the district. They call it maintaining “healthy” schools.)
The problem is that F&R is not a good measure of socioeconomic status because, among other problems, classification bias occurs. There is plenty of incentive for a district school to place a student under the F&R umbrella, because many district schools may be able to receive Title I funds and services from the federal government. Audits of Title I parents’ eligibility is scant, so school systems likely have a number of children under Title I whose parents exceed the income ceiling.
On the other hand, private schools do not receive Title I funds directly. Instead, they are required to negotiate an allotment through the local school system, which is no easy (or even worthwhile) task. Moreover, schools that do not have a cafeteria cannot classify any students as F&R. Thus, the number of F&R students tend to be low or nonexistent for home, charter, and private schools and high for district schools.
Thus, we have a classification bias – classification of students as F&R is based on the incentives offered to classify them as F&R.
Hat tip: Messino
