Charter school funding gap in FY27 budget

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charter school parents: We want DC to way over-spend on our facilities too (albeit without the big gratuity to developers). Any money that WTU negotiates for their dues-paying teachers is owed to our teachers too. We *have to* go to charters because DCPS has failed us. We *have to* go to charters because DCPS is violent. We can't take any students that have to or want to leave other charters; DCPS needs to take those. Even as we take away half the kids from DCPS, we don't want to have any part is helping solve the messes that DCPS has to deal with -- that is other kids' problem.

Basically, we want the equality for all the good stuff but avoidance for all the difficult parts.

More like…

DC charter parents: Follow the law which says funding parity.

DCPS: But we have to pay our teachers more, they are in a union. Your teachers aren’t in unions so they shouldn’t make as much. We also get no money for buildings, they come from the DGS fairy. Why do you need money for facilities?

Some of them are in unions though.

They do get a facilities allotment. Explicitly. Have your opinion but please stop spreading false information.

Does that $2000 per kid for charters equal $5 billion for DCPS? Absolutely not! What is DCPS spending on Tubman, $200k per kid? And they will provide maintenance going forward.

I don't now where the $5 billion figure comes from.

However, $2000 x 50,000 students x 20 years = $2 billion, so that's real money.

DC has spent $3.6 billion renovating DCPS schools, and plans to send another $2 billion more.

Ok, we know some of that was ill-spent (the effort to make underenrolled high schools appealing), some inefficiently spent (yay Bowser and her developer friends), some spent to benefit the community in addition to the schools (pools), and some spent initiatives to benefit the community that make no diffetence to the kids (energy efficiency).

We also know that DCPS has to deal with the schools already has, that can't easily reject a difficult property.

Charter schools would surely spend more efficiently can choose properties that make most sense in this era, amd need not worry about investments for the larger community. So presumably they need less money for the same number of students over at the same time.

Is the current allocation fair? I don't know. Maybe not. But I do know that you need more complete information to make a meaningful comparison.

How? They already have buildings. Just like DCPS. Do better.

Some charters have bought or leased buildings in the past 20 years. Others are still expanding or plan to move. None are tied to properties they acquired 50 or 100 years ago.

Oh stop. DCPS is building Taj Mahals. They spent almost $200 million on Duke Ellington, which has maybe 600 students. Meanwhile, there is no such thing as a fancy charter school in Washington D.C.

The Duke Ellington renovations were a complete abuse of taxpayers. We all should have been mad -- and we were. For anyone who missed it, here's a good, short article on the fiasco: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/education/taxpayers-pay-millions-for-over-budgeted-school-renovations/65-474821677

It's still not clear what mismanagement--and possibly graft--last decade has to do with funding schools now.

So have any palaces been built in recent years? I haven't seen it. Banneker is looking great, but was not bonkers like Ellington.

Seems like the process has been tightened up. Maybe somebody here can share details?

Tightened up? DC is spreading the money far and wide (at least for DCPS) and thinks nothing of spending $100 million on a school with 500 kids.

Duke Ellington -- $180 million
Coolidge -- $160 million
Jackson-Reid -- $130 million
Dunbar -- $125 million
Roosevelt -- $125 million
Woodson -- $100 million
Tubman -- $100 million
Deal -- $100 million
JO Wilson -- $91 million
Cardozo -- $90 million
Deal -- $90 million
Ballou -- $90 million
Jefferson -- $90 million
Burrville -- $85 million
Truesdell -- $80 million
Oyster Adams -- $79 million
Burroughs -- $75 million
Janney -- $70 million
MLK -- $65 million
Dorothy Height -- $63 million
Garfield -- $60.5 million
Anacostia -- $60 million

The maga tactics are exhausting. You keep repeating this talking point but with skewed use of the data.

When you attach years, school size, ES vs HS, and condition of prior building to the list, then we can have a well-founded conversation!

Except for Coolidge, the biggest items on your list happened in the early and mid 2010s.

Which $100 million dollar renovation for a 500 person school has happened since then? Let's talk specifics.

