NEWS FLASH: So it begins – Malloy Plans to Shift More Public Funds to Charter Schools

Feb 06

jonpeltoAchievement First/ConnCAN, Higher Education, Malloy, State Budget, Stefan Pryor Achievement First, Charter Schools, Malloy, State Budget, Stefan Pryor 11 Comments

According to a published report in the Connecticut Post, the “Education Reform Plan” that Governor Malloy will announce later this week will include Commissioner of Education Stephan Pryor’s plan to give charter schools more public funds including money that will be shifted from helping Connecticut’s poorest urban districts. The primary beneficiary of this move will likely be Achievement First, the large Charter School Management Company that has 9 schools in Connecticut. An ironic development considering Stefan Pryor helped create Achievement First and has served as one of its Directors until he resigned to accept Malloy’s invitation to become Connecticut’s Education Commissioner.

Details about the plan remain vague, but it would appear that Governor Malloy has decided to side with the charter schools and begin the “money follows the child” system in which scarce dollars used to help pay for education in existing school districts would be transferred to the charter schools.

The report is the Governor will “increase per-pupil funding for charter schools from $9,400 to $12,000” and that at least $1,000 per-pupil would be a transferred directly for the resource poor urban districts to the big-time donor supported charter schools that have recruited students from their area.

The Connecticut Post (see link below) claims that this would be the first time local districts would be transferring money to charter schools in their towns. The paper notes that “for districts like Bridgeport, which sends about 1,400 students to charter school, the cost would be $1.4 million annually.”

While that loss would be a major blow to the Bridgeport Public School System, the paper’s claim that charter schools don’t get any funds from local districts is blatantly false although the “untruth” has been consistently used by Achievement First and other charter school managers in their battle to get more taxpayer funds.

For example, the City of Hartford paid $1.5 million to help renovate the old school building that Achievement First – The Hartford Academy moved into. In addition, Hartford pays Achievement First $500 a year for each Hartford student who attends Achievement First – Hartford Academy (and that is on top of the grant Achievement First gets from the state of Connecticut). Hartford also provided Achievement First with a “one-time payment” of $400,000 to “cover costs associated with the operation of the school”.

As Achievement First has expanded, the cost to the City of Hartford has also gone up. According to one estimate Hartford now provides Achievement First with $2.35 million a year, money that could be helping Hartford overcome the existing challenges that face its schools.

Meanwhile, while Achievement First cries poverty, they seem to skip over the fact that the state of Connecticut gave Achievement First a $24 million grant to help build the permanent home of the Amistad Academy, which opened last year. It was the first grant of its kind to a charter school in Connecticut and will end up costing Connecticut taxpayers well over $35 million to pay back the bonds and interest for that grant.

Apparently Governor Malloy’s new plan not only over looks these existing taxpayer-funded subsidies but he is calling for significantly more money to be given to Achievement First and other charter schools.

According to the CT Post article, the number of charter schools allowed in the state would increase from 17 to 22 including some type of incentive that would reward local school districts to setting up separate charter schools within their district.

Of course, that overlooks one of the major problems and that is how does a publicly elected municipal board of education legally allow a charter school to be set up in its district when that charter school doesn’t even allow a local elected board to citizens to oversee it.

Achievement First traditionally claims that they need and deserve exactly the same amount of money that public district schools receive. But the fact is that they don’t have unionized faculty and staff so they can pay less…and yet these same teachers are put into the state’s teacher retirement system which will cost Connecticut taxpayers tens of millions of extra dollars in the years to come.

For more information on the breaking story see http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Charter-schools-to-get-boost-under-Malloy-plan-3057442.php#ixzz1lcWikeVR

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http://centriststudent.wordpress.com centriststudent

Gotta hand it to you, 2.5 hours after CT News Junkie & CT Post reported/updated the story, you got your response out to WordPress. That has to be a record.

I’m glad you put in ‘will likely be’. It must have been tempting though to omit likely from that line even though their will be a set of standards and regulations to disperse these monies to successful charter schools. I’d like to point out though that the Gov.’s Press release and CT News Junkie are citing $11,000. Only CT Post has $12,000.

