- Level D.C.’s Playing Field [Friendship PCS is mentioned]
- The Benefits of School Choice for Poor Children
- D.C. Set to Vote on $9 Billion Budget
- Jonetta Rose Barras: Realigning D.C. Council Committees
- Local School Boards Pay Salary Raises Before Tackling Class Size
Level D.C.’s Playing Field [Friendship PCS is mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Editorial Board
June 2, 2012
So good is the football team fielded by Friendship Collegiate Academy in the District that it was ranked among the Washington area’s best high school teams in The Post’s influential rankings last year. Despite that, the Knights didn’t get to play for the city championship; as a charter school, Friendship was ineligible. That cruel inequity is coming to an end with the long-overdue decision by city officials to create an equal playing field for the growing numbers of charter school student-athletes.
Citywide games this fall in football, boys and girls basketball, and boys and girls indoor track will also be open to public charter school students as well as to private, parochial and independent schools that agree to abide by the unified eligibility rules of a newly created athletic association. The annual Turkey Bowl, a long-standing and cherished ritual of the public school system, will remain intact with its winner vying for a true city football championship against the team that emerges from a playoff of public charter schools, independent schools and private schools. There also will be competition for spring sports.
Charter school officials have long complained about athletic opportunities being denied their students. It made no sense that some of the city’s best athletes — Friendship, for example, had two All-Met football players last year — were sidelined in the postseason simply because they chose to attend a public charter school. And, with a larger percentage of public school students attending charters, currently at 41 percent, the unfairness became all the more glaring.
There are still, though, areas in which charter school students are not on an equal footing with their counterparts in the school system. Many charters struggle to offer athletics to their students because they lack adequate playing fields or facilities. Friendship, for example, has no home field to practice on or to host games and relies on a shoddy field at a nearby rec center for home games. The football team at one Capitol Hill charter school shares a public field with a girls soccer team while the playing fields of nearby Eastern High School go unused.
Clark Ray, the athletic director appointed by Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) to break down the barriers between charter and traditional school athletes, told us he is aware of the facilities issue that confronts the charters and is committed to helping find solutions. Giving charters access to unused or underutilized public school facilities would be a good first step.
The New York Times
By Kevin P. Chavous
May 31, 2012
Re “Public Money Finds Back Door to Private Schools” (front page, May 22): The negative characterizations made about the Georgia Tax Credit Scholarship Program do not represent the entirety — or even a portion — of the thousands of scholarship-granting organizations, schools and administrators either across the state or nationally.
The most rigorous studies of the program in Florida — conducted by David Figlio, who is quoted in the article — show increased academic achievement for students who were struggling most in the public schools. Except for a few isolated examples taken to represent the whole in your article, scholarship tax credit programs across the country have strong accountability measures and a proven track record of improving student outcomes and saving states money.
The overwhelming majority of these programs benefit children from low-income neighborhoods and children with special needs.
While there may certainly be some people who complain about these programs, the vast majority of children are thriving as a result of school choice, having gained access to educational opportunities that otherwise would have been out of their parents’ financial reach. To ignore the overwhelming success of these programs is to jeopardize their future, and with them, the futures of thousands of children from low-income families who are finally getting the shot at a quality education that they deserve.
KEVIN P. CHAVOUS
Washington, May 22, 2012
The writer is a senior adviser to the American Federation for Children and a former member of the D.C. City Council.
The Washington Examiner
By Alan Blinder
June 3, 2012
The D.C. Council is set to extend the hours of city bars, expand the use of traffic cameras and increase performance parking this week when it casts a final vote on a $9 billion budget for fiscal 2013.
Lawmakers were unanimous in giving the budget preliminary approval, but the council must vote again on the fiscal plan Tuesday before it can go to Mayor Vincent Gray for his signature.
The vote will mark the end of a months-long struggle between legislators and Gray over proposed cuts and efforts to raise revenue to close a $172 million shortfall.
Gray is set to get much of what he sought.
Lawmakers are poised to give final approval to a plan that would double the number of traffic cameras around the District, generating additional fines for drivers that could provide as much as 20 percent of the money Gray needs to balance the budget.
Gray has repeatedly said he sought the expansion solely to promote traffic safety, but acknowledged the cash infusion that expansion creates.