I care about spending education money on students and teachers! But this "discussion" based on decade-old recycled outrage is annoying.

You are a terrible (and egregious) liar.

Here's a small sampling of the recent ground breakings and ribbon cuttings Bower has announced for these supposedly old projects:

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-dedicates-dorothy-i-height-elementary-school-ward-4-following-63-million

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-cuts-ribbon-829-million-truesdell-elementary-modernization-celebrates-first-day

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-breaks-ground-65-million-modernization-martin-luther-king-jr-elementary-ward-8

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-celebrates-first-day-school-and-cuts-ribbon-modernized-oyster-adams-bilingual

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/bowser-administration-breaks-ground-burroughs-elementary-school

Bowser is absolutely obsessed with fancy school renovations. They make her developer donors happy, they create the illusion that she actually cares about education, and the lady loves a ribbon cutting photo op.

I don't think it's just Bowser. We are ruled by social justice warriors who oppose raising academic standards in schools, who oppose creating gifted and talented programs, who oppose getting rid of teachers who are bad at their jobs. If you oppose all those things, but, as a politician on the city council, you need to somehow show your support for schools, what do you do? You support over-the-top renovations of school facilities (but not for charters, because every good social justice warrior, especially the ones living in Ward 3, knows charter schools are evil).

Who are you talking about? As a teacher, I know we have been begging to RAISE standards and DCPS and the mayor laugh.

And though I teach in DCPS in general yes charters are ‘evil.’ Funny how no other nation has to privatize PUBLIC education but the US and we are STILL doing poorly. However, the nuance is a little different in DC compared to places like Louisiana for example. I do not think DC charters are overall ‘evil.’ But to give them the exact same benefits would be unfair.
My principal has to fight tooth and nail to NOT do some of the nutso anti-science things DCPS pushes, whereas a charters makes its own choices.

They are by definition private public schools.
I haven’t seen a decrepit charter school filled with mice/rats, if that’s incorrect feel free to name some. There are DCPS schools like Kramer MS filled with rodents. I hate going there for PD’s, in fact I skipped the last one it was so gross.

FYI, if you speak on teachers make sure you get your facts straight. We can be fired at the drop of a hat. If there is a poor teacher it’s because they are friends or friendly with their boss.

So DCPS pushes “nutso anti-science things”, but charters that provide an alternative are evil? Wow. Just curious, are the charter students evil? Or is it just the teachers and parents. Why so much hate?

[Anonymous]

Are kids in DCPS more valuable as humans than kids in charters? The city is spending $10,000 more per kid in DCPS every year than it spends on kids in charters. That is crazy, and probably illegal. There is an election coming, and elections have a way of forcing politicians actually listen to voters' concerns. If you're a charter school family, this is an excellent time to contact your representatives about your concerns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charter school parents: We want DC to way over-spend on our facilities too (albeit without the big gratuity to developers). Any money that WTU negotiates for their dues-paying teachers is owed to our teachers too. We *have to* go to charters because DCPS has failed us. We *have to* go to charters because DCPS is violent. We can't take any students that have to or want to leave other charters; DCPS needs to take those. Even as we take away half the kids from DCPS, we don't want to have any part is helping solve the messes that DCPS has to deal with -- that is other kids' problem.

Basically, we want the equality for all the good stuff but avoidance for all the difficult parts.

More like…

DC charter parents: Follow the law which says funding parity.

DCPS: But we have to pay our teachers more, they are in a union. Your teachers aren’t in unions so they shouldn’t make as much. We also get no money for buildings, they come from the DGS fairy. Why do you need money for facilities?

Some of them are in unions though.

They do get a facilities allotment. Explicitly. Have your opinion but please stop spreading false information.

Does that $2000 per kid for charters equal $5 billion for DCPS? Absolutely not! What is DCPS spending on Tubman, $200k per kid? And they will provide maintenance going forward.

I don't now where the $5 billion figure comes from.

However, $2000 x 50,000 students x 20 years = $2 billion, so that's real money.

