Petition to Restore Wilson High School Funding

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love it if the mindset that Wilson always gets what it wants, and the other schools sometimes do, would change.

Whether Wilson needs to lose out now, I don't know. But people have turned out to rely on the first thought, and it's part of what drives people to schools in Tenleytown. W(ilson) people always get what they want.

Why don't you read the first post in this thread?

"Wilson will receive $8,307 per student. In contrast, Eastern will receive $10,654 per student and Coolidge nearly twice the amount of Wilson with $16,209 per student."

Let's make it easier. Funding per student:
- At Wilson: $8,307
- At Eastern: $10,654
- At Coolidge: $16,209

If someone "always gets what they want," it is certainly not Wilson. Wake up.

Serving SN and at risk is more expensive than serving those without. Apples to oranges comparison. Numbers in a vacuum don't mean a thing.

You are right. Wilson has 600 at risk kids, more than any other HS.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love it if the mindset that Wilson always gets what it wants, and the other schools sometimes do, would change.

Whether Wilson needs to lose out now, I don't know. But people have turned out to rely on the first thought, and it's part of what drives people to schools in Tenleytown. W(ilson) people always get what they want.

Why don't you read the first post in this thread?

"Wilson will receive $8,307 per student. In contrast, Eastern will receive $10,654 per student and Coolidge nearly twice the amount of Wilson with $16,209 per student."

Let's make it easier. Funding per student:
- At Wilson: $8,307
- At Eastern: $10,654
- At Coolidge: $16,209

If someone "always gets what they want," it is certainly not Wilson. Wake up.

Serving SN and at risk is more expensive than serving those without. Apples to oranges comparison. Numbers in a vacuum don't mean a thing.

It is my understanding -- and it is always possible that I am wrong -- that that is base funding. The at risk and SN money is on top of that.

[Anonymous]

I'm confused. I read through the petition and it doesn't say that the money that is being taken away from Wilson and being given to other schools, but that is what this thread seems to be implying. Don't schools like Coolidge and Eastern get more per pupil funding because they may have more English language learners, Special Ed students, at-risk students, etc. etc. than Wilson. If so, then it makes sense to me that the per pupil funding is more at these other schools.

[Anonymous]

I signed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would love it if the mindset that Wilson always gets what it wants, and the other schools sometimes do, would change.

Whether Wilson needs to lose out now, I don't know. But people have turned out to rely on the first thought, and it's part of what drives people to schools in Tenleytown. W(ilson) people always get what they want.

Why don't you read the first post in this thread?

"Wilson will receive $8,307 per student. In contrast, Eastern will receive $10,654 per student and Coolidge nearly twice the amount of Wilson with $16,209 per student."

Let's make it easier. Funding per student:
- At Wilson: $8,307
- At Eastern: $10,654
- At Coolidge: $16,209

If someone "always gets what they want," it is certainly not Wilson. Wake up.

Serving SN and at risk is more expensive than serving those without. Apples to oranges comparison. Numbers in a vacuum don't mean a thing.

You are right. Wilson has 600 at risk kids, more than any other HS.

+100.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused. I read through the petition and it doesn't say that the money that is being taken away from Wilson and being given to other schools, but that is what this thread seems to be implying. Don't schools like Coolidge and Eastern get more per pupil funding because they may have more English language learners, Special Ed students, at-risk students, etc. etc. than Wilson. If so, then it makes sense to me that the per pupil funding is more at these other schools.

There are a few issues involved in your question. The activists behind the petition absolutely don't want to take funding from other schools. So, whether the cuts are going to increases in the budgets of other schools is immaterial to their concern. But, as a factual matter, DCPS receives equal funding per student regardless of high school, but then allocates that disproportionately with Wilson getting less per student. As I said before, I believe we are only talking about the base funding before at risk and other funds are added. So, those funds only add to the discrepancy (or maybe not given that Wilson has a lot of at risk kids as well).

[Anonymous]

I'm confused. If all the schools received the same amount, then how will the other schools ever catch up to Wilson? Wilson will be able to add to already established programs or add new ones, while the other schools may be able to start a new program. I would imagine starting something new takes a lot more resources then adding a luxury to an already established and thriving program.

To me, it always feels like despite all the talk about equally among the schools, that most people really do want Wilson to remain the "best". It's really sad.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused. If all the schools received the same amount, then how will the other schools ever catch up to Wilson? Wilson will be able to add to already established programs or add new ones, while the other schools may be able to start a new program. I would imagine starting something new takes a lot more resources then adding a luxury to an already established and thriving program.

To me, it always feels like despite all the talk about equally among the schools, that most people really do want Wilson to remain the "best". It's really sad.

