Reject the proposed FY16 City Schools Budget
The Issue
On Monday, May 4th the Baltimore City School Board plans to vote on next year’s school budget. As a parent/ student/teacher/community member I am deeply committed to doing my part, in collaboration with the school district, to create safe schools, demand social justice, and build neighborhoods in our city that are strong, determined, and vibrant.
I am writing to you because I believe the proposed City Schools' budget is deeply flawed and that the School Board should not approve it.
Last week, at a school budget forum, charter operators asked City Schools to honor the commitment they made to work on a new funding formula that upholds the principle that per-pupil funding for charter schools follows the child. To date there has been no action on this.
Furthermore, the school system continues to propose funding for charter schools—a potential drop of $169 to the per pupil — that is not linked to any funding formula at all. This is unacceptable. It contradicts the charter contract, which requires that the per pupil be based on a formula and also the spirit of State law.
What's worse is that the proposed budget also fails to address the needs of traditional public schools. On Jan. 13th the school system proposed a $143 increase to the cash portion of the traditional schools’ per-pupil funds. A few weeks later, the Governor announced a budget that cut funding to the school system by about $35 million. The proposed budget reflects about 75% of this funding being returned to the school system. And yet no direct funding is returned to traditional schools. Instead traditional school per pupil funding drops by a dollar.
Too often people pit charter schools against traditional schools, oversimplifying the concept of commensurate funding and the different funding models to suggest that charter schools get more money at the expense of traditional schools. Funding doesn’t belong to City Schools. It should follow the child to the school he or she attends. Charter school leaders have made this argument for years as they've seen the per-pupil erode while the district’s revenue increased. This proposed budget shines a very bright light on this fundamental problem for all schools in Baltimore City. It should therefore not be approved.
The Issue
On Monday, May 4th the Baltimore City School Board plans to vote on next year’s school budget. As a parent/ student/teacher/community member I am deeply committed to doing my part, in collaboration with the school district, to create safe schools, demand social justice, and build neighborhoods in our city that are strong, determined, and vibrant.
I am writing to you because I believe the proposed City Schools' budget is deeply flawed and that the School Board should not approve it.
Last week, at a school budget forum, charter operators asked City Schools to honor the commitment they made to work on a new funding formula that upholds the principle that per-pupil funding for charter schools follows the child. To date there has been no action on this.
Furthermore, the school system continues to propose funding for charter schools—a potential drop of $169 to the per pupil — that is not linked to any funding formula at all. This is unacceptable. It contradicts the charter contract, which requires that the per pupil be based on a formula and also the spirit of State law.
What's worse is that the proposed budget also fails to address the needs of traditional public schools. On Jan. 13th the school system proposed a $143 increase to the cash portion of the traditional schools’ per-pupil funds. A few weeks later, the Governor announced a budget that cut funding to the school system by about $35 million. The proposed budget reflects about 75% of this funding being returned to the school system. And yet no direct funding is returned to traditional schools. Instead traditional school per pupil funding drops by a dollar.
Too often people pit charter schools against traditional schools, oversimplifying the concept of commensurate funding and the different funding models to suggest that charter schools get more money at the expense of traditional schools. Funding doesn’t belong to City Schools. It should follow the child to the school he or she attends. Charter school leaders have made this argument for years as they've seen the per-pupil erode while the district’s revenue increased. This proposed budget shines a very bright light on this fundamental problem for all schools in Baltimore City. It should therefore not be approved.
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on April 30, 2015