Under proposed Senate Bills 669 and 895 and House Bill
1536, the Texas Opportunity School District would swoop in to properly educate
and save the students attending “failing” public schools.
These bills are proposed to help heal those public
schools with a 10-year minimum contract with a charter school Band-Aid, but
with no guarantee for solving the student performance problem. The bills also
provide a method for increasing the number of charter schools without having to
follow the authorization process established in Senate Bill 2. As a matter of
fact, SB 895 validates the quality of a charter school by asking the charter
operator, “Is your charter a good one?” Talk about rigor!
I have an even better prescription that Texas should try.
In my solution, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD will create “The Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
Opportunity School District” to take over and manage failing charter schools.
Around 8.2 percent of public school campuses are
classified as failing, but nearly 17
percent of charter schools are designated as failing. In fact, within three
years of being included on the low-performing list, only seven out of
approximately 8,500 traditional public schools are still designated as failing.
If you are mathematically inclined, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all
Texas public school campuses are rated IR or AU for more than three years.
It seems that public schools are doing a great job of
addressing low-performing schools without the added bureaucracy of another
state agency. But there does appear to be a need to help charter schools, when
nearly 1 in 5 are considered failing.
CFISD is recognized as one of the most effective school districts
in the state when considering academic achievement and financial efficiency. We
don’t pick and choose our students; we educate all students within our borders. The principles we practice should
be quite useful in assisting the great number of failing charter schools. We
feel that with more funding, less regulation and our processes, we can give
thousands of students trapped in failing charter schools hope for a better
tomorrow.
The proliferation of failing charter schools is the “civil
rights issue of the 21st Century.” CFISD sees an opportunity to
rescue these students and generate additional dollars to help offset the
current underfunding (less operation funding than charters) that we receive. It
is a win-win! Students at the failing charter school will benefit by receiving a
quality education and CFISD students will benefit with more funding.
We are excited about the opportunity to teach so many
charter school operators how to run an efficient and effective public school—our
prescription meets every child’s needs!
Although
this article is satirical, hundreds of public school districts have proven they
are capable of rehabilitating low-performing campuses—a much more effective
solution than an entirely unnecessary new state bureaucracy.
~
Mark Henry, Ed.D.
CFISD is NOT the prescription for failing charter schools. You will be sending them to cardiac arrest really fast. I was forced, along with at least 10 other families from various CFISD elementary schools, to withdraw our children after Spring Break 2015. I was shocked I was not alone when I attended a Homeschooling Group Meeting. Why did I do this when I work full time and I am a single mom? Your ELA and Math teachers do not welcome partnering with the parent. I asked the teacher, AP, and District several times for guidance on what I can do at home to help my child succeed. I wanted to know what they were teaching ahead of time so I could review concepts at home. I wanted to know when assessments were so we could study for them. I wanted a book/workbook or where to go on the internet so I had something to teach him at home. All of this was foreign to them. They REFUSED to help me help my son. He then started bringing 60's and 70's home and he is only in third grade. I marched to the school and said okay he has failing grades now. Will you help me? Is there tutoring? Please help me help him. They were appalled I was upset with a 60. I was shocked! I said this is failing for Pete's sake. You know what they said. He did great because it was above a 50% and a 50% is all he needs on the STAAR in order for our school to meet standards. I told them this was not the intent of the legislature. They are doing the bare minimum they can get away with in order to meet standards. I do not want my son taught by a teacher who is happy with a failing grade. Then on top of this an administration who agrees with her.
ReplyDeleteMy friend's child goes to Harmony and does well. Why? They let parents know when the tests will be given, they have books to study, they are even given review sheets prior to the exam. Imagine that. This was you 10 years ago when my college son was in elementary but not now. I mentioned this concept to the school and they said they are preparing them for college where college does not tell you anything. My son is at UT Austin and they still give a syllabus for each class stating when and what will be covered on each test for the given semester. They have a textbook. My son is an EE major and his profs even gave a review sheet. He doesn't understand why a third grade teacher would not do the same. Your teachers do not even know how college works.
