Two confidential high level sources are predicting that the D.C. Council will modify Mayor Fenty's charter school facility fund 2010 budget proposal from a sliding scale to a uniform per pupil dollar amount set below the current $3,109. This is a partial victory in that, depending upon what the exact number turns out to be, charter schools could have had their facility reimbursement reduced to cover the actual rent amount. Still, for those who have mortgages, loans, or were saving money for a future permanent home, a loss of income will have a direct impact on programmatic needs.
It will also have a chilling effect on the flow of capital to charter schools. The boundary has now been crossed between having a stable guaranteed revenue source and the political society lenders abhor. If it were possible, and I certainly never imagined it was, to make the facility problem harder for these institutions fighting for their lives to turn public education into a quality product, then we have reached this disgusting low point. For make no mistake about it, the Mayor is not done tinkering with this issue. A new fight is already brewing over what Mr. Fenty will submit for charter school facility funding in his 2011 budget.
Today the editors of the Washington Post again call our attention to the other educational crime we are witnessing first hand, namely the end of our city's voucher program. And they come one sentence away from saying that we should provide private school scholarships to each and ever child that wants one. Today I am thinking that this is the only way morally that children in the nation's capital will ever sit in the classrooms they deserve.
Update: It's official. Robert Cane of FOCUS just announced that the D.C. Council held a press conference today to talk about changes they were making to the Mayor's budget. The first one they discussed was to bring the charter school facility fund to $2,800 per student, a decrease of $300 a kid from what it is now. Mr. Cane also said the Council committed to establishing a committee to study the facility allotment issue in preparation for the 2011 budget.
Comments