DC has spent $3.6 billion renovating DCPS schools, and plans to send another $2 billion more.

Ok, we know some of that was ill-spent (the effort to make underenrolled high schools appealing), some inefficiently spent (yay Bowser and her developer friends), some spent to benefit the community in addition to the schools (pools), and some spent initiatives to benefit the community that make no diffetence to the kids (energy efficiency).

We also know that DCPS has to deal with the schools already has, that can't easily reject a difficult property.

Charter schools would surely spend more efficiently can choose properties that make most sense in this era, amd need not worry about investments for the larger community. So presumably they need less money for the same number of students over at the same time.

Is the current allocation fair? I don't know. Maybe not. But I do know that you need more complete information to make a meaningful comparison.

How? They already have buildings. Just like DCPS. Do better.

Some charters have bought or leased buildings in the past 20 years. Others are still expanding or plan to move. None are tied to properties they acquired 50 or 100 years ago.

Oh stop. DCPS is building Taj Mahals. They spent almost $200 million on Duke Ellington, which has maybe 600 students. Meanwhile, there is no such thing as a fancy charter school in Washington D.C.

The Duke Ellington renovations were a complete abuse of taxpayers. We all should have been mad -- and we were. For anyone who missed it, here's a good, short article on the fiasco: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/education/taxpayers-pay-millions-for-over-budgeted-school-renovations/65-474821677

It's still not clear what mismanagement--and possibly graft--last decade has to do with funding schools now.

So have any palaces been built in recent years? I haven't seen it. Banneker is looking great, but was not bonkers like Ellington.

Seems like the process has been tightened up. Maybe somebody here can share details?

Tightened up? DC is spreading the money far and wide (at least for DCPS) and thinks nothing of spending $100 million on a school with 500 kids.

Duke Ellington -- $180 million
Coolidge -- $160 million
Jackson-Reid -- $130 million
Dunbar -- $125 million
Roosevelt -- $125 million
Woodson -- $100 million
Tubman -- $100 million
Deal -- $100 million
JO Wilson -- $91 million
Cardozo -- $90 million
Deal -- $90 million
Ballou -- $90 million
Jefferson -- $90 million
Burrville -- $85 million
Truesdell -- $80 million
Oyster Adams -- $79 million
Burroughs -- $75 million
Janney -- $70 million
MLK -- $65 million
Dorothy Height -- $63 million
Garfield -- $60.5 million
Anacostia -- $60 million

The maga tactics are exhausting. You keep repeating this talking point but with skewed use of the data.

When you attach years, school size, ES vs HS, and condition of prior building to the list, then we can have a well-founded conversation!

Except for Coolidge, the biggest items on your list happened in the early and mid 2010s.

Which $100 million dollar renovation for a 500 person school has happened since then? Let's talk specifics.

I care about spending education money on students and teachers! But this "discussion" based on decade-old recycled outrage is annoying.

You are a terrible (and egregious) liar.

Here's a small sampling of the recent ground breakings and ribbon cuttings Bower has announced for these supposedly old projects:

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-dedicates-dorothy-i-height-elementary-school-ward-4-following-63-million

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-cuts-ribbon-829-million-truesdell-elementary-modernization-celebrates-first-day

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-breaks-ground-65-million-modernization-martin-luther-king-jr-elementary-ward-8

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-celebrates-first-day-school-and-cuts-ribbon-modernized-oyster-adams-bilingual

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/bowser-administration-breaks-ground-burroughs-elementary-school

Bowser is absolutely obsessed with fancy school renovations. They make her developer donors happy, they create the illusion that she actually cares about education, and the lady loves a ribbon cutting photo op.

I don't think it's just Bowser. We are ruled by social justice warriors who oppose raising academic standards in schools, who oppose creating gifted and talented programs, who oppose getting rid of teachers who are bad at their jobs. If you oppose all those things, but, as a politician on the city council, you need to somehow show your support for schools, what do you do? You support over-the-top renovations of school facilities (but not for charters, because every good social justice warrior, especially the ones living in Ward 3, knows charter schools are evil).

