- School Closings Draw Fire in D.C., Nationwide
- D.C. EDUCATION BRIEFS: Henderson Clarifies Truancy Policy
- New York Parents Sue for Charter School Equity
School Closings Draw Fire in D.C., Nationwide
The Washington Informer
By Dorothy Rowley
September 17, 2014
It’s a scenario that’s being played out year after year across the nation: the shuttering of traditional public schools in predominantly black and brown neighborhoods, leading to the displacement of students who are subsequently forced to attend classes outside of their communities.
Some students have been directed to the proliferation of charter schools popping up around the country.
But while city and school officials in large urban areas such as Philadelphia; New Orleans; Newark, New Jersey; Memphis, Tennessee; and Washington, D.C., continue plans to shutter schools, local coalitions comprising parents, students and community advocates stand firm in their support of traditional public schools, which have remained popular among urban students and their families.
The controversy over school closings came to a boil in Newark Sept. 3 when parents who opted not to send their children to charter schools after their community schools were closed were forced to wait in long lines to register them at public schools away from their neighborhoods, authorities said.
“What is happening in Newark is part of the harmful trend of closing under-resourced schools in communities of color and turning them over to private companies,” said Jitu Brown, national director of the Newark-based Journey for Justice Alliance, a grassroots coalition supporting traditional public schools organized last year in 22 cities, including the District.
Activists in Newark and New Orleans – where nine in 10 students attend charter schools – have recently followed the actions of District education advocates by filing civil rights complaints and protesting school closings. About 43 percent of students attend charter schools in D.C., according to statistics from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
As public schools in Newark reopened on Sept. 4, Brown’s organization joined nine others across the country in recommending community-based, community-informed methods for improving school quality.
“[The people] of Newark demand the right to run and operate the school district through a democratically elected and empowered school board,” said Brown, who noted that charters operate independently through a contract with the state or local school board.
In March 2013, two months after D.C. schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson mandated the shuttering of 15 schools, most of which were located in Ward 7 and Ward 8, officials from the community advocacy group Empower DC filed a lawsuit against the chancellor and Mayor Vincent C. Gray to halt further closings of schools, saying the closings were discriminatory in nature. The complaint was closed after a judge granted a summary judgment to Gray and Henderson. Empower DC plans to appeal the decision.
No schools have been closed since, although the Mamie D. Lee School in Northeast Washington and the C. Melvin Sharpe Health Center in Northwest – both of which serve students with severe disabilities – face closure when the current school year ends.
If the schools closed, students would be moved to River Terrace Elementary School in Northeast or schools in their neighborhoods.
“The Sharpe Health Center is a school that was architecturally designed for students with physical [disabilities],” said Washington Teachers’ Union President Elizabeth Davis, who has opposed the school closings. “The facility at River Terrace is not conducive to what the students from Sharpe need.”
Daniel del Pielago, Empower DC’s education coordinator, said his organization will be working with the Journey for Justice team to fight school closings in Newark and New Orleans.
Del Pielago, 36, added that the second annual Day of Service, for representatives from chapters of the Journey for Justice Alliance, will be held next month in the District to spotlight efforts to keep schools open. “[While] we’ve addressed the issue at the national level, the real fights persist at the local level.”
Hilary O. Shelton, 56, director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Washington bureau, said the proliferation of charter schools and ongoing state budget constraints have put more pressure on branches of his organization to engage in the debate over school closings. He said chapters around the country, including D.C., have raised concerns that have drawn the NAACP’s leadership into the conversation.
Shelton said he has learned that some schools were closed based on location. Some schools that have been shuttered or are scheduled for closure served their communities effectively, he said.
“So this is something that has been … consistent with us, going back, quite frankly, to Brown vs. Board of Education,” he said, referring to the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case that outlawed segregated schools.
D.C. EDUCATION BRIEFS: Henderson Clarifies Truancy Policy
The Washington Informer
By Dorothy Rowley
September 17, 2014
Chancellor Kaya Henderson recently provided clarifications regarding truancy, explaining that laws regarding the matter are explicit to ensure consistent in-seat attendance in school and to provide a safety net for students not attending school and who might be in harm’s way.
