DCPS Funding Cliff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:wait wait wait, the new model enables more EQUITY and some of you are ripping Bowser for that?

I am all for providing more resources to children who need them, but not at the expense of schools that are currently serving their students well. The Mayor should just increase the DCPS budget so that improving learning outcomes doesn’t become a zero sum game.

The Mayor is giving principals more control of funds.

I don’t know what to say about that in itself. I guess it depends on the principal. The concerning part are the steep cuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I found some slides about the proposed model. The main objective is equity and more money is sent where it’s needed. Funds are allocated per pupil, but factors such as ELL or at risk act as multipliers.

Money is not allocated anymore to cover existing teaching staff. It’s up to principals to distribute their funds. That is my understanding.

https://dcpsbudget.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Exploring-a-New-Budget-Model-Town-Hall_8.12.21.pdf

Do you mean that the schools are charged the actual cost of a teacher rather than a standard amount per position? If so, that penalizes schools that hold onto their teachers for a long time and puts experienced teachers in jeopardy.

Same PP. I looked through the budget and I couldn’t figure out if it uses actual salaries or no.

Any budget that gives schools incentive too staff with less experienced (ie, lower salary) teachers would be whacked. I hope this is not the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would be happy with this as long as they trim the funding from schools in Ward 3 and the non-Title I schools in wards 2 and 6 first.

PP: Cut funding from the wealthiest schools first! They can just make up the difference through fundraising!

Also PP: How dare those wealthy schools fundraise to pay teaching staff when others can't?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:wait wait wait, the new model enables more EQUITY and some of you are ripping Bowser for that?

I am all for providing more resources to children who need them, but not at the expense of schools that are currently serving their students well. The Mayor should just increase the DCPS budget so that improving learning outcomes doesn’t become a zero sum game.

The poster above doesn’t get it. All funding to schools are going to be cut including title 1 schools. DC is just siphoning off some funds from the wealthier schools to make it less painful for the title 1 school. Everyone loses but especially the title 1 schools as they have less money and can’t fundraise for basic necessities for the school.

Before there was money set aside for teaching staff salaries independent of the general money find to school. Now they are saying that pot of money for teaching staff will no longer be there. Principals will need to use the general fund money for it. But of course they are not going to increase this funding the amount that schools will lose from teaching staff salaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:wait wait wait, the new model enables more EQUITY and some of you are ripping Bowser for that?

I am all for providing more resources to children who need them, but not at the expense of schools that are currently serving their students well. The Mayor should just increase the DCPS budget so that improving learning outcomes doesn’t become a zero sum game.

The poster above doesn’t get it. All funding to schools are going to be cut including title 1 schools. DC is just siphoning off some funds from the wealthier schools to make it less painful for the title 1 school. Everyone loses but especially the title 1 schools as they have less money and can’t fundraise for basic necessities for the school.

Before there was money set aside for teaching staff salaries independent of the general money find to school. Now they are saying that pot of money for teaching staff will no longer be there. Principals will need to use the general fund money for it. But of course they are not going to increase this funding the amount that schools will lose from teaching staff salaries.

So as some PPs pointed out there is incentive to get rid of experienced teachers and keep newer ones?

[Anonymous]

https://dcpsbudget.com/welcome-and-whats-new/ This says that gen ed teachers will be pulled from discretionary funds, which to me implies that experienced teachers will be a financial disadvantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://dcpsbudget.com/welcome-and-whats-new/ This says that gen ed teachers will be pulled from discretionary funds, which to me implies that experienced teachers will be a financial disadvantage.

I don’t think so. This year used the new model (but with top up funds) and the teacher salaries were still default averages not actual teacher salaries.

[Anonymous]

I think some extra flexibility for principals is actually a great thing. Deciding to close a classroom in a grade with a smaller enrollment in order to, e.g., add a specials teacher or an interventionalist is a good choice to permit principals to make rather than downtown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think some extra flexibility for principals is actually a great thing. Deciding to close a classroom in a grade with a smaller enrollment in order to, e.g., add a specials teacher or an interventionalist is a good choice to permit principals to make rather than downtown.

Sure flexibility is good but not when funding is cut severely. That leaves you with no flexibility but to cut the extras such specials, interventionist, social workers, etc..to use the money needed for teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:wait wait wait, the new model enables more EQUITY and some of you are ripping Bowser for that?

I am all for providing more resources to children who need them, but not at the expense of schools that are currently serving their students well. The Mayor should just increase the DCPS budget so that improving learning outcomes doesn’t become a zero sum game.

This is the issue. Rather than assign funding responsibly, she pits schools against each other. Look at the conversation in this thread! Rather than talking about poor system-level decisions, we’re debating which schools deserve funding more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wait wait wait, the new model enables more EQUITY and some of you are ripping Bowser for that?

I'm reserving judgment until I hear how equity is being defined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some extra flexibility for principals is actually a great thing. Deciding to close a classroom in a grade with a smaller enrollment in order to, e.g., add a specials teacher or an interventionalist is a good choice to permit principals to make rather than downtown.

Sure flexibility is good but not when funding is cut severely. That leaves you with no flexibility but to cut the extras such specials, interventionist, social workers, etc..to use the money needed for teachers.

Sure, but that’s a quantity of money thing not a flexibility thing. In the old model, there’d be funds for X number of teachers and no other money; now a school could cut a teacher and spend the funds on something else. I don’t think the new model is a problem. The amount of funding if it represents a drastic cut? Absolutely.

[Anonymous]

We are not in DCOS but at charter. Our school gets the standard funding per pupil that all schools get. After that our charter is responsible for everything else such as building maintenance, supplies, chrome books, etc…

Our school is transparent about the schools financial holdings, surplus, etc.. and it’s strong with much reserves. I don’t understand how DCPS schools who get a ton of extras besides pupil funding is not financially sound, and they need to drastically cut budgets even more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are not in DCOS but at charter. Our school gets the standard funding per pupil that all schools get. After that our charter is responsible for everything else such as building maintenance, supplies, chrome books, etc…

Our school is transparent about the schools financial holdings, surplus, etc.. and it’s strong with much reserves. I don’t understand how DCPS schools who get a ton of extras besides pupil funding is not financially sound, and they need to drastically cut budgets even more.

The overhead they spend on bureaucracy really bloats the budget. The number of employees at central office and their salaries are insane. It’s such a waste of resources that do not directly impact student learning.