Who are you talking about? As a teacher, I know we have been begging to RAISE standards and DCPS and the mayor laugh.

And though I teach in DCPS in general yes charters are ‘evil.’ Funny how no other nation has to privatize PUBLIC education but the US and we are STILL doing poorly. However, the nuance is a little different in DC compared to places like Louisiana for example. I do not think DC charters are overall ‘evil.’ But to give them the exact same benefits would be unfair.
My principal has to fight tooth and nail to NOT do some of the nutso anti-science things DCPS pushes, whereas a charters makes its own choices.

They are by definition private public schools.
I haven’t seen a decrepit charter school filled with mice/rats, if that’s incorrect feel free to name some. There are DCPS schools like Kramer MS filled with rodents. I hate going there for PD’s, in fact I skipped the last one it was so gross.

FYI, if you speak on teachers make sure you get your facts straight. We can be fired at the drop of a hat. If there is a poor teacher it’s because they are friends or friendly with their boss.

So DCPS pushes “nutso anti-science things”, but charters that provide an alternative are evil? Wow. Just curious, are the charter students evil? Or is it just the teachers and parents. Why so much hate?

No one still can answer why charters should get everything DCPS gets and get to create almost all their own policies entirely?

I don’t hate charters but if you want the exact same funding then they should be exactly the same as DCPS. Make it make sense.

DCPS still serves the kids charters don’t -higher proportions of students with significant IEPs, unhoused students, kids who’ve been pushed out. The capital investment reflects those obligations and the fixed infrastructure costs of being the school of last resort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are kids in DCPS more valuable as humans than kids in charters? The city is spending $10,000 more per kid in DCPS every year than it spends on kids in charters. That is crazy, and probably illegal. There is an election coming, and elections have a way of forcing politicians actually listen to voters' concerns. If you're a charter school family, this is an excellent time to contact your representatives about your concerns.

Can you please cite a source for your $10,000 claim? The DC Charter School Alliance says the difference is $1,850 per student.

https://dccharters.org/blog/budget-proposal-statement

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are kids in DCPS more valuable as humans than kids in charters? The city is spending $10,000 more per kid in DCPS every year than it spends on kids in charters. That is crazy, and probably illegal. There is an election coming, and elections have a way of forcing politicians actually listen to voters' concerns. If you're a charter school family, this is an excellent time to contact your representatives about your concerns.

Can you please cite a source for your $10,000 claim? The DC Charter School Alliance says the difference is $1,850 per student.

https://dccharters.org/blog/budget-proposal-statement

I think you're looking at outdated numbers. See here: https://dccharters.org/blog/the-numbers-dont-lie

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charter school parents: We want DC to way over-spend on our facilities too (albeit without the big gratuity to developers). Any money that WTU negotiates for their dues-paying teachers is owed to our teachers too. We *have to* go to charters because DCPS has failed us. We *have to* go to charters because DCPS is violent. We can't take any students that have to or want to leave other charters; DCPS needs to take those. Even as we take away half the kids from DCPS, we don't want to have any part is helping solve the messes that DCPS has to deal with -- that is other kids' problem.

Basically, we want the equality for all the good stuff but avoidance for all the difficult parts.

More like…

DC charter parents: Follow the law which says funding parity.

DCPS: But we have to pay our teachers more, they are in a union. Your teachers aren’t in unions so they shouldn’t make as much. We also get no money for buildings, they come from the DGS fairy. Why do you need money for facilities?

Some of them are in unions though.

They do get a facilities allotment. Explicitly. Have your opinion but please stop spreading false information.

Does that $2000 per kid for charters equal $5 billion for DCPS? Absolutely not! What is DCPS spending on Tubman, $200k per kid? And they will provide maintenance going forward.

I don't now where the $5 billion figure comes from.

However, $2000 x 50,000 students x 20 years = $2 billion, so that's real money.

DC has spent $3.6 billion renovating DCPS schools, and plans to send another $2 billion more.

