Resolution Calling for DCPS to Fully Fund All DCPS Schools
Whereas, the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) are authorized funding using the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (UPSFF) which sets a foundation level funding number for every student along with added supplemental weighted funding for other specific cases requiring additional monies. In addition, the “Fair Student Funding and School-Based Budgeting Amendment Act of 2013” (Fair Student Funding Act) adds additional funds for students who are determined to be At-Risk. These At-Risk funds are IN ADDITION to the funds generated by the UPSFF funding mechanism; and
Whereas, the funding mechanism described above was specifically designed to follow STUDENTS and not SCHOOLS, especially in the case of the At-Risk funding; and
Whereas, Charter schools are funded using the same formula; and
Whereas, DCPS cannot directly account for how the funds generated by the UPSFF and the Fair
Student Funding Act correlate to the DCPS students for whom the funds are intended ; and
Whereas, the disparity between what individual schools would receive based on the UPSFF plus the Fair Student Funding Act, and the actual budgets set by DCPS (see Exhibit A, Table 1a) has grown to the point that the high school that receives the most per student funding (Anacostia at $20,706, see Exhibit A, Table 1b) is more than twice as much as the high school with the lowest (Wilson at $8,693 see Exhibit A, Table 1a); and
Whereas, the school that receives the lowest amount per student ($8,693), Woodrow Wilson High School (Wilson), has the 4th highest number of At-Risk students (616) in the DCPS system; and
Whereas, almost all the schools in Ward 3 receive dramatically less in actual budgets as compared to what the UPSFF and Fair Student Funding Act generate for the students attending those schools (see Exhibit A, Table 5a); and
Whereas, the vast majority of DCPS schools receive the total amount prescribed by the UPSFF and the Fair Student Funding (see Exhibit B) thus showing there is a valid link between that funding formula and what each STUDENT should receive to support a decent, equitable education, and highlighting the apparent arbitrariness of the failure to use the formula for a handful of schools.
Whereas, a Task Force convened to review the adequacy of the existing UPSFF formula has determined that the formula has lost ground to inflation and must be increased by 3.5% to maintain previous funding capacity.
Now, therefore, in recognition of these considerations, ANC 3E adopts the following resolution.
Resolved, ANC 3E urges the city to adopt an education budget based on at least a 3.5% increase in the UPSFF, and urges DCPS to fully fund ALL DCPS schools using this revised UPSFF and the Fair Student Funding Act formulas, to help ensure that every DCPS student receives a decent and equitable education.
Be it further resolved, ANC 3E urges DCPS to create a method for ensuring and easily showing residents how each DCPS student receives the funding granted them by law and publish that information in addition to their yearly budget.
The resolution passed by a vote of 4-0- 0 at a properly noticed meeting held on April 13, 2017, at which a quorum was present, with Commissioners Bender, McHugh, Quinn, and Wallace in attendance.
ANC 3E
By Jonathan Bender, Chairperson