RIDE Comm. Gist and operations chief Carolyn Dias answer questions.

More than 50 parents, administrators, and elected officials gathered at the Gaudet Middle School in Middletown last night at a meeting of Rep. Amy Rice's commission on regionalization, but the bulk of the time was spent on a spirited Q&A with RI Dept. of Education (RIDE) Commissioner Deborah Gist on the proposed funding formula.

Rep. Rice opened the meeting by reassuring attendees that the aim of her committee was exploratory, contrary to headlines which have appeared in some local papers (cough Daily News cough). "The state is not going to impose anything on you," she said.

Then Comm. Gist walked the audience through the (now-familiar) PowerPoint slide show on the formula, and with help from RIDE operations chief Carolyn Dias, and assistant Commissioner David Abbott, spent about an hour fielding questions.

I must confess to a certain puzzlement when Gist described how they determined the $8,295 number for core education funding. "We have an imaginary school," Gist said, asserting that they then figured the costs for all the Basic Education Program (BEP) mandated items, including "every possible need you have in a school." This reminded me of nothing so much as the famous joke about professors trapped on a desert island confronting tins of food. Says the economist, "Assume a can opener..."

(An aside: Is there anyone else who finds it ironic that food service is not included in the core instruction amount, and yet the formula uses the number of students qualifying for Free and Reduced Price Lunch as a factor?)

I asked the commissioner how RIDE can be sure this is the right number given that it is more than $2K less than actual per-pupil figures, or given the results of the general assembly's 2007 commission which came up with a core cost of $10,600. Gist acknowledged that this was below the state average of $13K and that RIDE was "not suggesting they can educate kids" for that dollar amount, given the set of costs not included.

One attendee noted pointedly the lack of support for transportation, "That seems like core instruction to me. A child can't learn if they're not there."

But Abbott made an argument I find telling: "All previous formulas looked only at Rhode Island," he said, which failed to uncover the "current inefficiencies and layers in the system." So the analysis was admittedly prescriptive in how much the market basket of BEP items should cost.

I have a hard time squaring that with Gist's assertion last night that, "We're confident that the core instructional amount gives every community enough to provide quality education."

If you admit lowballing the number on the assumption of inefficiency, how can you also assert that it will be enough for every district? That doesn't follow logically. I might agree with the intent — as responsible fiscal stewards, we should be rooting out waste — but with a number so demonstrably out of whack with actual costs (and of which only a fraction is reimbursed) it seems to go beyond punishing the inefficient.

And the person taking the punishment, Middletown Administrator Shawn Brown suggested, was the local taxpayer. "Have you considered the impact on local businesses as cost is shifted to our town?"

Gist tried to deflect. "I don't think it's shifting the tax burden. In many communities, the per-pupil costs are high..." At this point, sitting in the second row, I raised my hand. "...Portsmouth is a different conversation," she continued.

Former Portsmouth Supt. Tim Ryan followed up and spoke to the district's low per-pupil costs. "When 3050 went in, it froze the levies," he said, noting the disparity among communities where per-pupil costs were high, and Portsmouth, at the lower end of the scale. Would there be any consideration for that, he asked.

"I will support whatever changes to 3050 need to be made," said Gist, adding that "Portsmouth is an example of a community" that might need such adjustment.

Portsmouth Town Councilor Jim Seveney asked a question about one area of the formula that has not gotten enough attention. "Will there be an escalator on this $8,295?" Gist replied that the plan called for adjustment every three years. Seveney pointed out that for towns, cost-of-living increases had to be factored into each budget. "We do that every year," said Seveney.

Resources:
RIDE Funding Formula page
GoogleDocs spreadsheet with numbers and formulas

Full disclosure: I am a member of RI is Ready (Facebook group), a statewide advocacy group supporting an equitable and predictable funding formula. And I applaud Comm. Gist's efforts to make this happen, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to critique RIDE's proposal and continue to push for changes to get a formula that works for ALL of Rhode Island's communities.