Ok, we know some of that was ill-spent (the effort to make underenrolled high schools appealing), some inefficiently spent (yay Bowser and her developer friends), some spent to benefit the community in addition to the schools (pools), and some spent initiatives to benefit the community that make no diffetence to the kids (energy efficiency).

We also know that DCPS has to deal with the schools already has, that can't easily reject a difficult property.

Charter schools would surely spend more efficiently can choose properties that make most sense in this era, amd need not worry about investments for the larger community. So presumably they need less money for the same number of students over at the same time.

Is the current allocation fair? I don't know. Maybe not. But I do know that you need more complete information to make a meaningful comparison.

How? They already have buildings. Just like DCPS. Do better.

Some charters have bought or leased buildings in the past 20 years. Others are still expanding or plan to move. None are tied to properties they acquired 50 or 100 years ago.

Oh stop. DCPS is building Taj Mahals. They spent almost $200 million on Duke Ellington, which has maybe 600 students. Meanwhile, there is no such thing as a fancy charter school in Washington D.C.

The Duke Ellington renovations were a complete abuse of taxpayers. We all should have been mad -- and we were. For anyone who missed it, here's a good, short article on the fiasco: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/education/taxpayers-pay-millions-for-over-budgeted-school-renovations/65-474821677

It's still not clear what mismanagement--and possibly graft--last decade has to do with funding schools now.

So have any palaces been built in recent years? I haven't seen it. Banneker is looking great, but was not bonkers like Ellington.

Seems like the process has been tightened up. Maybe somebody here can share details?

Tightened up? DC is spreading the money far and wide (at least for DCPS) and thinks nothing of spending $100 million on a school with 500 kids.

Duke Ellington -- $180 million
Coolidge -- $160 million
Jackson-Reid -- $130 million
Dunbar -- $125 million
Roosevelt -- $125 million
Woodson -- $100 million
Tubman -- $100 million
Deal -- $100 million
JO Wilson -- $91 million
Cardozo -- $90 million
Deal -- $90 million
Ballou -- $90 million
Jefferson -- $90 million
Burrville -- $85 million
Truesdell -- $80 million
Oyster Adams -- $79 million
Burroughs -- $75 million
Janney -- $70 million
MLK -- $65 million
Dorothy Height -- $63 million
Garfield -- $60.5 million
Anacostia -- $60 million

The maga tactics are exhausting. You keep repeating this talking point but with skewed use of the data.

When you attach years, school size, ES vs HS, and condition of prior building to the list, then we can have a well-founded conversation!

Except for Coolidge, the biggest items on your list happened in the early and mid 2010s.

Which $100 million dollar renovation for a 500 person school has happened since then? Let's talk specifics.

I care about spending education money on students and teachers! But this "discussion" based on decade-old recycled outrage is annoying.

You are a terrible (and egregious) liar.

Here's a small sampling of the recent ground breakings and ribbon cuttings Bower has announced for these supposedly old projects:

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-dedicates-dorothy-i-height-elementary-school-ward-4-following-63-million

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-cuts-ribbon-829-million-truesdell-elementary-modernization-celebrates-first-day

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-breaks-ground-65-million-modernization-martin-luther-king-jr-elementary-ward-8

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/mayor-bowser-celebrates-first-day-school-and-cuts-ribbon-modernized-oyster-adams-bilingual

https://mayor.dc.gov/release/bowser-administration-breaks-ground-burroughs-elementary-school

Bowser is absolutely obsessed with fancy school renovations. They make her developer donors happy, they create the illusion that she actually cares about education, and the lady loves a ribbon cutting photo op.

I don't think it's just Bowser. We are ruled by social justice warriors who oppose raising academic standards in schools, who oppose creating gifted and talented programs, who oppose getting rid of teachers who are bad at their jobs. If you oppose all those things, but, as a politician on the city council, you need to somehow show your support for schools, what do you do? You support over-the-top renovations of school facilities (but not for charters, because every good social justice warrior, especially the ones living in Ward 3, knows charter schools are evil).

