NEWS
- Washington Post editors advice for Baltimore public schools has lesson for D.C.
- The schools Baltimore needs [KIPP Baltimore PCS mentioned]
- Many schools that need renovations may not be getting them
Washington Post editors advice for Baltimore public schools has lesson for D.C.
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
May 8, 2015
This morning the editors of the Washington Post point to the low quality of public education in Baltimore as a cause of the inequality and social dysfunction that plagues this city. Their solution is simple and one that has been tried here in the nation's capital: implement school choice. From the piece:
"Giving poor parents the kind of alternatives that wealthier families take for granted would help. Some competitive pressure on the school system might help, too. But Maryland is so hostile to charter schools that many children in Baltimore find themselves stuck with no options."
Here in D.C. we now have 20 years of experience with an educational marketplace. 44 percent of all public children now attend charter schools. How are our students doing academically? For an answer let's take a look at the 2013 Trial Urban District Assessment scores (TUDA) based upon the National Assessment of Educational Progress Assessment (NAEP, referred to as the nation's report card.) For comparison I've also included the results of DCPS, followed by D.C. charters, and then Baltimore City.
4th Grade Math: DCPS 229, Charters 228, Baltimore 223
8th Grade Math: DCPS 260, Charters 271, Baltimore 260
4th Grade Reading: DCPS 206, Charters 205, Baltimore 204
8th Grade Reading: DCPS 245, Charters 251, Baltimore 252
In summary, the TUDA findings for Washington, D.C. and Baltimore City, with the exception of 8th grade math and 8th grade reading for the charter sector, are the essentially the same.
Now to be fair, the one major difference between D.C. and the city to the north is that our scores have been rising faster than those of Baltimore. However, if school choice is the right answer to what ails our public schools then we have to move at a much more serious pace.
Remember the 40,000 quality seats that the Illinois Facility Fund said was needed back in 2012? Where are they?
I have a novel idea. Instead of concentrating on getting along, or community input, or the egos of politicians, let's hire someone to expand our high performing charter schools to create those 40,000 spots in the next five years. The Washington Post editorial ends this way:
"Much as Hurricane Katrina served as a beacon for rebuilding New Orleans’s education system, so could the death of Freddie Gray serve as a wake-up call in Maryland." It appears that Mr. Gray could serve as a crucial lesson for us as well.
The schools Baltimore needs [KIPP Baltimore PCS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Editorial Board
May 7, 2015
THE STATE of Baltimore’s public schools was spotlighted in the aftermath of riots that rocked a city mourning the death of a young black man, Freddie Gray, while in police custody. Bad schools are only one element of urban dysfunction. But they are both a consequence and a cause of inequality, and improving them is essential to keeping another generation from being trapped by poverty. There’s no excusing violence. But as the attorney for Mr. Gray’s family said of the young people who took part in the rioting, “The education system has failed them.”
The past decade has seen students in the 84,730-student system making gains, particularly in reading, but the educational outcomes are still depressingly low. Just 16 percent of eighth-graders and 14 percent of fourth-graders were proficient in reading on the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress; the performance of Baltimore students ranked in the bottom third of the nation’s largest cities, according to Trial Urban District Assessment data. More than a quarter of high school students don’t graduate in four years. Nor is money the problem: Baltimore ranks near the top in per-pupil spending for big cities.
Giving poor parents the kind of alternatives that wealthier families take for granted would help. Some competitive pressure on the school system might help, too. But Maryland is so hostile to charter schools that many children in Baltimore find themselves stuck with no options.
There are 31 public charter schools in Baltimore, enrolling 11,506 students — about 14 percent of public school students. The District, by contrast, has 112 charter schools, enrolling 37,684 students — 44 percent of public school students. Thousands of Baltimore students are on waiting lists for charters; KIPP Baltimore, for example, has 635 students queued up. But Maryland’s restrictive laws have kept good schools from meeting that need while preventing charters from innovating as they would like to do. A report this year by Baltimore’s Abell Foundation lamented that national charter management organizations with proven track records in educating low-income children are dissuaded from locating in Maryland because of the lack of autonomy they would have in choosing curriculum and hiring personnel as well as meager financial support.
Gov. Larry Hogan (R) tried to get the General Assembly to approve needed reforms, but the Democrat-controlled, union-friendly legislature not only gutted his plan but also passed a bill that would impose onerous new regulations on charters. The bill is awaiting action by the governor; he should veto it.
Baltimore’s tumult underscores the need to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan that welcomes high-quality charter organizations that have helped bring school improvement to cities such as Washington and New Orleans. Much as Hurricane Katrina served as a beacon for rebuilding New Orleans’s education system, so could the death of Freddie Gray serve as a wake-up call in Maryland.
Many schools that need renovations may not be getting them
Greater Greater Washington
By Natalie Wexler
May 7, 2015
The Bowser administration wants to postpone or eliminate funding for needed improvements at dozens of schools. At the same time, the budget for renovating the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Georgetown has ballooned to $178 million.
