a presentation to the city council

A Presentation to the City Council by Baltimore City Charter School Leaders and Supporters

October 7, 2015

Sharecki Chaney KIPP: Baltimore Parent

I. Greeting and Thank You

Thank you to the City Council for unanimously supporting Councilman Bill Henry’s resolution to equitably fund Baltimore City’s public charter schools!

Thank You, Bill Henry! Thank You, Mary Pat Clarke!

Thank You, Rikki Spector!

Thank You, Jim Kraft! Thank You, Brandon Scott!

Together we worked to defeat the school system’s proposal to defund charter schools in Baltimore City. Tonight we are going to give the Council an update about where things stand right now. We have made some progress. There is so much to do. Our team is here to inform, to listen, and to learn. We thank you again for this opportunity.

Kate Primm Founding Principal, The Green School of Baltimore II. Where Things Are Right Now

Timeline • Debating with school system about charter school funding has been happening for a long time now. Latest proposal by the school system on September 8th was bad, but it was not the beginning of the debate. • A year ago, the school system put forward a funding formula for charter schools that completely abandoned the state law. Charter school leaders in Baltimore had been seeking information about funding for charter schools—and for ALL schools in Baltimore City—since 2012. • Charter school operators filed a complaint in Baltimore City Circuit Court on September 10th to find answers to questions they were unable to resolve after years of working with the school system. The decision to go to court was not made quickly and was not taken lightly. • As of today, 9 operators are involved in the suit, representing 15 schools.

•  Afya Public Charter School •  Baltimore Montessori Public

Charter School •  Baltimore Montessori Public

Charter Middle School •  Brehms Lane Elementary

School (recently approved as an Afya Baltimore Inc. school)

•  Creative City Public Charter School

•  Patterson Park Public Charter School

•  City Neighbors Charter School •  City Neighbors Hamilton •  City Neighbors High School •  The Empowerment Academy •  KIPP Ujima Village Academy •  KIPP Harmony Academy •  Southwest Baltimore Public

Charter School •  The Green School of Baltimore •  Tunbridge Public Charter

School

15 Schools Involved in the Suit

• These schools have not dropped their lawsuits. Nor do they plan to. • Each of these schools is committed to seeking a mediated resolution to this debate. To this end, we are all extremely happy that the former mayor Kurt Schmoke has agreed to meet with representatives from our group and from the school system to seek resolution. • We are grateful to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for providing leadership on this issue. We are committed to participating in good faith for as long as it takes to find a solution that aligns with the law and is fair for ALL public school students in Baltimore City.

Danique Dolly Principal, City Neighbors High School III. What Do We Want?

We are seeking four things. They are: •  The school system must open its books in a transparent way so we

can see what’s behind the numbers. •  The central office must become more efficient, which will mean more

money to the classroom for ALL public school students. •  The school system must follow the law—the law must guide the

work. •  The school system must agree to mediation.

What does opening the books mean? Here are several examples: • Every year the school system allocates and spends a great deal of money on a line item called Specialized Transportation. Costs in this budget line have swung from $17 million in 2010, to $49 million in 2013, back to $31 million in 2014, and up again to $45 million in 2015 – including $5 million spent on taxis, according to news reports. Why are the changes so dramatic? What companies hold the contracts? Why can’t this service be run more efficiently? We don’t know.

• The school system started 2015 with a surprising and poorly explained $108 million budget deficit. Even though $27 million in funding was restored to Baltimore City, per pupil allocations were not increased. We would like to know why. • The school system spends more money per pupil on central office costs than any other district in Maryland by a significant margin and, despite being funded at a higher rate than most, is below average in money spent at the classroom level. What is the explanation for this?

• Last year, the school system added $33 million in new expenses that are centrally controlled. What is the evidence that these new expenses are beneficial? • The school system has said that more cash could be pushed to the schools, but “it would take a lot of work”. We would like them to do that work!

