Rep. Thompson and Rep. Panetta Introduce ACE Act to Shift Federal School Funding to High-Poverty Districts
This bill is currently in the House Committee on Education and Workforce. No action has been taken on the bill since March 17, 2026. Because most bills do not receive a committee vote, this proposal is considered stalled.
The bill has support from both parties, but it will face strong opposition from lawmakers representing large cities who would see their school funding decrease.
This bill’s path across every version that has carried it.
Reintroduced
Reintroduced from H.R. 4565 (118th), which died when its Congress ended.
H.R. 4565 (118th) →Scores run from -100 (strongly harmful) to +100 (strongly beneficial) for each group, combining impact, certainty, scope, and duration ratings of 1-5. How impact scoring works
Students in smaller school districts with high poverty concentrations would see their schools receive more federal Title I funding per student. This means more resources for programs that help economically disadvantaged children in rural and smaller suburban districts where poverty rates are high but total student numbers are low.
“Congress has a responsibility to correct this unintended inequity by reducing the power of the number weighting system relative to the percentage weighting system so that local educational agencies with high percentages of poverty but low numbers of students are not disadvantaged under the formulas used for grants under this part.”
Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Introduced in House
The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.
U.S. Representatives Glenn “GT” Thompson and Jimmy Panetta have introduced the All Children are Equal (ACE) Act to reform Title I funding. The bill seeks to eliminate the 'number weighting' system that favors large districts, instead using a percentage-based method to target high-poverty areas.
Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) joined Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) to introduce the All Children Are Equal Act. The bill targets a 'perverse' formula that diverts Title I funds from high-poverty rural districts to more populous urban districts by relying on raw numbers rather than poverty percentages.
No votes or related bills recorded for this bill yet.
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
ACE Act
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