Weighted budget: A path to equity?: Schools whose students need more aid would get more money.

Byline: Peter Smolowitz

Feb. 12--A proposal to give more money to Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools with students who need more help could offer big benefits and big controversy.

It also highlights a growing tension between the school district and the task force pushing it to change.

The task force is calling for what's known as a "weighted student budget" -- the arcane name for a formula designed to help all kids get the same chance at a quality education, otherwise known as equity.

Jargony? Sure. But it could reshape how the district spends up to 70 percent of its nearly $1 billion budget.

Educators agree that the cost of teaching varies from student to student. Kids who are gifted, disabled, poor or still learning English need more help.

CMS now pays for staff based on the number of students at a school.

More than 50 schools collect from a second source of money. That's because they have high enough poverty levels and other challenges to trigger such benefits as smaller class sizes, additional supplies and some teacher pay perks.

Weighted budgets take this approach further. They divide money based on the needs of individual students. Kids who need more help bring more dollars.

Supporters say that shifts power to the schools, and can spur innovation and greater parental…