It's understandable that, as the state moves into an innovative weighted formula for school funding, the conversation immediately turns to "winners" and "losers."

After all, once the formula is imposed — which allots money according to the needs of individual students — there will be schools that see a gain in financial support from the Department of Education while others will see a loss.

But rather than look at this as a win/lose proposition, the right way to think of it is as a canny and ultimately more effective way of using limited resources.

In an ideal world, those schools with extra needs would get extra money without taking a penny away from their fellow campuses. But this is not an ideal world; it is a real world.

Does it make sense to distribute it strictly by the numbers, without consideration of the differing needs and challenges of individual schools? Clearly, not.

Thus, the formula must be flexible, responding both to changing needs and to special circumstances.

Once imposed, the new system will force school administrators to be creative, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. This cuts both ways: Schools that lose funding will have to think of ways to make their dollars go further, sharing resources with other nearby schools or changing long-established ways of doing things.

They will be successful in this effort if the administration honors the philosophy of recent educational "reform" laws and allows individual school communities to make their own teaching and spending decisions.

That is, if one-size-fits-all mandates continue to come from the central administration, it will be nearly impossible for school officials to do the job they are supposed to do.

And as an aside, it must be kept in mind that individually weighted student funding applies equally to high-achieving students who need extra support to meet their potential.

At the same time, schools gaining money must not simply use it to do more of the same. The idea is that the extra support will help pay for new approaches.

It is likely that there will never be enough money. Given that reality, the best approach is to spend what we have in the smartest way possible.

That is what weighted student funding is all about.