Two Words Missing From School Budget Debates

The school budget crisis has been a consistent theme in the local newspapers over the past few months.   But I notice two words conspicuously missing from this debate:   Charter Schools.   Why is this concept relevant to the budget?     Let's look at the example of the Hillsboro School District, where I live.   Here are some interesting facts about City View, Hillsboro's one charter school:

• City View spends only about $4774 per student, compared to the district's overall spending of about $11,507 per student ($240,752,767 budget / 20923 students, in the proposed budget posted online).
• City View has a waiting list of 147 students.
• City View asked for permission to grow its capacity by 200, but this request was refused by the school board in 2010. In 2011 the board allowed a slight expansion-- by only 16 students.

So we have a successful public school that spends less than half per student compared to our traditional schools, and is willing to accommodate hundreds more students--  but has been rebuffed and suppressed by our school board.   Does this make sense, in a time when we are repeatedly told that we are in a budget crisis?    (And here I haven't even mentioned the educational merits of charter schools, which are not the focus of this post, though evident enough in the size of City View's waiting list.   How many non-charters anywhere in Oregon have a waiting list of 147 students?   If you're curious for more general info on charter schools, look here  or here.) 

In particular, if they are serious about their long-term budget concerns, I call upon the Hillsboro School Board to immediately grant City View permission to double in size, and to make a pubic announcement inviting further proposals for charter schools.   If you are a parent in Hillsboro who is concerned about the budget, please call the district offices at 503-844-1500, or email the board chair janeen.sollman@hsd.k12.or.us, and demand that they take these actions.

It's also important to recognize that City View is not some unique outlier among charter schools: long waiting lists, budgets that are a fraction of the traditional schools' budgets, and enrollment caps enforced by local school boards are common characteristics of charter schools throughout the state.     If you are in another district, chances are that your own local school board is unnecessarily limiting charter schools in order to protect the union-dominated and expensive traditional public schools-- even as they cry about their lack of budget.   So regardless of what area you live in, you should call or email your local school board and demand that they create real long-term savings by expanding charter school opportunities for the children of your district.

[I have also sent a Letter to the Editor based on this post to the Hillsboro Argus.  Waiting to see if they print it...]

A Careful Decision

As you may recall from an earlier post,  I had expressed some apprehension that our district might soon be adopting math texts without sufficient information for such an important decision.  I'm pleased to report that this did not actually happen-- the teachers' committee decided to put the decision on hold until October.   From the district's update on the topic, we can see that they stated three main reasons:

• Teachers on the Team were not convinced that the curriculum under review will sufficiently support teachers and students under the newly adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Waiting until th efall will allow publishers to complete various updates for the team to consider.
• The Oregon Department of Education has not yet completed its identification of approved math materials under the CCSS—the expected completion date is October 2012.
• The team would prefer to delay the expenditure of such a large sum of money until the curriculum providers have a more comprehensive product.

While waiting to for these missing pieces of information, the district will discuss alternate plans, and may choose to emphasize some additional training on the core standards rather than rushing into a district-wide textbook adoption.
I'll continue to watch this process, and post an update here when more information is available.   I'm glad to see that our district was not dazzled by textbook companies' marketing materials, and is treating the math curriculum with the seriousness it deserves.