- Gray Budget Plan Draws Early Fire
- Should D.C. Public Schools Do Away With the Lottery?
- Cheh Seeks Review of School Boundaries
The Northwest Current
By Elizabeth Wiener
March 28, 2012
The budget battle begins, again. Mayor Vincent Gray last week proposed a $9.4 billion budget for the next fiscal year that includes no new taxes or fees, but a 2 percent increase in per-pupil funding for schools, and local money to bring police numbers back up to a “fully funded force” of 3,900. Surrounded by a bevy of aides atFriday’s announcement, Gray seemed most pleased to announce that the proposal balances revenue and spending, without dipping into reserve funds that were drawn down during the last administration.
“When we went to Wall Street in February, the mayor committed that our budget would be structurally balanced,” said chief financial officer Natwar Gandhi. “With this budget, I’m quite comfortable we can go back to Wall Street and make the case for stronger [bond] ratings. [That’s] truly unparalleled in the city’s history.” But as soon as the budget and a new five-year spending plan were unveiled, complaints began. Some council members and community activists immediately charged that Gray is balancing the budget “on the backs of the poor.”
The biggest cut, some $23 million, would come from the DC HealthCare Alliance, which provides insurance to those not eligible for Medicaid or private insurance. The proposal would eliminate hospitalization coverage for a group the mayor said is largely comprised of undocumented immigrants.
“I’m the first to say we wish there were more that could be done. But health-care inflation outstrips all other programs. It’s the biggest budget in the city,” Gray said, making cuts inevitable there in a tight budget year. He added that restoring that cut would be high on a list of priorities if additional revenue is found. The city is also being pinched because some $43.6 million in federal funds, including many “stimulus” programs, will expire next year.
The budget proposes pitching in $22 million in local dollars to keep some of those programs going, including police staffing and job training services. But the loss of $7 million in federal funding for homeless shelters and transitional housing is particularly painful, the mayor said.
There was also widespread sniping about one large source of new revenue: fines from motorists snared by “expanded automated enforcement techniques.” That means, according to the mayor’s office, new photo and laser radar equipment, “speed on green” cameras to catch cars speeding through intersections, mobile red-light cameras, cameras designed to catch pedestrian-crossing violations, and a pilot project with laser-based speed cameras that can be used in tunnels.
The new technology will cost about $5.8 million, but it is expected to raise $30 million the first year. Officials say it’s a way to make the roads safer, but some critics say the cameras, especially when implemented as part of the budget, seem mostly like a way to raise revenue.
Another controversial change would extend hours for alcohol sales, both on- and off-premises, to reap more sales tax — similar to a plan approved last year that allows stores to sell wine and beer until midnight. The new proposal would extend weekday hours at bars until 3 a.m., and on weekends until 4 a.m. Liquor stores could open at 7 a.m. instead of 9 a.m., and restaurants could remain open at all hours during presidential inauguration week.
The proposal is expected to raise $5.3 million in sales tax, but critics fear public safety implications. The new budget would also save money at schools with a new food service contract, and by continuing to reduce high transportation and tuition costs of sending special-education students to out-of-state private schools. Savings in tuition are estimated at $40 million, but some of the saving is dependent on “building more capacity” to serve special ed students within the city’s schools.
Gray also wants to fund two more staff positions at the Office of Campaign Finance, which has been criticized for failing to catch apparent violations like the donation of multiple money orders from what seems to be the same source, a scandal now rocking both the mayor’s office and the council. A new central collection unit in Gandhi’s office, especially targeting out-of-state motorists for unpaid tickets, is expected to raise $10 million, according to the budget proposal.
A new system of tracking credit card payments will allow the city to collect $15.5 million more in sales taxes, it says. Gray is also proposing a “revised revenue priority list” to counter criticism that his budget ignores the most needy. With prospects good that the economy will continue to improve, the city could start ticking through a $120 million wish list of what the mayor termed “critical needs.”
Item one on the list is $7 million to replace lost federal funds for homeless services. Next is $14 million in temporary assistance for needy families, then restoration of the HealthCare Alliance’s hospitalization coverage, more funding for affordable housing, and so on.
No. 6 on the wish list is $1.1 million to repeal the controversial tax on out of-state municipal bonds. Gray said the budget proposal will be widely aired, with a town hall meeting in every ward. The council, too, will air its views, with budget hearings on every agency.
Final action is due by May 15.
The Washington Post
By Janice D'Arcy
March 30, 2012
Earlier this week, D.C. Pubic Schools revealed that more parents than ever before applied for admission in the pre-school, pre-k and out-of-boundary lottery.
The crush of applications to fill seats at the most coveted schools suggests a growing confidence in city schools. Well, certain city schools. The flipside of the lottery numbers is that it also suggests that all those parents who applied for an out-of-boundary slot do not want their child to attend the neighborhood school.
The lottery, in theory, is supposed to give those families who don’t highly regard their local school some options. But, the landscape is changing. More families in-boundary for the better schools are taking up the seats, and overall, more families want to stay in the city and also have the option of a good school. (That shouldn’t be too much to ask, but for many it still is.)