"This is not about revenue," Gray told WJLA-TV. "But revenue is a factor because our budget is balanced on the basis of that."
Gray is also counting on parking changes to generate an extra $3 million for city coffers.
Performance parking -- through which officials track demand for spaces and raise prices on those most heavily used -- could also be expanded under next year's budget. The program is now limited to Wards 1 and 6.
Gray's efforts to generate additional revenue for the District aren't limited to charging drivers.
The mayor proposed raising millions of dollars by extending bar hours. Lawmakers originally balked at the proposal but ultimately agreed to allow longer alcohol sales on occasion -- until 4 a.m. on District and federal holidays and on select holiday weekends. Bars will be allowed to stay open on 19 additional nights next year, though that will vary each year.
Ward 1 D.C. Councilman Jim Graham, who represents after-dark hot spot Adams Morgan, said he'd vote for the budget despite his disappointment over the extension of bar hours.
"Nineteen nights is better than 365, but it's still 19 nights of imposition in the neighborhoods," Graham said.
The council will vote separately on a proposal to pay city workers for furlough days they accepted last year.
Legislators voted down similar plans three times, but at-large Councilman Michael Brown is now proposing to pay workers for those furlough days while also boosting affordable-housing programs by about $5 million.
The Washington Examiner
By Jonetta Rose Barras
June 3, 2012
D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown swallowed the Committee on Economic Development last year after Harry Thomas Jr. was forced to step down. Thomas had been accused, and later pleaded guilty to, federal charges of stealing more than $353,000 of taxpayers' funds intended for disadvantaged youth. Brown's move added to his considerable power.
His Committee of the Whole already had oversight of education, property management, zoning, and the budget. Economic development came with a huge multi-billion dollar portfolio. Consolidating that kind of power in the hands of one individual -- even the legislature's chairman -- seemed reckless at the time.
Maintaining that committee structure now is dangerous, considering the questionable state of Brown's political future. His 2008 election committee is under federal investigation for alleged campaign finance violations. If, as some have speculated, Brown is charged with a crime and forced to step down, the council could descend into chaos.
A scrimmage surely would ensue to fill the leadership vacuum. By law, a temporary chairman must be selected from sitting at-large legislators. There likely would be a push to ensure only a Democrat assumed the post. That fight, marked by unvarnished ambition, would be exacerbated by having so many critical functions lodged under the chairman.
The arrival last week of the new Ward 5 representative, Kenyan McDuffie, provides the perfect reason for realigning council committees. But Brown's spokesperson Karen Sibert told me the chairman has "no plans currently in place to make reassignments."
Other legislators should push the envelope. At the very least, the Committee on Economic Development should be reestablished. A case also could be made for a separate Committee on Education.
With a recovering economy, there have been signs development is on the rise. Nearly every ward touts important projects: Skyland in Ward 7; McMillan in Ward 5; Walter Reed in Ward 4; and Reservation 13 in Ward 6.
Still, the District's growth plan cannot rely principally on market whims. Development must be deliberate, incorporating anticipated demands of the city's changing demographics while satisfying the needs of long-time residents. That important work requires an attentive and engaged council -- one that is overseeing the mayor, who also has a cloudy political future.
The legislature's role in education reform is even more critical.
Deputy Mayor for Education De'Shawn Wright is gearing up to effect the operation of charter and traditional public schools. He has said he intends to close several DCPS facilities. He also has indicated he wants to alter admission policies for charter schools. Meanwhile, Chancellor Kaya Henderson has launched her five-year strategic academic plan.
That agenda and a total public education budget of more than $1 billion require more sophisticated and rigorous oversight than has been provided over the past 18 months. That can happen only with a singularly focused committee -- not one distracted by zoning, property management and general budget issues.
With their chairman under a cloud, legislators may want to hope for the best. But their duty to District residents requires they prepare for the worse.
The Washington Post
By Michael Alison Chandler and Ovetta Wiggins
June 3, 2012
School boards across the Washington region have responded to plunging revenue in recent years by freezing wages, imposing furloughs or cutting summer school, pre-kindergarten or arts programs.
But as their budgets begin to improve, boards face choices about spending increases: Should they raise salaries, lower class sizes or restore programs that had been cut?
