Council Chairman Mendelson: “Once again, the Chancellor is traumatizing public schools by proposing substantial budget cuts”

From the office of Council Chairman Mendelson:

“DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson released the following statement after District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) this afternoon released their Initial Budget Allocations for Schools for FY2024.

“Once again, the Chancellor is traumatizing public schools by proposing substantial budget cuts,” Mendelson said. “In testimony before the Council earlier this week, the Chancellor minimized the chance that any schools would see substantial budget cuts. Yet we’re finding school after school losing money and teachers.

“The Chancellor and Mayor do this to schools every year, except this year they’re also violating the law – making it clear that they have no intention of complying with the Schools First in Budgeting Act, adopted last year by the Council,” Mendelson added. “Not only is this not following the letter of the law, it’s not even close to the spirit of the law. The law requires stable funding. If anything, schools need more money not less.

“No school, especially schools with at-risk students should be forced to take budget cuts.” For example:

Hendley Elementary School (Ward 8) with a 94% at-risk population is losing $299,000 with virtually no change in its enrollment.
Ann Beers Elementary School (Ward 7) is losing $362,000 while gaining enrollment.
King Elementary School (Ward 8) is gaining 16 students, but losing nearly $200,000.
Tyler Elementary School (Ward 6) is losing $406,000 while gaining more than a dozen students.

“We’re finding this in other schools as well. Clearly the Mayor and Chancellor don’t truly care about the classroom. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be cutting classrooms while fattening central administration.

“Recently, DCPS watchdog Mary Levy informed us that the number of central office FTE staff performing the same functions that DCPS now performs, has risen from 516 in 1981, when we had 95,000 students, to 859 as of January of this year, for about 50,000 students.

“The Mayor needs to fix this before she submits her budget to the Council on March 22nd.”

From the Mayor’s Office:

“Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced another historic 5.05% increase to the uniform per student funding formula (UPSFF) foundation level for Fiscal Year 2024, for a total of more than $2.3 billion in per-pupil funding to serve an estimated 100,791 students in DC Public Schools (DCPS) and public charter schools. The UPSFF is the primary funding source for DC’s public schools and allocates funds to each student in DC based on their individual needs, regardless of the school they attend.

“We love our teachers and we are incredibly proud of our school communities in DC. Families are choosing our public schools because of the progress we have made as a city and because they trust that their children will be loved, challenged, and cared for in our schools,” said Mayor Bowser. “This budget reflects another historic commitment to our students and families, and ensures we are delivering targeted supports to our school communities, with an emphasis on equity and sustainability for our system. We will continue to invest in and build a public school system that puts more of our students on pathways to success and delivers robust compensation for our incredible educators.”

Mayor Bowser also announced that an additional $19.8 million will be made available through the Mayor’s Recovery Fund to support DCPS and the public charter school sector. This is the second installment of the two-year fund, which Mayor Bowser established in FY23 to provide additional stability to DCPS and public charter school budgets and maximize their buying power in light of increased pandemic-related costs. Additionally, workforce investment funds and other funding sources will be identified to support increases in teacher salaries in both DCPS and charter schools.

In addition, initial FY24 budgets for each of DCPS’ 116 schools are now available on dcpsbudget.com. Information about DCPS school budgets for FY24, including individual school allocation worksheets and a mobile-friendly pocket budget guide, will be available at dcpsbudget.com. Updated last year following school and community engagement, the DCPS budget model is based on three factors: enrollment, targeted support, and year-over-year stability. With a focus on transparency, sustainability, and equity, funding for schools is aligned to both student enrollment, as well as need, with an assurance that schools also receive additional funds to support students with higher levels of need.

“DCPS is fortunate to exist in a city where equity is a shared value among residents and families and prioritized by our Mayor. Our budget is a resource to help us meet a clear and urgent equity imperative–when students have greater needs, the school communities to which they belong must have additional funding to ensure those needs are being met,” said DCPS Chancellor Dr. Lewis D. Ferebee. “This year’s allocations reflect our commitment to continue funding initiatives that ensure all students are supported in recovering from the academic, social, and emotional learning impacts of the pandemic.”

Mayor Bowser’s $2.3 billion investment toward DC schools represents one of the first finalized elements of her Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposal. Residents can still provide feedback and other big ideas for the Mayor’s budget proposal by visiting budget.dc.gov.”