The Academic Achievement Award is to be given to the schools with large portions of low income and poverty children, who have excelled in closing he achievement gap.
This year it goes to the Charter School of Wilmington. Why? To keep the wealth among the wealthy? To keep the money white? Who knows?
Here are the stats for Charter School of Wilmington…..
And here are the overall average stats for the state of Delaware….
Exactly the same, right?
The reward is $50,000 and the Chief of Change by making this choice is saying, that high poverty schools do not need the money until they first perform, and if such money were ever placed there it would be wasted. Only rich, wealthy, affluent administrators actually know how to “properly” use money, and only the crisp top echelon can ever be trusted to administer it.
There are 60 Afro Americans in Wilmington Charter School. There are only 15 students of low income. At most, 45 of those Afro Americans are far above low income….
In the same district, there is Red Clay’s Warner Elementary School…. That elementary school listed at 77% Afro American and 92.6% low income…. In human beings, that school has 417 Afro-American students…. and 501 students from low income families…..
Those are the facts straight from the Department of Education’s website.
Here is the official description of the award…
Academic Achievement Award
The awards are given (a) to schools whose students are performing at an exceptionally high level, particularly those schools with large percentages of students coming from low-income households, and (b) to schools that have succeeded in closing the achievement gap for students such as low-income students, students from minority groups, and students with disabilities. Winners were selected based on 2012-13 data.
Delaware Lt. Governor Matt Denn
On a day when Bill Gates is threatening to take away his $40 million and go home because of lack of enthusiasm towards paying Value Added bonuses, this glaring example of giving to the “haves”, at a school that selects from only the topmost students across New Castle County, a school with almost unlimited financial resources, … and budgeting that money away from the rest of the district and schools like Warner, desperately in need of $50,000 simply shows all talk from Markel and Murphy is a side show.
They do not have student interests at heart… Unless those students perhaps have wealthy parents who don’t shun from writing checks during the next election season…..
One cannot express to be sincere about education, and then make mockery of that sincerity by performing an action such as this.
kavips 
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January 17, 2014 at 4:42 pm
John Kowalko
This doesn’t include the “slush-fund” established by HB 165 that could potentially add $2000 plus per student to some charter schools or the transportation formula and exemptions for charters.
Let’s not forget Eve Buckley’s documentation of CSD plight with funding these schools as follows:
While we’re discussing funding equity, here is some informative data from CSD financial officer Bob Silber’s presentation to the CSD board at their public meeting a few evenings ago. These are based on my notes–any interested party could request the ppt slides from him (and of course the meeting recording should soon be avail. online–thanks CSD).
1. From last academic yr. to this one, CSD netted a student population reduction of 86 students. Among the factors accounting for this change were Pencader’s closure (some kids returned to district) and Newark Charter’s expansion which added > 400 students to their roster.
2. CSD’s financial obligation to the charter and out-of-district choice schls enrolled in by CSD-resident students rose from last schl yr. to this by $1.5 million. So while the district’s student enrollment declined only slightly, their funds declined much more significantly. This reflects the fact that many charter enrollees (and choicing students) were previously enrolled in non-public schools.
3. The total financial obligation that CSD paid for charter and out-of-district choice by its residents was $17.7 million this yr., up from $16.2 million last yr. They owe this in July, prior to funding any in-district expenses. That is tax money paid by CSD property owners that does not support the schools linked to their properties (in fact by aiding those schools’ public competitors it helps to to diminish their perceived value).
As should be well-known, out of district choice is limited to students whose families can manage the transportation from their home to more distant districts, and some charters do not provide adequately for low-income or spec Ed students. Such students (predominately African American and Latino) are significantly underrepresented in those schools: CSW, DMA, Odyssey, Cab (magnet), NCS, and others.
The overall picture is profoundly unsavory. We squeeze resources from schools serving diverse, often quite poor and high needs, students to creat enclave public schools for more fortunate and higher performing students. Then we ask why the district schools do not meet the academic and disciplinary standards of our selective/discriminatory public schools. The answer to that seems clear–our elected leaders choose to starve districts of resources, and under serve their students, to meet the demands of the well-heeled without raising property taxes. No school system will thrive under such policies.
Luckily CSD built up a cash reserve of $11 million since its last referendum, due to careful mngmt by Silber and its superintendents (who had first to climb out of the fiscal hole left by Mr. Wise). This yr they are in deficit spending for the first time in six yrs., to cover their $1.5 million additional debt to charters without cutting programs for CSD students. In the future they may need to cut more social service and arts/extracurricular programs for CSD kids to meet their obligation to NCS etc.
January 18, 2014 at 12:32 pm
kavips
Damn……
(More To Come.)
January 18, 2014 at 5:23 pm
John Young
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
January 22, 2014 at 3:09 pm
kilroysdelaware
Reblogged this on Kilroy's delaware.