The decreasing number of seats available at the “best” schools and the increasing number of families who want them has created a welling anger and what’s been called an illusion of choice.
DCPS officials have said that the fact that parents are applying for a broader selection of schools is an indication that neighborhood schools are improving. Bancroft Elementary in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, for instance, was until recently considered sub-par by many neighborhood families. This year, it broke into the top 10 most sought after schools in the lottery.
Still, everyone acknowledges that the schools are not improving fast enough.
One mother wrote me with an intriguing solution: Do away with the lottery altogether.
A theory holds that the lottery has always contributed to the inequality in schools because when the most dedicated parents “win” the lottery, it means they bring their energy to a different school and thus deprive the neighborhood school of a possible change-agent.
The mother who wrote me — she lives in Ward 5 and entered the pre-school lottery for the first time this year and was wait listed at all of the six schools she applied to — adds that the lottery is also creating a tinderbox of pressure for parents.
Here’s an excerpt from her note:
“I looked at the results for several schools online — and not the usual suspects either — most families who made it either were in-boundary or had a sibling. It’s sad to me that the families with kids who live on my block may all have kids in different schools because the school around the corner is really ‘bad.’
“The improvements in DCPS are great, but sadly it appears that those improved schools are out of reach for most families. I think the lottery process is really, really stressful for families and ultimately I question whether or not it is a feasible option. That process coupled with the charter school lottery system is really ridiculous — like applying to college.
“I understand that the next six months will be a chaotic mess of shifting list positions and badgering school administrative offices. There has to be a better way and I’d almost prefer DCPS just saying, ‘no more lottery, commit to your local neighborhood school and we’ll support you.’ ”
What do you think? Is the lottery itself creating a problem? Or will removing all public school choice encourage parents to abandon the system?
The Northwest Current
By Brady Holt
March 28, 2012
The District’s school boundaries and feeder patterns may change by the 2014-2015 school year if the D.C. Council approves a bill Ward 3 member Mary Cheh introduced last week. The School Boundary Review Act would establish a mayor appointed task force to study existing conditions and offer recommended changes. Cheh said that because the boundaries haven’t been comprehensively adjusted in decades, they may no longer be in line with enrollment patterns, population shifts and other factors.
“We have this situation in Ward 3 where some of our schools are overcrowded, then you have situations in other [wards] where schools are under-enrolled,” said Cheh. “There are two ways to deal with the situation: You can either have new resources, such as a new middle school in Ward 3, or you can try to adjust the boundaries so that they make more sense.” Under Cheh’s bill, the mayor would appoint a School Boundary Review Commission — which would include school officials, an Office of Planning representative and members of the public — by Jan. 1, 2013.
Through a series of public hearings, this commission would develop a plan that would be approved in May and — with possible “minor adjustments” from the mayor — go into effect 15 months afterward. This process would repeat itself every 10 years. The changes, if the commission finds any are appropriate, could impact which areas are “in-boundary” for which schools, and where students finishing a particular school would likely go for the next level of public education. The bill isn’t asking for specific changes, Cheh noted, but she wants to see a methodical approach.
“Identify what your values are and why you’re [going to be] doing it the way you are,” Cheh said, “not just because that’s the way they are now.” That said, Cheh isn’t pleased with existing conditions. Each Ward 3 school in the public school system is at or over capacity in the 2011-2012 school year, according to data shared by Cheh’s office, and trends project further growth. D.C. Public Schools spokesperson Melissa Salmanowitz didn’t respond to requests for corresponding information in other wards.
Asked about Cheh’s legislation, Salmanowitz shared a February 2011 letter that Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson — then interim chancellor — had sent to Cheh about the idea of reviewing boundaries. “Between the challenges of school closures and our progress in modernizing schools across the city, we recognize that certain shifts in school populations have occurred,” the letter reads.
Stating that it would be too difficult to make a change in time for the 2011-2012 school year, the letter adds that “we agree that there may be a future need to study all DCPS boundary areas.”Cheh has been seeking such a study for years, she said, most recently from Henderson and previously from her predecessor, Michelle Rhee. “They always have something more pressing, or they don’t see the utility of it or whatever, or they see it could be something controversial that they don’t want to grapple with,”
Cheh said. Boundary shifts could rankle parents who bought homes to ensure a particular school for their children, Cheh acknowledged, but she said the bill includes some protections for them. Children already in school when the boundaries shift — and their siblings — would be grandfathered in. And under the bill, no change would come before fall 2014. The District has poured money into renovating and expanding various schools in Ward 3 and elsewhere and has plans to do more. But some say the improved schools are often the victims of their own success.
Tracy Scarrow, parent of two Janney Elementary students and vice president of the school’s PTA, said Janney is already evaluating reconfigurations less than a year after a large-scale renovation and expansion, to cope with a burgeoning student count. “Janney is fortunate that it’s a wonderful school, and more and more people are sending their kids to the local public school,” said Scarrow — but something is going to have to give. “If you don’t decrease the number of students coming, you’re going to have to find places to put them,” she said. “Janney’s philosophy is to maintain smaller class sizes, and that will just be more and more difficult to do over time if these trends continue.”
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