Here’s why this matters so much to ALL schools. • We believe transparency will lead to efficiencies, which in turn will lead to more money for ALL public school students. • For example, $33 million amounts to $400 for every single student in every school in the city. If the money isn’t being spent wisely at central office—and we have little reason to believe it is—wouldn’t it be much better to push this money directly to schools in the form of direct per pupil funding? We think the answer to that question is yes.

Will McKenna Chair, MAPCS Executive Director, Afya Baltimore Inc.

III. Continued – What Do We Want?

We want a mediated process that leads to a long term solution. Why is mediation important? • The school district is not inclined to follow the law because it doesn’t believe in the law. We saw this in their last proposal, which would have likely closed more than 10 charter schools. We see this based on how the district has allocated funds to charter schools over the past five years:

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

10,000

11,000

12,000

13,000

14,000

15,000

16,000

FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15

General Revenue per pupil

Charter Per Pupil

General Revenue up 11.3%, Charter Per Pupil up 4.7%

85,000 students (5,000 Pre-‐K)

All BCPSS Revenue

Above The Line, excluded from per pupil funds

Below The Line, remain for

per pupil calculaQon

The Line

$1,339M $15,753/student

What does the law say and how does it work?

All data taken from BCPSS 15-16 Operating Budget

80,000 K-‐12 students

Above “The Line”

$765M $9,600/student

$1,339M $15,753/student WE AGREE*: Debt Service Adult EducaQon ReQree Health Out of Public Placements Specialized TransportaQon

WE DISAGREE**: Fund Balance Other Revenue Title I Food Service Special EducaQon English Language Learners Pre-‐Kindergarten

-‐$574M


* Note: Charters share the burden of

these expenses; they need to be managed more

efficiently.

** Note: The Fund Balance and Other Revenue categories should not be excluded from per pupil calculaQons for charter schools. The remaining items should be distributed as per pupil based on student eligibility.

Below “The Line”: Per Pupil Calculation for ALL Students

$765M $9,600/student

Charter $125M

TradiQonal $640M

67,000 students 13,000 students

$1,339M $15,753/student Debt Service Adult EducaQon ReQree Health Out of Public Placements Specialized TransportaQon

Fund Balance Other Revenue Title I Food Service Special EducaQon English Language Learners Pre-‐Kindergarten


Expense Breakdown: TradiQonal/Charter Schools

$765M $177M

67,000 students

2% = $2.5M

Charter

$122.5M

13,000 students

$76M

$387M

$2,700

$1,100

$5,800

$1,339M

Funds Controlled by Central,

Spent at Central Funds Controlled

by Central, Spent at the School

Funds Controlled by the School,

Spent at the School


TradiQonal

Charter school leaders have, for 11 years now, been willing to discuss all aspects of the district’s implementation of the formula. The school system has been reluctant to do so. We can no longer accept this. Nor should the general public. There is too much at stake for ALL public school students in Baltimore City.

Johnette Richardson President, Afya Baltimore Inc. Executive Director, Belair-Edison Neighborhood Inc.

IV. Charter School Leaders Will Fight for Charter Schools, Baltimore City and ALL Baltimore City Public Schools

What are we willing to do? • Charter school leaders will do whatever it takes to get a more transparent, more efficient school system. We will rally. We will go to school board meetings. We will do whatever it takes to hold the school system responsible, and the CEO responsible, for creating better schools for ALL students in Baltimore City. We want more money in direct funding to schools squeezed out of central office. And we will fight for it.

• We will advocate strongly to “grow the pie” for public schools. Councilman Henry spoke about this at the rally on Sept. 26th. We need more funding from the state. We believe strongly that if our school system is more efficient with the “pie” that we have—better leadership and more transparency, then Annapolis will have no choice but to listen to our activism and our passion.

There is no question that this has started as a charter movement. But it’s more than that: This is a Baltimore City movement. We’re very happy that the City Council has supported us thus far. We’re very thankful the mayor has intervened in the dispute between charter schools and the school system. We are grateful that former mayor Schmoke is leading conversations that, we hope, will lead to mediation. All of this work is important. But it’s just the beginning of what lies ahead—just the start of seeking better educational options and choices for ALL students in the city.

a presentation to the city council

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