The only class that is conducted to a satisfactory level is Science. If you do a check on Science grades in Home Access, my guess is that they will be much higher than ELA and Math. Why? you give the parents a study guide, homework related to the topic, and warm ups. We are prepared well. The student that isn't successful in Science has parents who do not work with him/her at home. This would be the fault of the parent not CFISD in this case. ELA and Math are your fault.
We have not been able to win the lottery for a charter school. As soon as I hear you are helping a Charter school improve will be the day I stop playing the Charter lottery. They do not need your bad habits. Therefore we will be selecting from K12 or Connections Academy for 4th grade. I have not made up my mind yet which to select.
Thank you!
Charter school proponents argue that they receive $1000 less per student each year than do regular school districts when taking into account local tax revenues received by districts but which are not available to charters. They argue in particular that since none of the money they receive from the state is earmarked for facilities that they should receive a facilities allotment, covering the cost of charter school buildings.
ReplyDeleteJudge Dietz, the presiding judge in the latest round of school finance litigation in Texas, concluded, with respect to the Texas Charter Schools Association contention that charter schools were being wrongly denied state funds for facilities, that “Charters accordingly have access to revenue in excess of what is available to school districts, and that revenue is available to meet charter schools’ facilities needs.” [FOF 1505] As will be seen below, Judge Dietz was correct.
An obvious question is, “How much are charter schools receiving from the state this year, and how does that amount compare with the amounts being received by school districts?”
Ignoring the very large amounts that some charter school systems receive from private benefactors and tax-exempt foundations, open enrollment charter schools in Texas are receiving approximately $1,802,189,763 during the current school year, 2014-2015. This number, and others used here, were obtained from the Texas Education Agency’s website, Summary of Finances pages, as of February 10, 2015. This $1.8 million is for maintenance and operations (M&O) although it could be used for rent or other facilities expenses as well. Some of it must necessarily be used for these purposes already.
Establishing the M&O total for school districts is a little more complex, since local tax revenues are involved (M&O collections) and some of those collections are remitted in the form of recapture payments to the state, which thereby prevents them from being used for the benefit of the districts involved. Total current year maintenance and operations revenues received by school districts are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. School District Operations Revenues, SY 2014-2015
Description Amount
State FSP Funding $17,870,741,639
M&O Property Tax Collections $20,255,858,744
-Recapture Tier 1 -$1,395,352,463
-Recapture Tier 2 -$63,774,477
Total school district M&O $36,667,473,443
The amounts of total M&O revenues, average daily attendance (ADA), and M&O revenues per ADA are combined in Table 2 for school districts and for charter schools.
Table 2. Maintenance and Operations Revenues per ADA, Texas School Districts and Charter Schools—School Year 2014-2015
School districts Charter Schools Difference(Charters – Districts)
Total operations revenue $36,667,473,443 $1,802,189,763 --
Average daily attendance (ADA) 4,667,060 207,972 --
Operations revenue per ADA $7,857 $8,666 +$809
As can be seen, charter schools receive a greater amount per pupil in maintenance and operations revenues than do Texas school districts. That extra amount averages $809 per ADA during the current fiscal year. By coincidence, this is the additional amount that SB 1900, as currently amended, would provide to charter schools in fiscal year 2015-2016.
If the intent of SB 1900 is to make up a deficiency in charter school funding for facilities in the amount of $809 per student, this bill is not necessary, as charter schools are already receiving that amount in excessive operations and maintenance revenues, as compared to school districts.
If charter proponents are unhappy because charter schools receive no funds explicitly earmarked for facilities, there is a simple solution: earmark $809 per pupil of those funds, to be received under the existing formula for facilities, beginning in the next fiscal year.
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ReplyDeleteThankfully, cfisd builds new high schools with 3 gymnasiums (oh, the gov't waste.... at $7k-$10k property taxes per house key. Oh, the fodder for the equality of state school funding, now at the Supreme Court of Texas, co-signed by hundreds of school districts.) However, given the SCOTUS marriage decision this summer, our high schools can field a girls' gym, boys' gym, and a rainbow gym. Good planning, cfisd. lol
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