FOCUS D.C. Public Charter School Bulletin

May 2, 2005

--Education Committee Seeks Boost in Charter School Budget
--Committee Plans Increased Charter School Oversight, Review of Funding Formula
--Two Council Members Introduce DCPS Facilities Bills

Education Committee Seeks Boost in Charter School Budget

Responding favorably to concerns raised by FOCUS on behalf of the charter schools, the Education Committee of the Council last week voted to ask the Council Committee of the Whole (COW) to increase the amount of charter school funding by approximately $2 million to provide equal per-pupil funding with DCPS. The Committee also intends to ask the COW for additional operating and capital funds for DCPS.

In voting to seek an increase in the budgeted charter school amount, the Committee moved to correct an inequity in the Mayor’s proposed budget. That budget, sent to the Council in March, proposed that $21 million be given to DCPS outside the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula to use for special academic initiatives. The proposed budget also would give the charter schools $4.2 million outside the formula, two million short of what is needed to provide per pupil funding parity. The Committee also voted to make most of the extra-formulaic funding permanent, rather than a one-year infusion as proposed by the mayor.

The Committee also will seek $20 million in additional operating funds from the full Council “in order to avert layoffs of more than 300 staff at individual [DCPS] schools.” Committee staff have assured FOCUS that should the Council support this request funds will be found to maintain charter school funding equity.

Committee Plans Increased Charter School Oversight, Review of Funding Formula

Although acknowledging the statutory independence of the District’s charter schools, the Education Committee in its draft budget report makes clear that it does not intend to take a laissez faire approach to charter school oversight. Instead, in the next year the Committee will conduct a “thorough review” of such issues as “the diversity of educational options provided [by the charter schools]; diversity of populations served; school and student performance; and the effectiveness of the chartering authorities in fulfilling their responsibilities.” The Committee also intends to look into how well the charter schools are meeting the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.

The Committee chair also plans to open a dialog “on how best to determine adequate and reasonable funding levels and mechanisms for both charter schools and DCPS.” There is some evidence that Kathy Patterson, the new chair of the Committee, is uncomfortable with the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula as a funding mechanism for DCPS.

Two Council Members Introduce DCPS Facilities Bills

Council Chair Linda Cropp and member Adrian Fenty (Ward 4) have introduced separate bills designed to increase the amount of funding available to DCPS to renovate decaying buildings.

The Fenty bill, introduced on April 19 with council members Gray and Brown and co-sponsored by five other members, is called the “School Modernization Financing Act of 2005.” The bill would permit the issuance of up to $1 billion in revenue bonds to finance school reconstruction, renovation, and deferred maintenance projects such as replacing roofs and windows and upgrading heating and cooling systems. The bill also would require that the Board of Education adopt a multi-year facilities plan to guide the expenditure of the money and that the D.C. Auditor monitor the progress of the plan on an annual basis. The bonds would be paid off exclusively by up to $60 million annually in lottery proceeds.

Chairman Cropp’s bill (“School Modernization Act of 2005), introduced on April 26 and co-sponsored by 10 members, would establish a revolving, non-lapsing dedicated fund within the General Fund to pay debt service on revenue bonds that are issued to finance the repair and renovation of DCPS schools. These funds would be over and above the money DCPS annually receives in its capital budget.

Under the terms of the bill the mayor would annually request of the Council an appropriation of local funds for the modernization fund. In order to gain access to any funds, DCPS would have to develop a new Long Range Facilities Master Plan [LRFMP] that incorporates the findings and goals of the superintendent’s “master education plan,” which he has promised to complete by December of 2005. DCPS also would have to consolidate facilities and dispose of underused buildings as per the recommendations of the master education plan. Finally, in order to receive funds the bill would require DCPS to submit to the Council a plan detailing how the money will be used and how the projects for which it is requesting funding fit into the LRFMP. In deciding whether to fund a particular project the Council would give priority to projects that would permit DCPS to bring back special education students now being educated outside the District, provide space for charter schools, and enter into mixed-use projects with D.C. Public Libraries and the Department of Parks and Recreation.

FOCUS will keep you posted on the progress of these bills.

Friends of Choice in Urban Schools
1530 16th Street, NW #104
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 387-0405 phone
(202) 667-3798 fax
www.focusdc.org