I'll see if I can clarify this. There are posters here who know a lot more about this than me and, if I get things wrong, I hope they will correct me. But, this is my understanding:

1) DCPS is a "LEA" (Local Education Agencie). All LEAs get an allocation of $11,580 per high school student. How the LEA chooses to spread that money among schools is up to the LEA.

2) DCPS does not allocate the $11,580 equally among high schools, but gives some schools more and some less. Wilson receives less.

3) Special Ed and at risk funds are on top of that base funding.

4) As another poster mentioned, there are economies of scale from which Wilson benefits. Therefore, nobody is asking for or expecting parity of funding.

5) Even with the benefits of scale, the proposed budget will have a significant negative impact on Wilson. Those behind the petition that is the subject of this thread are asking for half the cut to be restored in order to decrease those negative impacts.

Finally, I expect that every parent would desire that their child attend the best school. But, that is not what we are discussing. We are discussing the need to preserve funding so that Wilson will be able to maintain its current level of success. We want all of the schools to be equally successful but by improving other schools, not by hurting Wilson.

[Anonymous]

I wish we had a break down by impact for these funding levels to account for the enrollment differences. Perhaps having x guidance counselors has a higher per pupil cost simply because there are fewer students than Wilson. We can't go around cutting guidance counselors in half now can we?

[Anonymous]

My understanding is dc passed a law requiring more funding for at risk students. In order to fund this, the base level funding per pupil was cut significantly. In addition, Dcps continues to under project the enrollment at Wilson. The result is less money per pupil (before additional funds for special Ed, at risk etc). It makes no sense to say you need "x" amount of money as a baseline to fund a HS and then cut that to fund something else. These cuts harm the basic functions of Wilson to say the least about the impact on at risk students.

[Anonymous]

Wilson never gets as much per pupil as other high schools, and that is not a problem. People are correct that, due to economies of scale and other factors, it costs more per pupil to educate students at the city's other comprehensive high schools than it does at Wilson. That is not in dispute.

Each year, DCPS sets a per pupil funding floor - or the minimum amount deemed necessary to adequately educated a child in DCPS. This year, the per pupil funding floor is $9,000.

What is problematic with Wilson's FY16 allocation is that Wilson is not being funded at the minimum per pupil amount that DCPS has established for FY16. Wilson and Deal are the only two schools in the entire district that are not being funded at this minimum. Deal is receiving about $8,800 while Wilson is only receiving about $8,300.

Further, several schools each year do not - through enrollment-based allocations alone - get the minimum per pupil amount. And each year, DCPS provides what is called a "per pupil minimum funding allocation" to make up the difference between the enrollment-based allocation and the minimum established floor (again, this year it's $9,000). Deal, Walls, Lafayette, Murch, Janney and Eaton all received per pupil minimum funding allocations for FY16. Wilson was alone in not receiving this "bump up".

Moreover, this is not a matter of at-risk funding being reallocated to schools where it's needed more. Wilson actually is receiving $700,000 more in at-risk funding in FY16 than it did in FY15. So even with the money following the at-risk student, Wilson is still facing a cut to its budget. (So, yes, as one PP suggested, it would seem that the at-risk funds are being used to substitute for foundational funding.)

There has been no explanation or justification given for why Wilson is being singled out in not receiving the per pupil minimum funding allocation that it and other schools typically receive to get it to the "funding floor".

Jeff's point should be reiterated: No one in the Wilson community is asking for funds to be taken away from other schools. People are asking that the city provide the established minimum - or at least closer to the minimum than it currently is.

The DC Fiscal Policy Institute has a helpful document describing the funding process:

http://www.dcfpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Revised-School-Primer-March2015-FINAL.pdf

[Anonymous]

I've always found per-pupil funding to be really inadequate in allocating resources to schools because the cost of running the school doesn't increase linearly with each new student. However, the per pupil funding minimum is low enough that the extra funds large schools receive always seemed reasonable. Why did DCPS single Wilson out as the only school to not receive the minimum?

[Anonymous]

Where are you asking them to get the money if not from other schools?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Where are you asking them to get the money if not from other schools?

The DCPS budget consists of a lot more than the per pupil funding that we are discussing. However, we haven't seen the full DCPS budget yet. So, it is hard to suggest what might be cut to restore funds to Wilson. But, definitely not the per pupil funding allocated to other schools. If nothing else, the Council could appropriate additional funds.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you asking them to get the money if not from other schools?

The DCPS budget consists of a lot more than the per pupil funding that we are discussing. However, we haven't seen the full DCPS budget yet. So, it is hard to suggest what might be cut to restore funds to Wilson. But, definitely not the per pupil funding allocated to other schools. If nothing else, the Council could appropriate additional funds.

Thanks.