This paper partially fulfills the charge set out by New Business Item (NBI) 18, passed at the 2004 NEA Representative Assembly requiring that NEA conduct an analysis of "weighted student formula" (also known as "student-based budgeting") and how it impacts educational programs in large urban districts. The funding system known as "weighted student formula" (WSF) is a method for allocating resources to schools, and is often confused with school-based management (SBM). Both WSF and SBM are part of the broader reform effort known as "decentralization." Many of the studies researched for this paper put a positive spin on WSF, but they fail to place WSF in the context of this broader decentralization effort. This failure makes analyzing WSF's impact on public schools--especially on large urban schools--difficult at best. This paper addresses this failure by first placing WSF in the context of decentralization efforts and then analyzing its impact on schools and on school programs. Appended are: (1) Comparing FTE and WSF at a Hypothetical District; and (2) Comparing WSF among Urban School Districts. (Contains 3 figures and 4 tables.)