NEWS
- Goodwill of Greater Washington eyes space for new adult charter school [Goodwill Excel Center PCS mentioned]
- Facts you need to know about ‘school’ spending
Goodwill of Greater Washington eyes space for new adult charter school [Goodwill Excel Center PCS mentioned]
Washington Business Journal
By Tina Reed
August 12, 2015
Goodwill of Greater Washington is poised to begin creating a new charter school for adults a few blocks from the White House.
Earlier this year, the D.C. Public Charter School Board granted a conditional approval for Goodwill to open a charter high school for adults. The school will be the first school of its kind in the District, allowing those who didn't finish their high school education to earn a diploma as opposed to a GED.
Goodwill is in negotiations for about 25,000 square feet at 1776 G St. NW near George Washington University, according to spokesman Brendan Hurley. The school, which will be called the Goodwill Excel Center, will open in August 2016.
It will have at least 325 students enrolled at any given time, per conditions of its charter, Hurley said.
Goodwill's program will connect with job training programs for adults, including those in the hospitality and unarmed security industries.
In its application to open the school, Goodwill said about 63,000 D.C. adults, or about one in 10 residents, lack a high school diploma or equivalent. "A large portion of the D.C. community is grossly unprepared to participate in the 21st century workforce — one that will require additional skills beyond high school, whether through an industry certification or postsecondary degree," officials wrote in their application.
A recent post on District, Measured, a site run by the D.C. Office of the Chief Financial Officer, points out the number of high school dropouts in the District has actually fallen in recent years. The number of residents with less than a high school diploma or equivalent fell from 14 percent in 2008 to about 10 percent in 2013, the most recent year data is available.
Facts you need to know about ‘school’ spending
Washington Times
By Deborah Simmons
August 13, 2015
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read that the ninth annual Huntington Bank Backpack Index, which said that parents with three kids in elementary school can expect to spend $1,947 on supplies and extracurricular activities come the new school year.
If you’ve got one in elementary school, one in middle school and one in high school, you’re going to bump up against nearly $3,000.
If you’ve got three in high school, you might as well just roll over and find a therapist.
School supply lists are hardly universal, and they include things that a generation ago were routinely found in kids’ playrooms and bedrooms, but not necessarily in classrooms.
Notebooks, paper, pens, crayons and pencils, scissors are still among longstanding staples, of course.
But these days even pre-schoolers are asked to bring things likely found in grown folks’ workplace.
For example, Capitol Heights Elementary School in Prince George’s County, Maryland, requests that children bring two packs of Post-it notes, two large bottles of hand sanitizer and three boxes of tissues. The school also gets brand specific: Clorox Disinfecting Wipes Ziploc bags, please and thank you.
Gender has a role, too: Preschool and kindergarten boys are required to bring gallon-size Ziploc bags, but girls should bring quarter-size Ziplocs.
Now, if you’re low-income parents, I can’t imagine what your feet will feel like or how far you have to trek to meet this requirement: “1 five subject, spiral-notebooks [sic] with red plastic cover (MEAD)-brand preferably.” Hmm.
That is the rub. Test scores nationwide prove that third-, fourth- and fifth-graders and beyond are not reading and calculating on grade level. But, hey, at least their parents bought them the right brand name.
Donors step into the breach
Not all parents can afford everything on schools’ supply lists, and George Mokrzan, director of economics for Huntington Bank, put it succintly in a press release: “With the ongoing slow growth in wages, it is difficult for many families to meet the rising costs of sending children to school. For a family of five living at the poverty level guideline of $28,410, the cost of sending three children to school would consume as much as 10 percent of their income.”
To help make ends meet, back-to-school drives have been and are being held across country. In Prince George’s County, thousands of parents and youngsters attended the fair at the Showplace Arena in Upper Marlboro last Saturday. Immunizations, which are mandatory, were also avaiable.
The nonprofit OCASE Foundation, a group of D.C. civic do-gooders, holds a similar event every year, giving away thousands of supply-laden backpacks to D.C. students. The only requirement: Kids must be accompanied by a parent or adult.
They spend what?
Do you have any idea how what the per-pupil spending level is in your state, regardless of whether you have a child in public school?
Below are need-to-know numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.
But, please, folks, don’t be fooled. The 2013 dollar figures have more than likely risen, as you probably know, and they are going to rise again.
In addition to having to recalibrate pensions for principals, teachers and other union-organized school employees, add to your annual school costs a social phenomenon that has been sweeping the nation — universal pre-K.
1) The biggest per-pupil spenders are all blue states, according to the census:
New York — $19,818
District of Columbia — $17,953
New Jersey — $17,572
Connecticut — $16,631
2) The states that spend the least are on the western side of the mighty Mississippi River:
Utah — $6,555
Idaho — $6,791
Arizona — $7,208
Oklahoma — $7,672
Per-pupil spending is going to continue to increase as long as politicians continue to push universal preschool and kindergarten. After all, parents have figured out that it’s cheaper to send their tots to a public school — which they pay for via local, state and federal tax dollars.
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