Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget
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Anonymous
| But your precious kid wouldn't survive without your awesome charter school, right? 🙄 |
Anonymous
What is this in response too? |
Anonymous
My kids are actually both at DCPS schools, and we went through a modernization, and it was totally fine. I get that parents who stand to benefit directly can’t/won’t see the bigger picture that this was a poor budgetary decision, but given the current and upcoming financial landscape for DCPS, it’s pretty clear to the rest of us. |
Anonymous
| Yu Ying teacher salary scale goes from $61,000 to $96,000. Mundo Verde’s is $60,000 to $90,000. If they are supplementing with fundraising, it is still not getting them close to DCPS salaries, $71,000-$147,000 next year. |
Anonymous
Not even close to accurate. Full lost here. https://dgs.dc.gov/dgs-projects/completed-dgs-school-projects. Including... Benjamin Banneker Academic HS (2021) Duke Ellington School of the Arts (2017) Roosevelt High School (2016) Coolidge High School (2019) Bard High School Early College DC (2023) MacArthur High School (2023) Eliot-Hine Middle School (2020) MacFarland Middle School (2018) Marie Reed Elementary/Education Campus (2017) Alice Deal Middle School (2022) Bancroft Elementary (2018) Eaton Elementary (2022) Lafayette Elementary (2016) Murch Elementary (2018) Van Ness Elementary (2015-2017) Maury Elementary (2019) Kimball Elementary (2020) Garfield Elementary (2024) Smothers Elementary (2023) J.O. Wilson Elementary (2026) Tubman Elementary (2026) Malcolm X @ Green Elementary (2026) Thomas Elementary (2027-8) |
Anonymous
But which ones are "insane"? |
Anonymous
Yeah, Latin's teacher salary scale is a painful $56 to $80. Shameful, actually. Not sure why that's not a bigger black mark against them. A handful of charters do come closer to DCPS pay scale - BASIS ($64-$118), Haynes ($66-$111), Cap City ($66-126). |
Anonymous
At least some of these were just expansions to accommodate existing IB students ... |
Anonymous
Teacher salaries at DCPS are kinda bananas, given the school year is only 180 days and given how bad the school system generally is. There are art teachers who make $140,000, which is more than some art professors at Georgetown make. |
Anonymous
| It's pretty shameful how the city shortchanges *half* of the city's kids based on what brand of school they attend. |
Anonymous
Oh yeah, this was the Rhee thing, right? Up salaries but make it easy to fire and throw in a really poor evaluation system to back both. |
Anonymous
Just looked it up and there are even more than a handful that come close or are at/above DCPS -- BASIS, Haynes, Cap City, Two Rivers, DC Prep, Center City, Wildflower, KIPP, Friendship, SEED, Ingenuity Prep, Rocketship, Learn, Girls Global, DC Scholars, DC Bilingual... and there are even more. I am at a school that is very competitive but the budget constraints might change that going forward. The overall increase promised to charters is 2.5% but teacher salaries, utilities, and other fixed costs are growing at much higher rates. I'm afraid that schools are going to walk back salaries, reduce people or cut off a lot of student experiences and materials. These are very difficult budget times and schools -- especially charters -- are going to feel it. |
Anonymous
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Oh yeah, this was the Rhee thing, right? Up salaries but make it easy to fire and throw in a really poor evaluation system to back both.
No, these are base salaries that are fought and won by the Union. The evaluation system and bonuses were a Rhee thing, teachers can make way more than this with bonuses. Those bonuses are funded outside of the per pupil funding formula. I see the argument for charter schools here. Charters can’t afford to pay high salaries because they have to pay rent, don’t get the extra funding for bonuses, I don’t know what else. And now they have to use their per pupil funding formula for basic utilities, renovations, and facilities while DCPS spends it just on salaries that keep going higher and higher. Taxpayers have to fund the general fund in addition to the per pupil funding to pay for DCPS facilities, utilities, etc. Also, Early Stages does not serve charter students. Charter schools have to fund their early childhood special education programs through per pupil funding as well. Generally I think DCPS SHOULD get more money because they have to maintain buildings no matter what, have to accept students at all times, etc. But every year moving money outside of the per pupil funding seems to be resulting in charter schools that just can’t keep up with DCPS spending, and also we are all of a sudden spending A LOT of money on DCPS. The base funding rate is around $15,000 per student. With all of these add ons, we are spending over $30,000 per student for really, a low performing school system. I don’t think the answer is to give charters even more money, but determine an affordable per pupil funding model that can actually pay for most of the programs needed. |
Anonymous
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I think the currently competitive schools will be fine. A full class is a full class regardless of whether there's a waitlist. But it is certainly reason to carefully monitor enrollment and maybe overshoot a little.
The decrease in little kid population is more pronounced EOTR. But a few more elementary school closures might right-size things. Like if Rocketship were to merge its two EOTR locations that would be a good start. WOTR, it's mostly just the low performing schools that aren't filling up. Finally pulling the plug on SSMA would be an improvement there. |
Anonymous
I had a kid at Murch and Deal post-renovation, and there is nothing over the top about either school's renovations. |