As for the rest, you are the ‘edu guru’ and I am not. Some items you have raised are interesting, if not significant. And they certainly warrant a level of discussion during this sadly short legislative session.
- jonpelto
  
  thanks Centerist student – remember that old adage – to be relevant you have to be in the same news cycle. And thanks for the comment about some of the issues I have raised – it will be really interesting to watch whether there can be a slightly more sophisticated debate. The CTNewsjunkie vs. CTPost is the state share of the grant vs this new $1,000 of the ECS follows the kid – so it is Malloy throwing a bone to ConnCAN, Achievement First etc.
  
  The other piece this is interesting is this new language about priority populations. As you know I’ve been banging away at that one – the charter populations are less poor, more African American, less Latino, less English as a second language and virtually no special ed children. The governor’s press release appears to say those should be criteria for NEW charters but what about the existing charters and note that it is a long list that begins with students in poor communications so can they keep doing what they are doing and say they meet the new criteria because they are poor – just not as poor as the kids they leave behind in the district schools.
  - http://centriststudent.wordpress.com centriststudent
    
    I would agree with you that if the new Charter’s have to run a certain standard, those charter’s already in place should be required to comply with the new standards in a certain period of time (perhaps 1-2 academic years after passage so that the charter school may properly adjust). The new schools will come in knowing the new system and work into abiding by it as they establish themselves. Meanwhile, most charter schools have developed mid/long-term strategies that are based upon the current guidelines for gaining students and establishing their school environment.
Jean de Smet

Too bad they just slammed the door on any new early childhood initiatives. There are a lot of good ideas, but never any funding for them. Malloy’s proposal sends the money thru existing programs and charter schools, but nothing else.
- jonpelto
  
  Remember this is the “new” gang – jepsen and malloy who are trying to remove early childhood from the definition of constitutionally mandated education while claiming they are the most pro-early childhood leaders yet…… AND JUST WAIT TILL YOU SEE THE LAW SUIT JEPSEN FILED TOED TO PUNISH EVERY TOWN THAT WAS A MEMBER OF THE FUNDING SUIT. It should be coming out in the next few hours but it is the most disgusting piece of crap these people have done yet….. I’m serious… you just won’t believe it – Democrats punishing towns and taxpayers for bringing a suit to try and force Connecticut to meet its constitutional responsibilities – we don’t have to look far for the real enemies of education in this state
Jeff Klaus

Jon, AF pays its teachers about 10% more than their host district pays its teachers on average, spends slightly less total $$ on a per pupil basis, and academically outperforms its host districts by wide margins in terms of standardized tests in reading, writing, and math, graduation rates, and college entrance.

Question: How do you think AF manages to do that?

It’s interesting that you mentioned the school system, the teachers, the unions, and taxpayers. I didn’t see anywhere where you talked about students. What is the impact of great charter schools on students and their parents? AF charters are in more demand than they have open spots. For an overwhelming number of families who are trying to win a coveted spot at Jumoke or AF, there are no other quality options for schooling.

So what do you say to the thousands of families, predominantly low income African-American, who have found a great public charter school for their child? More importantly, what do you say to the parents who did NOT get their child in?
- jonpelto
  
  Jeff, I’ve been very, very clear – I don’t doubt that the students and parents are happy with their choice. I’ve also be clear that I believe the reason the test scores are higher is that not only are classrooms sizes small etc. etc. but that AF and other charters are pulling those students that are less poor, speak primarily English, do not go home to households that don’t have English as their primary language and have fewer special education needs. By shifting money from district schools to charters you are giving the charter school students even more resources at the expense of the far larger number of students who are left in the district schools.
  
  I’m glad the charter families are happy…
  
  But it is ConnCAN that has said the issue is not more investment in education but that charters want more money.
  
  As to the state support – one of the biggest costs is pension and post retirement healthcare. The present system was a result of union and state discussions – charter school teachers are not only allowed – but now mandated to go into the state pension system. The cost to add each of the AF teachers is about 7,600 hundred a year. The taxpayers will be funding that for decades to come. AF may be its people 10% higher although I’ve never seen that but my guess is their overall compensation package including health care is much lower and the biggest cost – the pension – is already being picked up by the state. So, in fact, to suggest that AF needs the same amount of money as a school district simply ignores that facts.
KMUHAMMAD

