December 17, 2001

Ms. Peggy Cooper Cafritz
President
D.C. Board of Education
825 North Capitol Street N.E., 9th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20002

Re: Misleading Statements on D.C. Education Funding

Dear Ms. Cafritz:

Statements you made in recent testimony before Congress and the District Council and in a press release dated December 11, 2001, are likely to mislead the public and policy makers about how public education in the District is funded.

Contrary to what you stated, public charter school students do not receive more funding than DCPS students. All D.C. public school students are funded at the same level.

As you no doubt know, all funding for DCPS and public charter school operations is calculated using the Uniform Per Pupil Funding Formula. Under the Formula, each student is funded at a base amount, called the foundation level, which is identical for each student. Additional amounts are provided by the Formula for students at certain grade levels, for students with limited English proficiency, and for students with disabilities not requiring private placement. These amounts also are identical for DCPS students and public charter school students.

As you also know, funding for special education private placements and transportation is provided to DCPS only as a separate line item, and is not calculated under the Formula.

Although it is not clear from your various statements, you may have meant that DCPS has overspent its private placement and transportation budget and has taken money from operating funds to cover the shortfall. But this does not mean that DCPS students receive less funding than public charter school students.

There is a direct analogy in the public charter school context. Public charter schools often are forced to use operating funds to cover their capital expenses, as the facilities allowance provided by the District (which seeks to create parity with the DCPS capital budget) does not cover necessary facilities expenditures. Public charter schools that choose to do this must make do with reduced operating funds, as they do not have access to additional sources of public money.

The Uniform Per Pupil Funding Formula guarantees equitable treatment of all of D.C.'s public school students, whether they attend DCPS schools or public charter schools. The Formula is salutary in another way: it creates competition between DCPS and the public charter schools for students and the public funds they bring with them, which competition leads to improved performance across the board.

The public charter schools take no position on DCPS's efforts to secure additional funding for special education private placement and transportation. We believe, however, that this search for funds should be done in a way that does not create the impression that public charter school students are the problem. Public charter schools now enroll one in seven D.C. public school students. These students have the same characteristics (per cent free-and-reduced lunch, per cent special education, race and ethnicity) as DCPS students. Public charter schools are publicly funded, free, have open admissions, and do not discriminate on any basis. The nearly 11,000 students who attend them, therefore, are entitled to full and equitable funding without regard to DCPS's financial circumstances.

Sincerely,

Robert I. Cane
Executive Director

Pcc: Board of Education; Mayor Anthony Williams; Greg McCarthy; Michelle Walker; District Council; Congresswoman Constance Morella; Congressman Joseph Knollenberg