Who are you talking about? As a teacher, I know we have been begging to RAISE standards and DCPS and the mayor laugh.

And though I teach in DCPS in general yes charters are ‘evil.’ Funny how no other nation has to privatize PUBLIC education but the US and we are STILL doing poorly. However, the nuance is a little different in DC compared to places like Louisiana for example. I do not think DC charters are overall ‘evil.’ But to give them the exact same benefits would be unfair.
My principal has to fight tooth and nail to NOT do some of the nutso anti-science things DCPS pushes, whereas a charters makes its own choices.

They are by definition private public schools.
I haven’t seen a decrepit charter school filled with mice/rats, if that’s incorrect feel free to name some. There are DCPS schools like Kramer MS filled with rodents. I hate going there for PD’s, in fact I skipped the last one it was so gross.

FYI, if you speak on teachers make sure you get your facts straight. We can be fired at the drop of a hat. If there is a poor teacher it’s because they are friends or friendly with their boss.

So DCPS pushes “nutso anti-science things”, but charters that provide an alternative are evil? Wow. Just curious, are the charter students evil? Or is it just the teachers and parents. Why so much hate?

No one still can answer why charters should get everything DCPS gets and get to create almost all their own policies entirely?

I don’t hate charters but if you want the exact same funding then they should be exactly the same as DCPS. Make it make sense.

DCPS still serves the kids charters don’t -higher proportions of students with significant IEPs, unhoused students, kids who’ve been pushed out. The capital investment reflects those obligations and the fixed infrastructure costs of being the school of last resort.

The city is spending $9,675 more per child at DCPS. If a school has 900 kids, that's an extra $8.7 million for that school every year. And charters have more at-risk kids (most kids in Wards 7 and 8 go to charters, while charters are almost non-existent in Ward 3) and more special-ed kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are kids in DCPS more valuable as humans than kids in charters? The city is spending $10,000 more per kid in DCPS every year than it spends on kids in charters. That is crazy, and probably illegal. There is an election coming, and elections have a way of forcing politicians actually listen to voters' concerns. If you're a charter school family, this is an excellent time to contact your representatives about your concerns.

Can you please cite a source for your $10,000 claim? The DC Charter School Alliance says the difference is $1,850 per student.

https://dccharters.org/blog/budget-proposal-statement

I think you're looking at outdated numbers. See here: https://dccharters.org/blog/the-numbers-dont-lie

You seriously must think people are dumb and maybe some are…

The DC Charter School Alliance published a piece today called "The Numbers Don't Lie" and some of those numbers are real. But here's what they left out:

The $9,675 "gap" mixes apples and oranges.
That figure combines capital funding (building renovations) with operational funding (classroom resources) into one dramatic number. Capital money pays for aging infrastructure, buildings DCPS owns and maintains across the entire city, including schools that charters moved out of. It doesn't go into a teacher's pocket or a child's classroom. Combining it with per-pupil dollars is designed to shock you, not inform you.

DCPS buildings are old. That's not a conspiracy. When you see a DCPS renovation, that's often a 70 year old building getting its roof fixed or asbestos removed. Charters largely operate in leased or newer spaces. The capital gap reflects real structural obligations, not favoritism.

The article never mentions who DCPS is legally required to serve.
DCPS cannot turn away students mid-year. DCPS cannot informally discourage families navigating complex IEPs. DCPS cannot close a school because enrollment dropped. Charters - even great ones, do not carry these same obligations. Higher-need students cost more to serve. That's not an insult to charters. It's just true.


To be fair: if the FY27 budget really does move $59.4 million in DCPS utility costs outside the funding formula, that's worth scrutinizing. Charter advocates are right to flag it. That specific concern deserves a real answer from the Council. However, that’s about $600 per student not $10,000.

But "one valid point" is not the same as "the whole system is rigged against your child." Read critically before you testify and are embarrassed.

[Anonymous]

I cannot believe people use ChatGPT to reply in DC Urban Moms.

Moving facilities and utilities funding outside the formula is exactly what is being scrutinized.

