Watchdog: State Lags In Race To The Top

We are fortunate to have a guy like Alex Johnston fighting for CT. and New Haven.

In terms of governance, city leaders like Perez and DeStefano are moving the ball, the federal push by Duncan is tremendous, and at the state level? Well...apparently steady as she goes.

Because of Johnston and ConnCAN, no longer can SDE folks like Murphy BS the public. And it is BS. The CT. charter school law is "expansive"? Money follows the child OVER 4 YEARS? C'mon.

Folks, Are you aware that taxpayers are paying double for every charter school student who leaves the district and goes to a charter school? That's right. When a student leaves the New Haven school district and goes to Amistad or Elm City, the BOE continues to receive funding for that student as if he or she were still in NHPS! And the receiving charter school gets separate funding for that student. We are paying DOUBLE! So in a district like New Haven with about 1,500 kids attending charters, thats about $14 million extra bucks that taxpayers are forking over.

Since he arrived, Commissioner Macquillan has been decidely disappointing. The guy has no vision for reform. Just the status quo. SDE Board chair Alan Taylor is a good guy and knows what it will take to change edeucation in oiur state. But he overmatched by the combination of a do-nothing commissioner and a bunch of unambitious appointed state board members.

Keep calling 'em like you see 'em, Alex.

Nice story. Thanks. We can only hope that the ConnCan's four legislative proposals succeed. I am all for it.

I have one issue of fact to clarify. The story states "The $10 million would amount to only a small percent of the New Haven Board of Education’s $173 million operating budget" and Johnston makes his (valid) comments about the impact of this on the New Haven operating budget. I have tried to get news stories to focus on the fact that New Haven spends much more than $173 million shown on line 900 for Education for the year 2009-10.

We at NHCAN tried unsuccessfully to have the New Haven budget do a better job of showing the total costs of Education in the district. Here are some data and estimates -- we had to make these estimates because in some cases the data is not sufficiently granular to get the data directly.

Operating budget $173 MM
Benefits - estimated $ 40 MM
Debt Service - est. $ 37 MM
Capital Fund $ 35 MM
Special Fund $ 71 MM
Total $357 MM

I have been excoriated in the past by the Director of Operations for the Board of Education for making these estimates and seemingly exaggerating the actual costs for education in the City. I will be happy to be corrected with some real numbers for all these elements of the Education budget that is now spread amongst several different categories.

It is these kind of numbers, taken together with the $1.5 billion capital spending over the past 10 years that induce me to estimate that we have spent in the neighborhood of $5 Billion -- give or take a billion!! -- over the past 10 years.

Harry

Change charter school funding so that the “money follows the child.” Currently, when a student leaves a public district school to attend a public charter school, the funding does not follow. Charter schools are paid for by line items in the state budget—a system Johnston called the third-most restrictive funding system in the nation. Changing the funding system would lift what has become an “effective cap on charter school students,” Johnston said.

Are not charter schools autonomous public schools?they are part of the public education system. People are not forced to put there children in charter schools. Also did you know that over 5000 charter schools founded in the United States have closed for reasons including academic, financial, and managerial problems, and occasionally consolidation or district interference. Charter schools are opened and attended by choice. Also what happen to number 5. And that is union's for charter schools. Again the plan is corporatist control.

I believe funding should follow students who attend charter schools for several reasons. First off, If you pay taxes you are paying towards the education system so if you choose to send your child to a charter school then send the money along with them. Second, as long as the charter school is meeting the guidelines put forth which should include a track record of increasing student performance and the ability to remain open for a predetermined amount time, one that will please the masses. If a charter school is performing then why not let the money follow the student? If a charter school dose not meet the requirements then keep giving the money to the local under performing school district. Seems like an oxymoron to me.

3/5,

There have been at least 2 charter school forced closures in CT. since the laww as enacted which is as it should be. Poor performance, academic, fiscal, or otherwise should result in the revocation of a charter.

But what about the traditional district schools, the majority of which have been allowed to take in thousands of children for decades and deliver very little value? All schools ought to be held to the same standards. And the standards should be far less reliant on the inputs, i.e. the education or certification of the adminstrators or teachers. They should be results-based.

Charter should receive the same $$ as districts to educate children, money should follow the child, and taxpayers shouldn't have to pay twice for the same student.

Yes, I am a big fan of well run public charter schools; a big critic of poorly run schools be they charters of traditional district schools, and an unabashed proponent of opportunity scholarships (aka vouchers)

Yes, 3/5 we should leave it to the "corporatists" as long as they know how to run good parochial schools (light on the religious indoctrination), good private schools, and good charter schools.

