Press Release: Mendelson Bills Seek to Stabilize DC School Budgets

News Release — DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

Wednesday December 22, 2021

CONTACT: Lindsey Walton

WASHINGTON, DC – DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson released the following statement on his introduction of two bills to promote stability in DC Public Schools.

“I have introduced two bills aimed at changing the way we budget for schools,” Mendelson said. “The primary purpose of these bills is to promote stability in our local schools.”

“It is time to end the annual budget crisis our schools – and parents – go through when the Chancellor releases proposed budgets, and budget cuts, for the next school year. For Fiscal Year 2020, the proposed budgets left 31 schools with less funds, even though for many their enrollment changed little or not at all. For the current Fiscal Year 2022, almost four dozen schools were confronted with cuts.  Ultimately the Administration backed down, but the turmoil hurt. Parents were angry, and some teachers left in search of greater job stability.

“The Schools First in Budgeting Amendment Act of 2021 ensures that each local school is taken care of first and whatever is leftover is available to Central Administration. The approach is prescriptive, setting forth in the law a calculation to be followed. While at first blush this might seem overly detailed, the effect is to leave little room for the interpretations that, year after year, we see lead to budget cuts.  An additional benefit is transparency: the calculation for each school will be a public record and every parent and stakeholder will see exactly how their school’s budget was set.

            “Most businesses set their annual budgets by building on their current year’s budget. That’s how DCPS, overall, is budgeted.  Why should the schools themselves be budgeted differently?” Mendelson added. “Why is it ok every year for principals to not really know what their next year’s budget will be?  How do we build individual school communities when each year they are fighting cuts rather than building on this year’s strengths?

“The Schools Full Budgeting Amendment Act of 2021 requires that each year local schools will get not less than 100% of their previous year’s UPSFF funds.  It also eliminates the Chancellor’s ability to reduce a school’s budget on the basis of a ‘substantial instructional or programmatic change.’ This bill may better protect schools from reductions in the dollars they receive for at-risk students.  However, unlike the first bill, this bill does not require any increases in what schools receive.

“The Committee of the Whole will move quickly to hold a hearing – probably mid-January – on these bills and DCPS’s new budgeting model,” Mendelson said. “We want a robust discussion on how to improve budgeting for our schools, create certainty – and put an end to the annual budget turmoil.”

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