The per pupil funding formula already accounts for providing more money for at-risk students and SPED students. Charters serve slightly more at risk and Level 4 SPED students than DCPS anyway.

Also the argument that charters should get less money because they don’t have to listen to central office is crazy. They should get the same (per pupil, with extra allotted for at risk and SPED students) because they are responsible for the same student results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cannot believe people use ChatGPT to reply in DC Urban Moms.

Moving facilities and utilities funding outside the formula is exactly what is being scrutinized.

The per pupil funding formula already accounts for providing more money for at-risk students and SPED students. Charters serve slightly more at risk and Level 4 SPED students than DCPS anyway.

Also the argument that charters should get less money because they don’t have to listen to central office is crazy. They should get the same (per pupil, with extra allotted for at risk and SPED students) because they are responsible for the same student results.

Doesn’t change the fact that it’s correct.

And no, charters don’t serve more ‘level 4’ ha.q

[Anonymous]

$600 gap and the karens of the forum are crying. When black and brown families are facing much more inequality and inequity.

Your charter space is fine. Feel free to send your kid to Ballou.

[Anonymous]

These are the facts our school is sharing:

~$2,000 less per student that charter schools receive compared to DC Public Schools under the proposed FY27 budget.

$59.4M in DCPS fixed costs (like utilities) moved off-budget to a city agency — with zero equivalent relief for charter schools.

$72M+ increase in DCPS capital/facilities funding in FY27 alone — while charter school facilities funding is frozen through 2030.

20% average increase in utility costs for charter schools from last year to this year — with no budget relief to match.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These are the facts our school is sharing:

~$2,000 less per student that charter schools receive compared to DC Public Schools under the proposed FY27 budget.

$59.4M in DCPS fixed costs (like utilities) moved off-budget to a city agency — with zero equivalent relief for charter schools.

$72M+ increase in DCPS capital/facilities funding in FY27 alone — while charter school facilities funding is frozen through 2030.

20% average increase in utility costs for charter schools from last year to this year — with no budget relief to match.

Are Points 2 and 3 explaining Point 1? Or are those separate things?

[Anonymous]

They are explaining point 1. Point 4 illustrates how this will have an outsized impact - charters will continue to have to pay for their utilities from their per pupil funding while DCPS won’t, and the cost of utilities has gone way up. So charters will have to cut from the rest of their operating budget (salaries, programs, teachers) to afford the rising costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Charter school parents: We want DC to way over-spend on our facilities too (albeit without the big gratuity to developers). Any money that WTU negotiates for their dues-paying teachers is owed to our teachers too. We *have to* go to charters because DCPS has failed us. We *have to* go to charters because DCPS is violent. We can't take any students that have to or want to leave other charters; DCPS needs to take those. Even as we take away half the kids from DCPS, we don't want to have any part is helping solve the messes that DCPS has to deal with -- that is other kids' problem.

Basically, we want the equality for all the good stuff but avoidance for all the difficult parts.

This is so hostile. Please go say this to Ward 7 and ward 8 parents, most of whom send their kids to charters.

You're right. I don't think its many Ward 7 and 8 charter school parents here saying the stuff above. The above only applies to the DCUM charter school crowd. What above has not been said in this thread?

The DCUM crowd has a component of people who are white people living in gentrifying neighborhoods who are highly sensitive to their neighbors who choose to opt into DCI feeders or Latin or BASIS and their entire worldview is shaped by how betrayed they feel by it.

But this is a tiny proportion of the charter world. Do these people even know anyone who sent their kids to DC Prep? And how thankful they are that this option exists, to support their kids who have college aspirations but live in a community where going to the local DCPS means joining the drug trade and gang life? This is not a stereotype, this is from conversations I've had with people in that group.

So it does feel hostile for "Nice white parents" to denigrate charters.

