H.D. Woodson High School in Ward 7 is among the schools hit hardest by the proposed 2020 budget. It's one of 20 schools facing a budget cut of at least 5 percent (excluding security costs), according to a DC Fiscal Policy Institute analysis. (Photo courtesy of DC Public Schools)

Maya Martin Cadogan: Budgets show our values. Proposed spending levels for education continue to fail our students.

By Commentary On May 13, 2019 Last updated May 13, 2019

As a fifth-generation Washingtonian, my love and passion for this city know no bounds. This is the city that raised me, educated me, and taught me about community. This is the city where I’ve chosen to come back and build my career fighting for a great education system for all of our city’s people — just as my mother did for me.

Maya Martin Cadogan is founder and executive director of Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE).

As founder and executive director of Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE), I have been so proud and honored to work with our parent leaders, who have bravely shared their experiences with the DC education system and have worked tirelessly to advocate for mental health supports and trauma-informed training in all schools. This work has never been so important. Our students experience trauma at alarming rates, and mental health issues affect so many of our families and communities.

PAVE parent leaders have joined with over 30 coalition partners — made up of community organizations, advocates and schools — to set their own vision of what is needed to truly take care of all of our kids and support their mental health in schools. Fulfilling this vision requires a $54 million investment.

Right now, the proposed budget is not doing enough. Instead, we have seen proposed allocations to our schools that don’t keep up with rising costs — with budget cuts at many of our highest-need schools east of the Anacostia River, with populations that are almost entirely students of color. In 2013, the mayor’s office commissioned a school funding study for DC’s public schools — traditional and charter — and it found that in order to adequately fund at-risk students (students whose families are homeless, on TANFF, or are more than two grade levels behind), we would need to supplement the general Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (UPSFF) by giving schools an additional 37 percent per student (or 0.37 of the UPSFF). The 0.001 increase of the at-risk rate in the UPSFF — moving it from 0.224 to 0.225 — adds a mere $14 per student and is still 14.5 percent lower than what the school funding study recommended. It hardly makes a dent in providing the additional supports our children need.

But it does not have to be that way. The DC Council can amend the mayor’s 2020 budget proposal in line with our city’s values when it votes Tuesday.

Budgets are value documents. Our investments show what we care about most, where we see the greatest need, and where we see the most potential. The leaders of our city have the opportunity to demonstrate those values by focusing our investments on the future of our city: our children, especially our children of color and children from low-income families, who have faced the greatest barriers to the promise of opportunity that DC provides. We are one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, with increasingly rapid development and an expanding population and tax base. Yet we also have the greatest racial income inequality in the United States. Together, we can right the wrong of systemic racism and the disenfranchisement of our communities with a commitment to equity and fairness.

Developing the 2020 budget allows us to do that, but our leaders need to implement bold policies — policies that prioritize those furthest from opportunity and that make reasonable asks of our higher-income residents who have had many privileges afforded to them — to generate the funding we need to truly support our kids. By generating and allocating new dollars to support our at-risk students, we can take one step closer to a fair budget that addresses the needs of our people, ensures all of our resources are equitably allocated to the schools and communities that need it most, and helps our families know their children are taken care of at school.

If we want to be a city where all of our schools are safe, nurturing places for all of our children to learn and grow — regardless of race, family income, generational wealth, ZIP code, or ward — an equity- and value-based budget cannot wait.

Maya Martin Cadogan is founder and executive director of Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE), a nonprofit focused on creating a DC public education system made with families.

This post has been updated to correct the name of Parents Amplifying Voices in Education.

About commentaries

The DC Line welcomes commentaries representing various viewpoints on local issues of concern, but the opinions expressed do not represent those of The DC Line. Submissions of up to 850 words may be sent to editor Chris Kain at chriskain@thedcline.org.