As an AF parent, it seems to me that Mr. Pelto does not know where the poorest districts are. New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford, lets see, I do believe they fit the criteria. If all traditional public schools were up to standards like the ones I had the pleasure of going to maybe there would have been no need for charters to exist. Well they are here and there is a need and thank goodness for the dedication of long hours and rigorous curriculum, change is coming. They have been doing the best they could with less and now there is possibility of being able to do more. It is a poor dog that won’t wag it’s own tail. These children whether charter, magnet, or traditional public they are all of our FUTURE. There are many solutions that are being put into place to work for an equal education for all children. All I hear you doing is COMPLAIN, CONDEMN AND CRITICIZE, I hope my tax dollars are not paying for that. For the record if you looked at the culture of where the schools are located it serves the students that are living in the area. Most important a child can not be in the lottery unless they apply and live in the district, so if an area is predominately white, black or polka dot, the students are picked by chance and with over 5,000 waiting on a list, says SOMETHING.
- jonpelto
  
  Kmuhammad, I’m sorry if I haven’t been clear. I don’t begrudge you and your family taking advantage of the opportunity you and your family have. The issue is one of fairness and how to provide a quality education for all children. The data is very clear, AF students are less poor than students in the district schools, they have less English as a second language needs, they go home to schools where English is usually the primary language and they have less special education needs. The test scores are understandably higher. With the Governor’s proposal AF students will not get a “subsidy” of $12,000 including a $1,000 that will be shifted from the district schools. This means the AF student’s subsidy will grow by $2,600 while the average New Haven student’ subsidy will increase by $150. In addition the state paid $24 million to upgrade the AF facility and state will pay $7,600 a year for each teacher now that they go into the state pension system. Meanwhile 95% of the other students are given virtually nothing more to help with the challenges facing their programs. My complaint is not with AF’s parents or students it is with the fact that this Governor has consistently talked about shared sacrifice – the ECS formula is $800 million underfunded. The City of New Haven will receive less than $4,000,0000 from this whole program, AF will receive more than $7,400,0000 almost twice the amount. For the richest state in the country where people making over $2 million dollars a year did not face any tax increase when the rest of us had big tax increases is wrong, immoral and unfair. A spokesperson for AF/ConnCAN said the problem isn’t money but how the money is spent – that is totally and completely untrue. The problem is both money and how it is distributed. My complaining, condemning and criticizing is based on the reality that this proposal is unfair.
Serwaa Anokye

I don’t know where you get your data, but your facts regarding the demographics of AF families is far from truthful. Data is only as good as the person collecting it and the mode in which it was obtain. To say that AF school population is less poor, less ESL is absurd. You need to walk down the halls and collect your data VISUALLY! Because our enrollment is limited, due to building restrictions, it should be obvious that our numbers for certain populations will be low. However, selections of students are by LOTTERY – OPEN TO ANYONE WHO APPLIES. Students are not HANDPICKED as you subtly suggest!

Charter schools ARE public schools, therefore, we should be entitled to equitable funding. We started off with LESS funding than traditional public schools and now you’re complaining because Governor Malloy wants to make ECS funding for charter schools more equitable. Why should we continue to get less funding?

That being said, what is your stance on the Governor’s proposal for teacher tenure? Do you support accountability for teachers? Firing teachers who fail to educate their students? Well the same holds true for schools! AF schools are outperforming traditional public schools. Accountability goes both ways.
- jonpelto
  
  The data come from the School Profiles that every school must provide the State Department of Education. It is online if you go to the State Department’s Website.
  
  As I’ve said before, I am not suggesting that charter schools are bad or that a charter school parent doesn’t have the right to find the right educational setting for their child. This about how best to provide a quality education for all children and money is a part of it solution.
  
  Per you point about getting the “same” amount of money, first AF schools are not unionized and AF got a bill passed last year that allows charter schools to have up to 30% of its teacher staff not certified – those two things raise the costs in district public schools. If you don’t have unions the pay and benefit scale will be different so the two situations are not the same. Second, starting this year AF teachers and all charter teachers to into the state teacher retirement meaning they will get a pension and health benefits when they retire. The cost to taxpayers for each teacher joining the pension system is about $7,600 a year for every year they work – so we are also subsidizing AF schools that way.
  
  And finally what I find particularly troubling is moving money away from district schools to charter schools. It would be one thing if we had the resources simply to pay all the costs for all schools but ‘money follows the child’ only works if there is enough money to make every school work. What the Governor has done is shifted money from the urban school to the charter school. Yes charter schools want money but by taking away money from the urban school you leave 95% of the children behind with less resources making the problems even harder to overcome.
  
  I’

Wait, What?