Hold all school managers accountable for results. But grant school managers the flexibility to run great schools without all the red tape that the state bureaucrats pile on; stop forcing teachers to join unions; and dismantle the prehistoric, ineffective certification and background education requirements that the ed. schools lobby for in our state.

Cmon Fix--
I am willing to offer the charters a few schools in New Haven to fix-----but they won't take the challenge as we do every day with ALL children---you have been their main supporter in this medium so I ask you to challenge your corporate friends to take on one of our schools---with the same student population that we teach every day, including those who enter and exit throughout the school year and lets see how they do----
Are they up to it -- are you up to it----Naah I didn't think so--- So keep the fairy tale going--If you are going to measure something please make it apples to apples and oranges to oranges---or just knock it off--
I have seen what our big brothers and sisters in business have done to our country so lets give them the schools to mess up too--
Get on the train Fix--we can use your support during our attempt to get it right in urban education---Tom

Tom Burns

I have seen what our big brothers and sisters in business have done to our country so lets give them the schools to mess up too—

I agree!!! In fact answer this question fix. If school reform is good how come most of the people who are pushing school reform children are in private schools. School reform is not going to happen as you think.Bottom line where are they going to get the money from.

Charter schools are what they are. In CT they are capped at 300. I am sure this is done for many reasons. Charter schools in CT do not have the same percentage of special ed students and non English speaking students in addition to the social ills that plague our inner city youth. Yes there are some charters that are doing well, however, they are not serving or able to keep many students with difficult kids who are dealing with some of the previously mentioned issues. Charters spend so much time making sure they have them money to run their schools that they are not able/want to deal with parents and community issues contrary to popular belief. Charters that are doing well are able to do so because their numbers are low. If charters were able to preform at the same rate with schools concentrated in areas were Lincoln Bassett then that would be huge. Give great preforming charter schools the money they need and the population and size they need. This would allow for a greater percentage of inner city kids to benefit from their successes. There is no need to make all schools charters if we can change some of the current polices that are in place that are working against educating kids many more will benefit. There are some social issues that no charter, public, or private school can address without major, I mean MAJOR professional help in the spirit of mental health and people skills.

Tom,

Why do the majority of children who transfer to a public charter school from a district school enter the charter YEARS behind grade level, and within 3 years at the charter perform at or above grade level? Same kid, same parents, DIFFERENT school.

You want the charter operators to take on the district's failing schools? OK. Will your union be willing to support:

What

Charter schools are what they are. In CT they are capped at 300. I am sure this is done for many reasons. Charter schools in CT do not have the same percentage of special ed students and non English speaking students in addition to the social ills that plague our inner city youth. Yes there are some charters that are doing well, however, they are not serving or able to keep many students with difficult kids who are dealing with some of the previously mentioned issues. Charters spend so much time making sure they have them money to run their schools that they are not able/want to deal with parents and community issues contrary to popular belief. Charters that are doing well are able to do so because their numbers are low. If charters were able to preform at the same rate with schools concentrated in areas were Lincoln Bassett then that would be huge. Give great preforming charter schools the money they need and the population and size they need. This would allow for a greater percentage of inner city kids to benefit from their successes. There is no need to make all schools charters if we can change some of the current polices that are in place that are working against educating kids many more will benefit. There are some social issues that no charter, public, or private school can address without major, I mean MAJOR professional help in the spirit of mental health and people skills.

I agree with you. In fact Charter and Private school across this country are having Economic
problems to keep them open.Check this out.

About His Deposit ...
By JAN HOFFMAN
Published: February 27, 2009


CAROLINE HALL was supposed to sign the contract a month ago guaranteeing a kindergarten spot for her son at an Upper East Side private school. He had already spent two happy years attending its early-childhood program.

But Ms. Hall, a corporate counsel, began ducking the school’s calls. Where was her deposit toward the $22,000 tuition? The school had an eager waiting list.

Her son, 4, knew the answer: “I can’t go here next year because Mommy didn’t get a big enough bonus.”

An annual rite is well under way, as families around the country receive their private-school renewal contracts or acceptance letters. In conventional years, grumbling over tuition aside, their outgoing mail would include signed forms and a registration fee.

This year’s hand-wringing over tuition might be dismissed as the latest hardship for the patrician class, which, like everyone else, can simply educate its young in the public system. But of the more than three million families with at least one child in private school, according to the 2005 census, almost two million of them have a household income of less than $100,000. According to a Department of Education survey, in 2003-4, the median annual tuition of nonsectarian schools was $8,200; for Catholic schools, $3,000.

So for every family that pays $30,000 and up to attend elite schools in Manhattan, thousands more will pay tuitions closer to $2,700 — next year’s cost for St. Agnes Catholic School in Roeland Park, Kan.

