In pre-pandemic times, middle school humanities students at DC's Capital City Public Charter School listen to a presentation about how to develop an elevator pitch for new products. (Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action)

Shannon Hodge: DC must prioritize students in upcoming budget

By Commentary On Mar 17, 2021 Last updated Mar 17, 2021

A year ago, school leaders across the District and the country began to grapple with the looming public health crisis that was threatening to upend all our lives. There’s no question that the last year has been the most difficult year on record for most of us –– and that’s especially true for our students, who have seen their lives, their friendships and their learning shift to a virtual environment.

Shannon Hodge is the founding executive director of the DC Charter School Alliance.

It hasn’t been easy, but public charter schools have continued to provide a high-quality education for the nearly half of the District’s public school students that they serve. This crucial work continues even as the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare staggering disparities in our city, with more than half of District lives lost in the three wards with the lowest median household incomes. To address the opportunity gaps that students experiencing poverty and at risk of academic failure face in these communities, public schools need more financial resources.

At the DC Charter School Alliance, our job is to advocate for charter schools so that every student can choose high-quality public schools that prepare them for lifelong success. In addition to ensuring that schools have what they need for a safe return to school buildings and full recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re asking District officials to prioritize education funding in this year’s budget. That means finding a consistent, sustainable way to fund our schools while increasing funding for the students that need it most.

We all want to make sure every community in our city thrives. But to do that, we need to make sure our students are getting the education they deserve.

That starts with increasing the baseline amount of funding the District provides for each student’s education. Right now, funding levels are $11,310 per student — well below what a study commissioned by the District in 2013 recommended, which is why we’re proposing a modest 4% increase to $11,762 per student to partially close the gap.

But students most at risk of academic failure need more than just baseline funding. A recent EmpowerK12 study revealed that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, District students designated “at risk” fell behind by five months in math and four months in reading — a loss of one extra month in math and three extra months in reading beyond what the typical student experienced.

These alarming trends cannot be reversed without additional funds for targeted interventions and support. We’re calling for the District to increase the per student funding weight for those considered “at risk” to 0.37, the level recommended in the 2013 study. We’re also asking the DC Council to review the definition of “at risk” to ensure that all of the students who most need additional funding support are receiving it.

Undocumented students deserve the same high-quality education available to their peers, which is why we’re recommending the funding weight for English learners be increased to 0.61, the level recommended in the 2013 study. That’s one way we can indirectly support undocumented students, who are often excluded from other financial supports because they lack documentation.

With the traditional way of schooling uprooted, students have had to adjust not only to virtual learning but also to social isolation — and that isolation has taken its toll. Schools must have the resources to address student and family mental health needs that instability and loss from the pandemic have likely exacerbated. And that means providing an additional $6.4 million to fund the expansion of the DC Department of Behavioral Health’s school-based mental health program, which would place a city-funded clinician in 80 schools that don’t yet have one.

Finally, we must ensure — particularly this year as public charter schools expand in-person offerings both to staff and students — that our school buildings are safe and well-maintained. This is why we’re asking for a 3.1% increase to the $3,408 allocated per student last year for public school facilities, to match the average growth in the cost of constructing new school buildings. And to ensure sustained funding for our facilities, we’re recommending that the council continue automatically increasing that funding by 3.1% each year for the next five years. This consistent funding of public charter school facilities is key to providing a safe learning environment for our students as well as budget predictability for school leaders.

Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration should be applauded for their commitment to investing in and improving our education system over the years. Yet, while our city’s students have made significant improvements, our investments have not yet produced the education outcomes necessary for every community in DC to thrive.

We must prioritize our students and their futures in the fiscal year 2022 budget. With COVID-19 disproportionately affecting under-resourced communities, public schools simply need more financial resources to adequately serve our students.

Shannon Hodge is the founding executive director of the DC Charter School Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

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