Reply to WAPO article on Prince George's County Schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]23:15, that's exactly how I have felt from the outside for the last decade. It seems like they wanted to focus on the kids with more "need" with the limited resources, but now I think they have found there's a big consequence to that. Don't they get more federal money per enrolled child? So they get something with every extra child. The local school also gets more from the county for each child, as well as extra staff if the head count goes up enough.

They have tried to take away specialty programs entirely more than once, maybe as elitist? But what else is keeping the motivated families within the system?[/quote]

Well, I don't think they get more federal funds for more children alone.  I think they actually get more federal funds for more kids with needs.  I could be wrong about this.  I don't know the details.  But schools are funded on the county and state level.  Federal funds are tied to certain things (farms, esol, poverty).  That's always been my impression.

Perhaps someone with more direct knowledge of how school funding works could chime in.  [/quote]

PGCPS devotes all of its Title I funds to a relatively few number of very high FARMS schools. I believe a school has to be at about 80% FARMS to receive Title I. However, the average Title I count for a PGCPS school is something like 60% percent. This means that the county does not allocate federal funds to many schools with extremely high FARMS populations.

PGCPS uses a funding mechanism called student-based budgeting. In terms of funding, a school receives a fixed dollar value of $3,100 per pupil. Smaller amounts of additional funding is provided to students who are double advanced in MSA or double basic in MSA, FARMs students and ESOL students. These weights are used to compensate schools for "more expensive" students. Out of this pot, the school has to fund teachers, counselors, vice principals and secretaries. I believe special education staff, principals, some janitors and plant maintenance expenses are borne by the central administration, not the school.[/quote]

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