To many parents who step outside the public system, an independent or parochial school is not a luxury but a near necessity, the school itself a marker of educational values, religious identity, social standing or class aspirations. Whether tuition payments to the country’s 29,000 private schools are made easily or with sacrifice, many parents see the writing of those checks as a bedrock definition of doing the best by their children.

But this year, even as realistic qualms about employment, savings accounts and tuition increases stay their check-writing hand, parents across the economic spectrum feel guilty about somehow failing their children. Which priorities should shift?

“We’re finding that people are setting a higher bar for private schools this year,” said Roxana Reid of Smart City Kids, an admissions consulting firm in New York City. “In the past, any school would do as long as it was private. But now they’re saying, ‘Let me take a second and third look at my local public school options.’ ”

How many private-school students will make the switch to public school will not be known for months. In past recessions, enrollments in independent schools remained stable, according to the National Association of Independent Schools, which represents 1,400 institutions with a median first-grade tuition last year of $14,640. But it may be different this year. Smart Tuition, a New York-based firm that handles payments for some 2,000 private schools across the country, said that by mid school year, 7 percent of families had already dropped out, double from last year. And administrators, financial aid counselors and parents themselves say many families have been questioning for the first time their ability to pay for private school — and what to do if they cannot.

Ms. Hall, the lawyer, and her husband, who is an owner of a bar, thought they had those priorities figured out. To afford their son’s tuition, the couple eschewed a new car, a nice vacation. “Elementary school is where you establish a love of learning: you grab ’em or you don’t,” Ms. Hall said. “So we put our eggs in his education basket.”

But, she said, “If I lose my job or my husband’s bar goes under, I have to have a slush fund. Still, the realization that we can’t send him back has been devastating.”

What next? Unknown.

Uncertainty about next year dogs schools as well as parents, said Andrew Goldberger, chief executive of Smart Tuition.

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“The average parent with a high-interest credit-card bill, a mortgage payment that just increased, decreased revenue and bills piling up will pay the school last,” he said. “That’s because most people know the local person who runs the school or go to church with that person, and they’ll ask to pay it late.”

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THE FEE For the Fieldston School in Riverdale, N.Y., middle-school tuition is $32,266.
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Marcie Daniels, the bookkeeper at Holy Trinity Regional School, in Deptford Township, N.J., has been fielding more of those calls lately. So far this year, 15 parents at the parish school, ironworkers and insurance executives among them, have lost their jobs.

Her son-in-law, a mechanic for a bus company, was laid off that morning. “My granddaughter won’t be coming here for kindergarten next year,” Mrs. Daniels said. “I feel horrible.”

She can’t help with next year’s $3,450 tuition; she is worried about her job.

Catholic parents are scarcely the only ones facing a quandary over religion, education and tuition.

Jason Ross, a modern Orthodox Jew from Cedarhurst, N.Y., has sent his two children to a school where they learn secular and religious subjects, follow a religious calendar and keep kosher. But Mr. Ross, a pharmaceutical salesman, was laid off earlier this month. He is now thinking about the unthinkable: public school.

“I graduated from a yeshiva,” he said. “So did my wife. But it would be $28,000 for two kids this year.” His voice trailed off. “Sometimes I joke with the kids: ‘The bus will come a little later in the morning, you’ll be home by two, and you won’t have as much homework. It will be good!’ ”

While many parents choose private schools because that is where they were taught, for others, raised in the public system, private education represents a leap up for their children. A Manhattan psychologist, who, like her husband, is the child of immigrants and attended public schools, thought they could just manage the $35,000 cost and applied to one of the city’s most sought-after schools. A few weeks ago, their daughter was accepted for sixth grade.

“I’ve been amazed at my level of indecision,” said the mother, who requested anonymity so that her patients would not know about her personal life.

Since September, the family’s financial profile has melted. Her husband is self-employed in a construction-related field. Many of her patients are cutting back visits. Their college savings have disappeared. And they have a younger child as well.

The therapist believed that especially in the tween years, her bright, sensitive daughter would need the attention that this private school offered. And yet.

“At 6 a.m. today, I decided I wasn’t going to do it,” said the therapist two days before the $3,400 deposit was due. “I don’t do well when I worry about money, and that’s not good for our family as a whole. But at 8:30, we were in an elevator and a mom said: ‘I hope you come. It’s the best thing for our daughter. It’s so rich emotionally.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, God!’ and I started the obsessive reverie again.”

Later, in an e-mail message, the therapist wrote that the family had decided to, as she put it, “commit financial suicide.”