“Our schools notify families, usually with an automated phone call, after the first unexcused absence. An automated letter is sent from the school to families after a student accrues five, seven and 10 unexcused absences,” Henderson, 44, said in a statement. “The letter shares details about the law and attendance requirements for students. If a student from age 5 to 13 accrues 10 unexcused absences, schools are required to report those absences to the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA). When schools contact CFSA, they provide the details they know that may have contributed to the student’s unexcused absences,” she said. “CFSA proceeds accordingly, contacting the family to understand why the student was absent. In cases when CFSA determines that the absences are not cause for concern and the child is safe, no further action is taken.”
‘State of Schools’ Address
Henderson will deliver her annual “State of the Schools” address at 7 p.m. Tuesday Sept. 30 at H.D. Woodson High School, which is located at 540 55th Street in Northeast.
Henderson will share the school system’s progress and her priorities for developing a high-quality, vibrant school district that provides a world-class education for students.
The reception that follows with light refreshments will include student performances and interactive displays from academic programs and initiatives.
The audience will also have a chance to chat with the chancellor and members of her administration, meet parents from across the city, sample the newest school lunch items and tour the newly renovated Woodson high school.
The event is free and open to the public.
Student Meals, Payments
Breakfast, fresh fruit and vegetable snacks, along with nutritious after-school goodies, are free for students. Students who qualify to receive free or reduced meals or who attend a Provision 2 or Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) school will receive lunch at no charge.
Otherwise, the cost of elementary (pre-K through fifth-grade) lunches is $2.10, and it is $2.60 for secondary students (sixth through 12th grades).
Students who are classified as paying recipients or who have not filled out a “Free and Reduced Meal” application and attend a non-Provision/CEP school must pay for lunch.
However, students’ meal accounts function as a debit account.
When students go through the lunch line to receive a meal, they give the cafeteria manager their names or numbers. The cost of the meals is then deducted from their student meal accounts.
If there are insufficient funds in the student’s meal account, the student still receives a meal, and the student meal account will show a negative balance.
There’s no limit to the amount of negative balance a student can accrue; however, no alternative meals will be served to a student with a negative balance.
Students will continue to accrue negative balances until additional funds are placed into their accounts.
New York Parents Sue for Charter School Equity
The Daily Caller
By Blake Neff
September 17, 2014
A group of parents in Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y., has filed a lawsuit against the state, saying that the state’s formula for funding charter schools illegally shortchanges them compared to public schools.
The suit, Brown v. New York, was filed Monday night and announced Tuesday afternoon with the aid of the Northeast Charter Schools Network, an advocacy group for over 200 charters in both New York and Connecticut.
It claims that New York systematically gives charter schools less money than standard public schools. Buffalo charters, for instance, receive only $13,700 per pupil, they claim, while standard district schools receive $23,500. Such a disparity, they say, violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection under the law.
That is especially the case, the charters argue, since students at charters are far more likely to be black, Hispanic, or from low-income households than students in the state at large.
A total of 107,000 children in New York state attend charter schools. However, thousands more remain on wait lists to attend, a wait list that could be shorter if charters had more money to work with, the suit says. By denying charters the money needed to accept more students off of wait lists, the state is condemning students to remain in failing public schools, argue the plaintiffs.
“Charter schools are the only opportunity most inner city children have to an education of excellence,” said plaintiff Maria Dalmau, who has two daughters in a Rochester charter. “Every child deserves an opportunity like the one my daughters have.”
The lawsuit is very similar to one filed in July in Washington, D.C., where the city’s charter schools alleged that the District favors standard public schools by supplying them with free services worth thousands of dollars and unavailable to charter schools.
“For all but the most privileged families, Buffalo and Rochester are educational deserts that starve our most vulnerable children of all meaningful access to the American dream,” says the lawsuit. “Public charter schools offer a glimmer of hope for many families, but the ability of these charter schools to meet this profound need is stymied by an unconstitutional funding scheme.”