The federal government spends $14 billion a year boosting funding for schools with low-income families, but most of that taxpayer funding is wasted, a new paper says.

For 60 years, that funding has come from Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, known in its current form as No Child Left Behind. The funding averages roughly $500 to $600 per student per year. Nationwide, the average amount spent per public school student is $12,000, so the funding bump from Title I is fairly small. That bump pays for only 10 hours of teaching a year for a student.