Several local boards have opted this year for pay increases, in response to demands from teachers and other employees whose salaries had stagnated.
Resetting priorities after a fiscal downturn is challenging, administrators say.
“We know what the priority is when making cuts: You safeguard the classroom as the last resort,” said Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. “But do you go back the same way? Not necessarily. You are going to put those dollars in the areas that are crying out for need.”
In Montgomery County, where pay was frozen for two years, the school board voted to spend nearly all its extra dollars on a salary increase. The $2.1 billion budget deal, a 2 percent increase over current spending, includes two raises in the coming year: a step increase July 1 and a retroactive step increase in May for those who went without one in fiscal 2011. The average increase by next summer will be about 5 percent, officials said.
The deal with the school system’s three employee unions prompted an outcry from some parents and the County Council, which approved smaller, one-time bonuses for other county employees.
Santiago Gasso, a Silver Spring father, said he’s concerned that services “are being degraded” while teachers get raises. His daughter is likely to have more than 25 students in her kindergarten class next year, he said, but his son had fewer than 20 in his kindergarten class a few years ago.
A letter from County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) questioned whether the more generous raises would take away from the district’s longer-term ability to lower class sizes or hire music teachers, media assistants and counselors.
In Prince William County, salary increases are coming with greater sacrifices.
The fast-growing district has lower tax rates and larger class sizes than many of its neighbors. The School Board decided this spring to increase class sizes in middle and high schools, pushing against state limits, so it could afford a step increase for employees.
“This year the priority was keeping pace” with salaries around the region, said Philip Kavits, a spokesman for Prince William schools. “We don’t want to lose people.”
The decision came after teachers packed School Board meetings and protested an original proposal to hold salaries flat. Employees have forgone step increases for three years, but teachers received a 1.75 percent raise and 0.6 percent bonus last year.
Other Virginia districts also are prioritizing pay raises this year, although increases are being offset by adjustments to employee contributions to state and local retirement plans. In Arlington County, for example, the school board approved a 7.2 percent pay increase, but employees will take home only about 2.2 percent. In Fairfax County, the net increase also is 2.2 percent.
Fairfax County School Board member Kathy L. Smith (Sully) said she voted against the budget because she wanted to dedicate more funding to salaries. “Our teachers are working harder and harder every year,” she said.
Instead, the Fairfax board chose to begin restoring services that had been cut or frozen during the recession. It approved as many as three weeks of summer school for struggling students and added money to expand a popular foreign language instruction program to new elementary schools. The board also eliminated an unpopular $100-per-sport athletic fee.
It did not address staffing ratios, which increased class sizes by an average of one student in recent years. The board did add $2.5 million to a staffing reserve meant to relieve some of the largest classes, however. And it set aside $600,000 to expand the board’s support staff.
The District, which has not imposed pay freezes on teachers in the past five years, will spend an additional $25 million in operating costs in its fiscal 2013 budget over this year, with most of the money going to salaries and benefits for teachers, instructional coaches and counselors. The student-to-teacher ratio, meanwhile, is expected to grow by about two students in D.C. middle and high schools.
In Prince George’s County, where property tax revenue was especially hard-hit by foreclosure rates, the school board is trying to find cost-effective ways to make up for some of the region’s most drastic cuts. Teachers have gone without raises for three years, and class sizes have gone up by about four students.
Briant Coleman, a spokesman for the school system, said officials are still in negotiations with the unions but have set aside $18 million for raises. (The school board plans to vote on its $1.65 billion budget at the end of June.)
Meanwhile, Prince George’s officials have given principals some flexibility to address class sizes. They instituted a program that gives principals discretion over how money is spent in their schools, and the school system plans to disperse $15 million among school leaders, who can decide whether to use the money for extra textbooks, extra teachers or to restore programs.
Theresa Saunders, president of the Prince George’s County Council of Parent-Teachers Associations, said school officials have a difficult balancing act to manage. Saunders wants smaller classes, especially in elementary schools, but she also wants good teachers to be adequately compensated.
“We want to retain our good teachers, so we have to be competitive,” Saunders said. “And we want to retain a competitive school system, and to do that we have to have small classes. . . . It’s a challenge to do both.”
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