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)

Eboni-Rose Thompson: With 2020 budget, DC Council needs to put Ward 7 schools on equal footing

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

Educating our children is a responsibility we all share. As a community, the health of our future depends on it.

In Ward 7, we understand community values. As the chair of the Ward 7 Education Council, I am proud to be joined by all of our ward’s advisory neighborhood commissions and the Ward 7 Democrats in demanding the DC Council use tomorrow’s vote to fully, fairly, and equitably fund our schools. The council’s newly released draft budget report talks about partially reversing the mayor’s cuts to 31 schools — including ours in Ward 7 — but that is simply not enough.

Ward 7 is home to 18 DC public schools, most of which are losers in Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2020. Our schools serve high numbers of at-risk students but are receiving some of the lowest levels of funding support in real dollars.

With this budget, we have the opportunity to put all of our children on equal footing. Currently, we are not giving everyone a fair shot. Year after year, it is the same schools, in the same neighborhoods, serving the same kids that we choose not to invest in, and for far too long those have been in Ward 7 communities. These are the communities with some of the worst health, wealth, and educational outcomes in the city.

Taking a one-size-fits-all approach by increasing the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula for everyone would ignore the fact that not everyone is facing the acute cuts imposed on some schools. It would ignore our true pain points and sacrifice equity in service of equality. It would be like giving the same dose of medicine to the healthy and the sick, instead of giving the full and necessary dose to the patient in front of you who is clearly in pain — and then hoping that somehow all of our illnesses will be cured. To treat the patient is equitable. To treat everyone is equality.

I ask our city council to invest in the schools that need it most and to address the problem immediately facing us: steep budget cuts for schools like H.D. Woodson, the only high school every one of our children has the right to go. According to a recent DC Fiscal Policy Institute analysis, DCPS “will continue to inappropriately divert half of at-risk funds intended for high-poverty schools to other purposes. And a majority of schools in Wards 7 and 8 face budget cuts, a result of falling enrollment and problems in the way DCPS allocates resources to schools, among other factors.” Under the mayor’s proposed budget, Woodson could lose up to 10 teachers this year. It lost seven positions last year. How does that put Woodson in the position to prepare our kids for the future they deserve?

Specifically, the council needs to:

Add $4.5 million to the 2020 budget for DCPS schools in Ward 7 to close the budget gap between FY19 and FY20 due to added security and staff costs transferred to school budgets.
Add $2.8 million to the FY20 budget for DCPS schools in Ward 7 to offset the at-risk funds being used to supplant rather than supplement the comprehensive school staff model as the law requires.
Embrace a multi-year investment of $9 million over the course of three years to strengthen our H.D. Woodson and Anacostia feeder systems pursuant to plans to be developed in collaboration with communities and with the expectation that the investment will more than pay for itself over time through savings and increased efficiencies.

These three investments offer a fiscally responsible path to achieve what is a universally acknowledged but all too often ignored goal for the District — to ensure a quality matter-of-right path from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade for every family, in every community in the District. We ought to begin with the feeder patterns in Ward 7 that have historically seen the least investment.

Eboni-Rose Thompson is chair of the Ward 7 Education Council.

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