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[quote=Anonymous]In the meantime....

2017 D.C. budget continues charter facility funding inequity 
Watchdog.org
By Emily Leayman
May 31, 2016

D.C. charter schools have not seen an increase in their $3,124 per-student facilities funding since 2008, and will have to wait yet another year for any increase.

That continues a trend of annual D.C. Public School facilities funding far outpacing charter facilities funding. With charter schools educating 45 percent of the D.C. student population, school choice advocates expressed disappointment over the D.C. Council decision made earlier this month.

In a May 17 vote on the fiscal year 2017 budget, the Council flat-funded the charter facilities formula, and the D.C. Public Schools’ six-year, $1.3 billion capital plan took priority. In fiscal year 2017, charter schools will receive $130 million for facilities based on enrollment projections, and DCPS schools will receive $391 million, according to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. That means traditional public schools, with 55 percent of the students, will get 75 percent of the money.

The D.C. Council will hold a final vote on the 2017 budget Tuesday.

David Grosso (I-At Large), chairman of the Council’s Education Committee, told Watchdog.org that pitting charter and DCPS facilities funding against each other is “not a fair comparison.” DCPS facilities took priority, he said, because the D.C. government made limited investments in school renovations until creation of the Public Education Master Facilities Plan in 1995. The first D.C. charter schools opened in 1996.

“We have a lot of fixing to do for our failures in the past,” Grosso said. “Ultimately, I think we are doing right by the charter school facilities.”

Each charter school receives per-student funding, which depends on enrollment and comes from operating dollars. According to the D.C. Public Charter School Board, additional funding would help charter schools make lease and mortgage payments without dipping into general operating funds.

“We understand the challenges the Mayor and the City Council are facing this year with the City’s budget, but the decision to not increase the facilities funding creates great difficulties for DC public charter schools,” the DCPCSB said in a statement. “As charter facilities’ costs continue to rise, the funds will need to come from other sources of the public charter school’s budget.”

Grosso said he wants to see a stronger commitment from Mayor Muriel Bowser to free up funding for charter facilities. Last year, the council earmarked $4 million for renovations at two charter schools, but Bowser blocked the funding to fill a $250 million gap elsewhere in the budget.

A coalition of school choice advocates asked the council for a 2.2 percent increase to the funding formula and voiced their disappointment with the flat funding. The increase would have brought per-student facility funding to $3,250, which is still below the 2016 inflation-adjusted $3,439 rate.

Irene Holtzman, executive director of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS), said in a statement that charters are receiving more based on enrollment, but that increase is not designed to fund capital projects or lease payments.

While DCPS buildings are government-owned, charter schools must use the private market if they cannot obtain an old DCPS facility.

Ramona Edelin, executive director of the D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools, told Watchdog.org that charter school access to old DCPS buildings is more important than matching DCPS funding.

“There are surplus buildings that are closed, that are built for children, and they are not being turned over for charter school use,” said Edelin.

“FOCUS is disappointed in Council’s failure to find a small facilities funding increase for public charter schools, when the value of their funding today, adjusted for inflation, is actually worth over $300 less than it was in 2008,” Holtzman said. “With construction and borrowing costs on the rise, school leaders are in a very difficult position balancing programmatic and facilities needs.”

Advocacy groups urged the council to adopt a funding index as a long-term solution.

“Using an index would enable public charter schools to budget wisely and plan for the future, ultimately ensuring that the District both attracts and keeps new residents in the city while meeting the needs of current families,” Catharine Bellinger, D.C. Director of Democrats for Education Reform, told Watchdog.org.
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