Mayor Muriel Bowser's proposed budget for capital improvements would delay or abandon promised renovations at 20 or possibly more schools. At some of those schools, mice roam the classrooms, bathroom stalls lack doors, and halls are dim and dingy. One has no walls between classes.
DC Councilmember David Grosso, chair of the education committee has proposed new guidelines for funding school renovations. He's asking for community input through an online survey that ends tomorrow.
While the budget would cut or delay many future renovations, it also seeks increases for projects that are already in progress or about to begin, including an additional $30 million for Ellington. That would bring the total cost of the renovation to about $300,000 for each of the 600 students at the application-only high school. Officials have explained that it's costly to create a "world-class performing arts space" while respecting the historic nature of the 19th-century building.
DC Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson has criticized the way school renovations are scheduled, saying it has more to do with "how loudly your community screams" than with objective criteria. Now Councilmember David Grosso, who is reviewing Bowser's proposed budget as chair of the Education Committee, is trying to bring some rationality to the process.
"I can't in good conscience urge my colleagues to pass this capital budget as is," Grosso said at a committee hearing two weeks ago.
The Washington Post has put the number of renovation projects that are delayed at "more than a dozen" or "nearly twenty." But education activist Matthew Frumin says that the total number of projects that are either delayed or eliminated is 45.
Proposed criteria for renovations
Grosso would prioritize schools that haven't recently been modernized and are in bad condition. He would also look at the size of a school's current and potential enrollment.
Grosso has posted a survey online, asking the public to weigh in on his proposed priorities and also suggest others. The deadline for responding is Friday.
Grosso would also ask how well a school's facilities "support teaching and learning." That criterion apparently refers to architectural features like the open-classroom layout at Orr Elementary School in Ward 8.
Decades ago, DCPS tore down the walls at some elementary schools, in accordance with a then-fashionable theory that it would improve learning. Not only has that theory come into question, some also argue that schools without interior walls are unsafe because teachers and students have nowhere to hide in the event of an intrusion.
Orr may be the most egregious example of a school that has long been in need of modernization. In addition to the lack of walls, families and students say the building is infested with mice, the playground is dangerous, and parts of the ceiling are falling down.
A year ago, then-Councilmember Bowser signed a pledge promising "to fight for Orr's modernization to begin immediately" and "to hold accountable those who further delay modernizing the school."
Dismay in Ward 6 and elsewhere
Bowser's proposed delays in funding have upset other school communities as well. The budget would push back renovations of two Ward 6 middle schools, Jefferson and Eliot-Hine, from 2016 to 2019. Many parents in Ward 6 abandon neighborhood schools after elementary school, and activists have seen improving local middle schools as crucial to keeping those students in the feeder pattern.
The delay "undermines years of work," according to Joe Weedon, the Ward 6 representative to DC's State Board of Education. Weedon tweeted a photo of a girl's bathroom at Eliot-Hine that showed general disrepair and stalls without doors.
The Ward 3 SBOE member, Ruth Wattenberg, tweeted a photo that showed a bathroom at Murch Elementary School in Ward 3 doubling as the nurse's office. The budget would also delay funds to renovate Murch, which has long been overcrowded.
Cost overruns and high school spending
According to Frumin, the increases in funding for current renovation projects show that DC either underestimated construction costs or that those costs are rising—or both. But, he says, the Bowser administration hasn't increased cost estimates for renovations it's planning to delay.
If history is any guide, future costs will climb as well. And Frumin says the District may not be able to borrow enough money to pay those additional costs. Current law limits the amount DC can use to repay loans and interest to 12% of total expenditures, he says. Even the funding levels in the proposed budget would bring payments close to that limit, with 11.8% going to service debt beginning in fiscal year 2019.
Even if Grosso is able to reinstate some delayed renovations, Frumin says, the cap on debt payments means DC won't be able to fund future renovations unless it changes the law or finds money elsewhere in the budget so that it doesn't have to borrow money to finance them.
One problem is that over the past several years DC has spent huge amounts of money renovating high schools, many of which are under-enrolled.
Ellington isn't under-enrolled, and it's undoubtedly a valuable institution that has incubated significant artists. Still, it's hard to justify spending vast amounts of money renovating the school at a time when needs are dire elsewhere.
Nor does it make sense for Ellington to remain in the building that currently houses it. That building, just north of Georgetown, used to be a neighborhood high school called Western.
If it became a neighborhood school again, it could draw off some of the students currently assigned to Wilson High School and relieve the serious overcrowding there, while still allowing space for out-of-boundary students at both schools. And presumably it would cost less to equip an old, historic building to function as an ordinary high school than to turn it into a world-class performing arts space.
Ellington, meanwhile, could move to a more central and accessible location. That would make sense for a school that draws its student body from across the District. Observers have made these suggestions before, and it's not clear why authorities haven't taken them seriously.
Grosso's proposed criteria for deciding which schools to modernize make sense, but they may not be enough to make people think twice about the Ellington renovation. If he truly wants to bring rationality to the decision-making process, he'll figure out a way to avoid such a huge waste of needed funds before it's too late.
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