Petition to Restore Wilson High School Funding

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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".



In addition to not receiving the minimum amount per student, the projected enrollment by DCPS is too low, so the per pupil funding will be even lower based on the actual enrollment.
Didn't Kaya say this was the focus this year was high school or did she mean the focus this year is on every high school BUT Wilson?

[Anonymous]

If funding fails to meet minimum, seems that a lawsuit or injunction should be in order

[Anonymous]

It seems to me, all of these people angry about having their funding cut (Hine, Wilson, DCI, Latin) would be better served working together vs fighting each other for scraps.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:Bumping this to add more information. After the proposed cuts, 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. I don't begrudge the other schools the money, but this sort of discrepancy raises questions of simple fairness. Increasing Wilson's budget by $500 per student will still leave it far behind the other schools. I'd love to see equal education opportunities among DCPS high schools and extra funding to lower-performing schools is one method of attempting to achieve that. But, equality shouldn't come by decreasing the opportunities at one school. Please support sufficient funding for Wilson.

Almost all of Coolidge students are now Special Ed or ESL.

[Anonymous]

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.

Yes, Yes, and Yes for Coolidge (don't know about Eastern). Don't pit schools against each other.

[Anonymous]

The person behind the petition is loyal only to the schools his kids attended, often to the detriment of other city schools. I am not inclined to sign the petition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The person behind the petition is loyal only to the schools his kids attended, often to the detriment of other city schools. I am not inclined to sign the petition.

I signed the petition. I want the money to restore funding to come from central DCPS. Too much money is spent on central staff and 'consultants'

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The person behind the petition is loyal only to the schools his kids attended, often to the detriment of other city schools. I am not inclined to sign the petition.

Then that is unfortunately your problem. And you apparently know very little about the person sponsoring the petition.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:The person behind the petition is loyal only to the schools his kids attended, often to the detriment of other city schools. I am not inclined to sign the petition.

It would be terrible to consider the petition on its own merits, wouldn't it?

What argument do you have for supporting the cuts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If Wilson's funding is decreased, how will the school be able to support the crew, field hockey, and lacrosse teams? Will a decrease in funding mean that Wilson won't be able to support the 39 after school clubs, it currently has? WTF!!! Someone should do something about this travesty.

For the record, the crew team is 100% funded by parents. 0.00 from dcps and any dc high schooler can join. Not just wilson students.
Don't know about the other sports.

[Anonymous]

Wilson is the only high school that comes close to competing with the local suburban schools. First dcps deliberately weakened SWW, and now this.

[Anonymous]

I'm sure DCPS feels that Wilson parents will dig into their pockets to make up the difference, while other parents at other schools do not have the resources to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wilson is the only high school that comes close to competing with the local suburban schools. First dcps deliberately weakened SWW, and now this.

And even Wilson is not close to the quality of the suburban schools, so it's criminal to take away the funding.

[Anonymous]

I'm convinced kaya has it out for ward 3 schools. She needs to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure DCPS feels that Wilson parents will dig into their pockets to make up the difference, while other parents at other schools do not have the resources to do so.

This. I'm not a DC parent, but have been interested hearing about the schools as it relates to real estate. The expectation is that the PTA will pick up the slack, no? That's happening in the suburbs.... PTA expected to pay for playgrounds and equipment etc... Wilson seems to be falling pray to that squeeze even more so.