Proposed RI school funding plan whacks Portsmouth [update]

If the numbers reported by the Providence Journal are accurate, the proposed RI education funding formula to be released next week would be a total disaster for Portsmouth. They propose cutting $2.6M and the best Commissioner Gist can say is, "This is designed to educate children and to provide public funding for public education for children, not funding systems or bureaucracies."

Dear Commissioner Gist: Over the past several years, we have had a performance audit, a couple of financial audits, and a Superior Court ruling, all of which have confirmed that there is no excess in the Portsmouth school budget. We are not funding systems or bureaucracies. And, like most communities, we are at the S3050 cap.

Yeah, this is a Friday-afternoon trial balloon news dump from RIDE.

Call your local legislators.

UPDATE:
RIDE moved their press release:

Commissioner Gist Releases Proposed Funding Formula for Education Aid
Formula Would Distribute Aid Based on District Capacity, Student Need

Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist today (February 26) released a proposed funding formula for education aid that takes into account district capacity and student need and would provide adequate funding to educate all students in Rhode Island.

Commissioner Gist will present the proposal to the Board of Regents for endorsement at their meeting on Thursday (March 4) 5 p.m. at the John F. Horgan Elementary School, 124 Providence St., West Warwick.

“Now is the time to enact an education funding formula in Rhode Island,” said Robert G. Flanders, Jr., Esq., Chairman of the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education. “Our state needs a funding formula to ensure that we distribute aid based on what students need and not on what systems need. If we fail to act, we will compound the inequities in the current system.”

“Supporting student achievement is our highest priority. A transparent, consistent education funding formula will allow us to ensure that student achievement remains the top priority for our state and for every school district,” Commissioner Gist said. “We are confident that this funding formula will take us from being the only state without a funding formula to being the state with the best funding formula in the country.”

The proposed funding formula has three key components:

·a core instruction amount ($8,295 per student) that adequately funds student instructional needs (e.g., the cost of teachers, administrators, instructional support, textbooks, equipment);
·a student success factor that provides initial funds to support student needs beyond the core services; and
·a state share ratio that considers the capacity of each district to generate tax revenue, based on property values, median family income, and the concentration of at-risk students.

Commissioner Gist and RIDE staff members have worked with members of the General Assembly and with several nonprofit agencies on the development of a funding formula. Dr. Kenneth Wong, chairman of the Education Department at Brown University, helped RIDE develop the methodology for the formula.

If the Regents endorse the formula at their March board meeting, Commissioner Gist will continue to work with the leadership of the General Assembly on this critical issue.
— RIDE press release

Links from RIDE
Funding Formula (PDF)
FAQs (PDF)
Proposal (PDF)

Comments

So, because RIDE wants to "distribute aid based on what students need", the highest performing (and richest) district in the state, Barrington, is going to get $3,770,667 MORE than it gets now? That's a 189.4% increase!!!! Where's the demonstrated "student need" there?

Meanwhile, Portsmouth takes a 47% cut...

But not to worry, Portsmouth's $2,968,986 cut is spread out across ten years with cuts ranging from about $250,000 to $300,000 each year. Think of it as pulling the band aid off REALLY slowly.

Then again, Barrington gets a whopping $3,410,542 lump sum cash infusion in year 5. Because that makes sense...

I don't mean to harp on Barrington, they're nice folks I'm sure. I only mean to point out that there are vast inequities here that can't be explained by wanting to "distribute aid based on what students need."

Here's an idea that actually MAKES SENSE...
Forget the FORMULA...
Find out what the average cost, per student is in RI, find out how much each city can contribute, based on their tax rates, and then give each city the difference...

Should take all of fifteen minutes to figure out...but too simple...

Do we REALLY need to ask, "Why Barrington?" Really? but this is who is in charge...let's give them all a standing ovation, like Gallo got.....Be careful what you wish for, folks....