March 14, 2001

Testtimony of Robert I. Cane Executive Director, Friend of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS)
District of Columbia Council Committee on Education, Liaries, and Recreation Hearing
State Education Office
Fiscal Year 2002 Budget Request

Good afternoon Mr. Chavous, members of the Committee, and staff. My name is Robert Cane, and I'm executive director of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, a non-profit support group for the District's public charter schools. Thank you for providing me with this opportunity to testify.

Mr. Chavous, I'm here to testify about the annual census of public school students that is required by Council legislation. As you know, the SEO has been given the responsibility to conduct the census. As you also know, the Mayor's proposed 2002 budget does not provide the funds to carry it out.

Section 107 of the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (DC Code ¤31-2906), passed by the Council, requires that an independent contractor annually “shall perform a census on the student enrollment of each DCPS and of each public charter school.”

Two things are clear from this language. First, that there must be an annual census, and second, that the student enrollment of every DCPS school and every public charter school must be part of the census.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines “census” as “an official enumeration of a population.” According to the same dictionary, the word “enumerate” means “to count off or name one by one (emphasis added).”

Each year since the adoption of the Funding Formula there has been a census as just defined of every public charter school. Conversely, at no time subsequent to the passage of the Formula has there been a census of DCPS schools. Instead, DCPS's enrollment merely has been sampled, in spite of the law and in spite of serious questions about the sample's accuracy (For example, sampling does not pick up DCPS students who leave the system to go to public charter schools or elsewhere but who for some reason are not removed from the rolls.)

The reason for this disparate treatment is money. It costs around $150,000 to do the enrollment audit the way we do it now; to do it the legal and proper way would cost around $1,000,000.

But trying to save this money is penny-wise and pound-foolish. In fact, doing a proper census could end up saving the District millions each year.

Educational Funding

As you know, the School Reform Act completely changed the way public education in the District is funded. Instead of funding the charter schools or DCPS, it is now each student who is funded. If a student chooses a DCPS school, DCPS gets that student's funding. If he or she chooses a charter school, that particular school gets the funding.

Obviously, once it is the student who is to be funded you need to know exactly how many students there are – hence the census count mandated by the law. The annual count is especially critical given the discrepancies between United States Census Department estimates of DC's student population and counts of students in public and private education in the District. The latter show about 11,000 more students than the former.

The stakes here are very high. As you know, all local education funding must be done through the formula – something like $800 million dollars. An over-count of a mere 112 out of the 79,000 public school students would cost the District a million dollars – the amount it would cost for the legally-mandated census.

Long-range Facilities Master Planning

It is not just education funding that depends on the required census count. Large amounts of capital funds also are at stake. For example, all the enrollment projections underlying the Long Range Facilities Master Plan are based on current DCPS enrollment figures. Inaccurate current numbers mean inaccurate numbers all along the line – and could mean wasted taxpayer dollars.

For all these reasons, we request that the Council budget include sufficient funds for a full census of all public school students in the District.

Thank you.