WLC on the Schools First in Budgeting Act Bill 24-570

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The Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs (the Committee) works on many fronts to dismantle the effects of generations of systemic racial discrimination and poverty. These goals are frustrated by a school budget process that undermines school communities’ ability to fund the staff and programs students need, and we welcome the opportunity to create a more equitable school budget process in DC.

The District must invest in a robust public education system that addresses persistent inequalities that result from historic racial segregation in our schools. This includes allocating sufficient, targeted funding to meet the education needs of low-income students, students of color, and students with disabilities. A fair budget process establishes stability for schools, accounts for inflation and rising costs, provides transparency and sufficient time for school communities to engage, and ensures sufficient funding targeted to address long-standing racial, economic, and disability disparities.

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Jablow Testimony- Ward 3 Expansion

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I am Valerie Jablow, and as a DCPS parent for the last 17 years, I appreciate any hearing to address the >$100 million allocated to expand Ward 3 schools. Specifically, in addition to expanding Stoddert, that capital investment includes the purchase and renovation of the former GDS building for a new Ward 3 high school (with half its seats out of bounds) and planning for a new Foxhall Elementary—all of which appears to have been planned and/or executed outside the law governing DCPS modernizations (PACE Act). This capital investment is fiscally disastrous—and this resolution and DCPS’s testimony promulgate misinformation about it. 1

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DCFPI: Schools First in Budgeting Testimony

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Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Qubilah Huddleston, and I am a Senior Policy Analyst at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute (DCFPI). DCFPI is a non-profit organization that shapes racially-just tax, budget, and policy decisions by centering Black and brown communities in our research and analysis, community partnerships, and advocacy efforts to advance an antiracist, equitable future. DCFPI has long researched and testified about the need for both the District and DC Public Schools (DCPS) to engage in less opaque and more sound budgeting processes—such as developing a current services budget for public schools to accurately estimate how much it truly costs to provide a high-quality education to all of DC’s children.1

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Betsy Wolf Testimony: Schools First in Budgeting Bill

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There are three ills that plague DCPS school budgets today: instability, inadequacy, and inequity. This bill addresses the first ill – instability – and while I support the spirit of this legislation, the bill currently lacks the needed nuance to have the desired outcomes.

First, the bill doesn’t address the fact that DCPS changes its special education and other special programming all of the time, which makes year-to-year comparisons near impossible. Right now, the only people who have a full understanding of whether schools have the same level of staff from one year to the next are the principals. We need a much better tracking system to understand what’s going. We also need side-by-side comparisons from one year to the next for each staff position in each school.

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Laura Fuchs: Testimony on “Schools First in Budgeting Amendment Act of 2021” ”

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Listening to Council Chairman Phil Mendelson speak on this bill I am glad to see that we are focusing on one of the chief concerns many of us have had for a long time – the size of Central Office. I hope that, as others have brought up, that we do everything we can to protect the neighborhood public schools from being closed.

I do think that Central Office provides important logistical support for our schools. Something it is failing in dramatically. Teachers wait for months to have basic paperwork processed. Pay is done incorrectly. Teachers still haven’t gotten paid for work done last year. In that vein if DCPS needs more money to hire additional workers for these important functions, I think that it is reasonable to increase the “Central Administration” staffing to make sure they can increase staffing in this highly necessary area.

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Schools First In Budgeting- Cathy Reilly

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We share the Chairman’s concern for financial stability for the city’s DCPS schools. They are the core of the public infrastructure. I believe DCPS’s survival, strength and growth are vital to our city’s civic health.

What you are considering today addresses some of the most complicated and difficult parts of running a school system. I have served on Local School Advisory Teams pretty consistently for the last 20 years- mainly high schools as well as on DCPS budget committees and the USPSFF committee.

The task has only grown more difficult even as the city has more money now. Enrollment is not steady. There are more citywide seats and citywide schools then we can afford. Policies prioritizing choice and competition mean the city has increased capacity unrelated to need. This is a challenge for both sectors as new schools become dependent on recruiting students from existing schools. This has created a structural instability that will become even more stressful as costs grow and enrollment declines which seem to be on the horizon.

There is no silver bullet or simple budget fix especially in this environment.

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MacArthur Blvd DCPS High School Capacity

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I, as the head of the Senior High Alliance of Parents, Principals and Educators and the convener of the Ward 4 Ed Alliance continue to make the argument that a DCPS high school at the MacArthur Blvd location should be 750 not 1000.

- The projected population of 14 to 17 year olds in Neighborhood clusters 4 and 13 is 953 by 2025[i]

- The grade level enrollment at Hardy is about 180 per grade (4 times 180 is 720)

- Students graduating from Hardy will attend the MacArthur School as well as School Without Walls, Ellington, Banneker, private schools as well as potentially some charter schools. They will not all attend MacArthur, similar to the choices available to families from middle to high school across the city.

- There are 204 out of boundary students across the grade span at Hardy. This indicates there are opportunities for students from across the city to have access[ii]

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Education Research Collaborative Listening Session

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Thank you for this opportunity to give you input into your agenda I am Cathy Reilly of the Senior High Alliance of Parents, Principals and Educators as well as the facilitator of the Ward 4 Education Alliance and the C4DC – Coalition for DC Public Schools and Communities.

I filled out your survey and look forward to hearing from others. There are a lot of areas we need more insight into including policy that allows for virtually an ever expanding supply of schools regardless of space in existing school buildings.

My ask tonight is that you focus on providing research on the measures supported by the SBOE to OSSE on indicators including school climate, safety, student engagement and satisfaction, teacher retention as well as student growth. https://sboe.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/sboe/page_content/attachments/2022-01-19-Signed-SR22-1%20STAR%20Framework%20Resolution-AS%20AMENDED_0.pdf

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Valerie Jablow testimony to DC Council on Literacy

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My name is Valerie Jablow, and I have been a DCPS parent for the last 17 years. Both of my children were taught to read starting in preK4, their first year in DCPS. In that time, my children also had access to high-quality school libraries, which provided a rich source of materials for them to not only read, but to enjoy. Those school libraries were led by school librarians, who ensured that reading materials were up to date, appropriate, plentiful, and engaging, while also ensuring that students had regular and supportive access and guidance around those materials. Those librarians worked with my children’s teachers directly, as integral partners in student literacy.

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DC Teacher Turnover: A 2022 Update

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A recently released report on the DC public education workforce includes teacher turnover between SY 2020-21 and SY 2021-22 (Office of the State Superintendent of Education, https://osse.dc.gov/node/1597311).[1] The report itself does not differentiate results from DCPS as opposed from the charter sector, nor provide school by school data. The OSSE website, however, includes a dataset with demographic and classroom teacher retention data for each school in both sectors. I have adapted that dataset to show school-by-school teacher attrition numbers in a more user-friendly form, and have added analysis by ward, level of instruction, and percentage of students identified as at-risk. It can be viewed here. I have also updated files going back over seven years showing the correlation between DCPS teacher ratings and teacher attrition. See here.

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