Is the District of Columbia preparing to provide “adequate funding” to all of its schools with its new “fair funding” legislation? Or is it setting schools up for a more expensive failure?
Is it equitable to fund traditional and charter schools with the same per-pupil funding? Or does this formula miss important differences in the two sectors? How will DC find the $120 million in additional funding needed to support this legislation? And will that be enough?
Explore these and other essential questions Schools budget guru Mary Levy on this week’s Education Town Hall.
Host, Thomas Byrd, and feature reporter, Virginia Spatz, are also joined this week by two candidates for DC mayor — Michael Green, a former educator, and Octavia Wells, new to the race — who will discuss their views on adequate funding and other educational topics.
Tune in at 11 a.m. Eastern. Join the conversation by calling 202-889-9797. Check back for recording: shows are archived shortly after broadcast.
The DC Council took another step, on Tuesday, toward approving legislation designed to provide “fair funding” for District schools. (See Washington Post report from Emma Brown.) For many years, DC had “weighted student funding,” which was removed by Michele Rhee, DC’s first schools chancellor, shortly after her arrival in 2008. New legislation would return to a system of funding schools based on student needs. Serious reservations remain among advocates, however. Chief among these concerns is the equal — but, some argue, inequitable — funding of traditional and charter schools.
Education Town Hall Forum 