Many children who need Title I, Elementary Secondary Education Act services are not getting them in many States because the distribution formula assigns Federal aid on the basis of figures which measure a poor substitute for educational need and then compounds the error by using 14 year old figures. That means that a State is still getting money for a low income child who was in the first grade during the 1960 census and who now has graduated from high school, completed two years of junior college, married, found a job, and is expecting his or her first child. It is fundamentally wrong to continue to aid districts who have long ago lost many of the children whom we have pretended they are serving. Why not actually distribute funds on the basis of actual educational need if that is the condition we are attempting to treat? If we move from a level of income distribution to a level of educational need distribution, I believe we will build a stronger program with a larger constituency and with a better chance of actually showing positive results. It is proposed that a relatively new type of test is administered, the criterion referenced test, to a scientifically drawn national sample. That sample could be used to establish relative needs among the States. Through the use of criterion referenced tests one can best escape the onus of comparing the level of achievement of one child and one school against another. (Author/JM)