Ms. Reid, the admissions consultant, said that families were re-evaluating the benefit of a private education.

“Some are reorganizing their financial lives, thinking that everything must go except for private education,” she said. “Others are considering paying tutors instead, to supplement public education.”

The National Association of Independent Schools administers a financial aid program to 2,400 private schools. Applications for the 2007-8 year rose 4.3 percent from the previous year. But many other schools operate at the margins and have limited ability to reduce tuition for their families.

Tuition next year at Grace Church School in Manhattan, which gives aid to 19 percent of its 417 students, will be $31,000. The school will give more aid next year: So far, about a dozen more families hit by the economy have asked for help. A few just need some unaccustomed advice about how to put their houses in order — or on the market, if it’s a second or third home.

“We’ll say, ‘You can’t really go to Vail this year and ask for financial aid,’ ” said George Davison, the head of Grace Church. “And they look surprised and say, ‘But we already paid for the tickets!’ ”

Sarah B. Adler, the school’s director of financial aid, said: “The hardest thing we’ve seen is the family that has been O.K. and now all of a sudden has to ask for aid. That’s where you have to be the most understanding. They’re uncomfortable. They’re embarrassed. It’s about learning it’s not two vacations a year anymore. The middle class in particular is being squeezed.”

As Ms. Adler well knows. Her family temporarily moved in with her mother on Long Island 18 months ago when city life became prohibitively expensive. Her husband found a job at a private school there, which had allowed the boys to attend virtually tuition-free. But this fall, the family must start paying more. Public school? In which district? She doesn’t know yet.

Parents are weighing options for September 2009. Some conclude that one child may benefit from private school but not the other. Or that they’ll pay for private elementary school and then enter the public system. Or the reverse.

Ms. Hall, the lawyer who must withdraw her son from his private school, is waiting for results of a lottery that will determine which of six public schools her child may attend. She has considered moving to New Jersey. But even though real estate prices there are down, property taxes are not, and she worries about selling their Manhattan apartment.

Recently she attended a contentious meeting about overcrowded public schools in her Upper East Side neighborhood. “It was filled with people like me, desperate to get their kids educated,” Ms. Hall said. “And parents whose primary goal is to keep my kid out of their school.”

Tis is happing right here in this state.

FIX THE SCHOOLS

Tom,

Why do the majority of children who transfer to a public charter school from a district school enter the charter YEARS behind grade level, and within 3 years at the charter perform at or above grade level? Same kid, same parents, DIFFERENT school

Sometime this is true,But it is also some time true for children who transfer back to the public school from charter schools. Fix did you read The CREDO Report. Check some of this out fix. By.Mark Lerner

was reading the Secretary of Education's speech to the National Charter School Conference in which he makes reference to Stanford University's June 2009 Center for Research on Educational Outcomes Study which looked at charter school performance across this country. The results are sobering in that it found that 37 percent of students attending charters are performing poorer in math and reading than if they had stayed in their neighborhood schools. 17 percent of those enrolled in charters demonstrated academic gains while 46 percent showed no difference compared to traditional school kids.

Especially interesting is that here in the District of Columbia the study found no academic benefit to attending charters across all groups of students.

Here the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools challenges CREDO's methodology. However, the group's President, Nelson Smith, does mention his concern with low quality charter schools as he did in his interview with me.

So now the future direction for the charter school movement is becoming clearer. As it matures we will less emphasis on quantity and much more on quality. The ingredients that comprise great schools, and the laws that foster their development will be replicated. In the end we will see much more benchmarking, the closing of under performing institutions, and perhaps ironically, much smaller amounts of innovation from what has already been proved to work. It is also clear from these conclusions and the Education Secretary's speech that the amount of oversight and regulatory control will also increase as will the infiltration of unions.


Even you main man Education Secretary Arne Duncan agrees with the report. ARNE DUNCAN: The CREDO report last week was absolutely a wake-up call, even if you dispute some of its conclusions or its language. The charter movement is putting itself at risk by allowing too many second-rate and even third-rate schools to continue to exist. Your goal should always be quality, not quantity.
Charter authorizers need to do a better job of holding schools accountable, and the charter schools need to support them loudly and sincerely. I absolutely applaud the work that the Alliance is doing with the National Association of Charter Schools Authorizers to strengthen academic and operational quality. We need that. We also need to be willing to hold low-performing charters accountable.


You want the charter operators to take on the district’s failing schools? OK. Will your union be willing to support:

Thanks three-fifths---you are right on about corporate control

But OK -- Great questions fix-- and my answer, I can't speak for the union as a whole in this forum--is YES to all of your questions---
So lets get going---together with the same level playing field---Tom