Look I absolutely understand this to an extent but do you realize most of those other charters have abysmal records? People cherry pick on both sides of this. Coolidge sends more kids to better colleges than most of those places and a bunch of people complained that it had a massive renovation (that was also the building for the first MS in that part of town). And a lot of the charter parents complaining here wouldn't dream to send their kid to Coolidge but in order to support money for their own mostly wealthy charters have to pretend to support places like Rocketship and KIPP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charter school parents: We want DC to way over-spend on our facilities too (albeit without the big gratuity to developers). Any money that WTU negotiates for their dues-paying teachers is owed to our teachers too. We *have to* go to charters because DCPS has failed us. We *have to* go to charters because DCPS is violent. We can't take any students that have to or want to leave other charters; DCPS needs to take those. Even as we take away half the kids from DCPS, we don't want to have any part is helping solve the messes that DCPS has to deal with -- that is other kids' problem.

Basically, we want the equality for all the good stuff but avoidance for all the difficult parts.

More like…

DC charter parents: Follow the law which says funding parity.

DCPS: But we have to pay our teachers more, they are in a union. Your teachers aren’t in unions so they shouldn’t make as much. We also get no money for buildings, they come from the DGS fairy. Why do you need money for facilities?

Some of them are in unions though.

They do get a facilities allotment. Explicitly. Have your opinion but please stop spreading false information.

Does that $2000 per kid for charters equal $5 billion for DCPS? Absolutely not! What is DCPS spending on Tubman, $200k per kid? And they will provide maintenance going forward.

I don't now where the $5 billion figure comes from.

However, $2000 x 50,000 students x 20 years = $2 billion, so that's real money.

DC has spent $3.6 billion renovating DCPS schools, and plans to send another $2 billion more.

Ok, we know some of that was ill-spent (the effort to make underenrolled high schools appealing), some inefficiently spent (yay Bowser and her developer friends), some spent to benefit the community in addition to the schools (pools), and some spent initiatives to benefit the community that make no diffetence to the kids (energy efficiency).

We also know that DCPS has to deal with the schools already has, that can't easily reject a difficult property.

Charter schools would surely spend more efficiently can choose properties that make most sense in this era, amd need not worry about investments for the larger community. So presumably they need less money for the same number of students over at the same time.

Is the current allocation fair? I don't know. Maybe not. But I do know that you need more complete information to make a meaningful comparison.

How? They already have buildings. Just like DCPS. Do better.

Some charters have bought or leased buildings in the past 20 years. Others are still expanding or plan to move. None are tied to properties they acquired 50 or 100 years ago.

Oh stop. DCPS is building Taj Mahals. They spent almost $200 million on Duke Ellington, which has maybe 600 students. Meanwhile, there is no such thing as a fancy charter school in Washington D.C.

The Duke Ellington renovations were a complete abuse of taxpayers. We all should have been mad -- and we were. For anyone who missed it, here's a good, short article on the fiasco: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/education/taxpayers-pay-millions-for-over-budgeted-school-renovations/65-474821677

It's still not clear what mismanagement--and possibly graft--last decade has to do with funding schools now.

So have any palaces been built in recent years? I haven't seen it. Banneker is looking great, but was not bonkers like Ellington.

Seems like the process has been tightened up. Maybe somebody here can share details?

Tightened up? DC is spreading the money far and wide (at least for DCPS) and thinks nothing of spending $100 million on a school with 500 kids.

Duke Ellington -- $180 million
Coolidge -- $160 million
Jackson-Reid -- $130 million
Dunbar -- $125 million
Roosevelt -- $125 million
Woodson -- $100 million
Tubman -- $100 million
Deal -- $100 million
JO Wilson -- $91 million
Cardozo -- $90 million
Deal -- $90 million
Ballou -- $90 million
Jefferson -- $90 million
Burrville -- $85 million
Truesdell -- $80 million
Oyster Adams -- $79 million
Burroughs -- $75 million
Janney -- $70 million
MLK -- $65 million
Dorothy Height -- $63 million
Garfield -- $60.5 million
Anacostia -- $60 million

And some of these schools are tiny! Garfield has 252 students. Anacostia High School only has 250 students. Burrville has 232 students. Burroughs has 331.