January 24, 2014 at 2:59 pm
M Ryder
Mr. Kowalko, You of all people should be well aware of how schools are funded. You and Eve are patently misleading in your presentation of the facts regarding funding and the logistics of NCC schools when there IS a Neighborhood Schools Act but CSD is forced to fund, provide for, and accommodate a population of students who are NOT within anyone’s characteristic of “in the neighborhood”. Additionally, a reduction in CSD of 86 and an increase of 400 in NCS means CSD was receiving funds for children that it was NOT serving. (i.e.: CSD gladly accepted the money of taxpayers who were not utilizing the TPS system. Now that the students go to a public charter via a lottery, which does not receive capital funding, the student education funding is finally being utilized in the public charter by these students.) Any claim of depriving the district of it’s entitled funds is false. The TPS has be using these funds even though they have not had to provide services to those students. If there is any claim of theft, it would be by parents who were paying school taxes when their children weren’t in the TPS.
Please remember that your use of Eve’s information is tainted by her personal vendetta and her bias against an institution that has proven to be an asset in the local area. The same cannot be said for our local TPS HS’s which rank as 3 of the lowest in the STATE. Nor does it explain the lack of intervention by DOE to restructure parts of NCC school districts which are in disarray.
Make no mistake, the funding bonus plan is poorly structured however, the funding of charters is inherently flawed by the nature that the State is trying to act half pregnant. We have charters to allow for choice demanded by 30 % of NCC residents but they are NOT fully funded. The TPS’s collusion with the DSEA, State legislators like Vince Lofink, and DOE made sure the funding situation was never going to be on equal footing. Crying foul now after 30 % of residents have been begging for structural changes in NCC districts is akin to facebook complaining about instagram.
It is profoundly unsavory how local NCC districts are strapped with unmanageable federal and state regulations and then fail to honestly let districts make true reform. It is also truly unsavory to have individuals here and elsewhere make truly nonfactual, slanderous comments and have a state legislator spin them as though they are facts. It is pathetically unsavory to make socialistic associations in regard to who is more deserving of educational services. Just because one child’s parents pay more in taxes than another does NOT make the child less deserving of public education and yet that is exactly what Eve claims.
Let us compare a competency of a charter to the competency of a TPS. If a partially funded charter is not effectively run financially, it will close. If a FULLY funded TPS is not effectively run financially, the State props it up, let’s it continue on without anyone being charged for incompetence, dereliction of duties, or malfeasance. Taxpayers have taxes raised and nothing is really corrected.
When will NCC get it’s districts in order where the schools serve their direct students, not the ones some judge or bureaucrat believes should be shuffled just the right way to equally distribute some social justice or politically correct understanding of diversity? This is a community demand NOT some racially motivated or socio economic profiling request.
January 24, 2014 at 6:21 pm
John Kowalko
MRyder,
You’re absolutely right. I of all people should be aware and I am. Sorry chief, that’s not Eve Buckley’s report. That’s a synopsis of a report given by Mr. Silber (CSD Financial Officer) and I have a copy of the full report if you’d like to send me your address. I would venture that Eve Buckley is more factual and accurate then her critics who are content to try to stereotype people such as her.
John Kowalko
January 25, 2014 at 11:31 am
kavips
M Ryder
I had trouble understanding what you are saying. Your mathematics don’t even come close to working out with pencil and paper (and calculator)… ???? Could there be something you forgot to tell us?
Forgive me for being blunt. But at this point it looks like you don’t know what you are talking about. if you are on to something, (facts are always welcome here) could you please help us out by writing clearer?
Thanks. 🙂
January 27, 2014 at 2:14 pm
M Ryder
Let’s try it this way. Let the ser
Everyone who “is” paying property / school taxes is contributing to the public school system. The local district receives a portion of this directly and a portion indirectly from the state. If you are a homeowner who is actually paying taxes on the property AND you have children AND you send them to a private, parochial or home school, the taxes paid are still funneling to the local and state. That means the TPS is utilizing revenue from taxpayers without providing education to said students who are in private, parochial, home school. That is free money to the local district. They don’t have to provide services for those children but they ARE collecting the revenue. Now what happens if the child decides to attend a local public charter school? Now some of the revenue that was going to the local district TPS that wasn’t having to provide educational services to the student, has to be funneled to the charter school to “follow” the child. This is Eve’s and Mr. Kowalko’s assertion that it is starving or depriving the TPS of resources. No it is not. The revenue is intended to educate the child. The dilemma is that the TPS is having to forfeit the “free” money. No doubt that having the free money is helpful but in terms of the assertion of “stealing”, it is completely false and unquestionably misleading. The charter is utilizing the portion that is intended to educate the child. Also bear in mind that the TPS is still retaining Capital funds that do not benefit the child in the charter. Therefore stealing or deprivation is not occurring at the TPS but is in fact at the charter which must secure other funds to house and maintain buildings for the students that the state is responsible for educating.
Mathmatics:
If the state is spending (assumed approx. amount based on newspapers and other state data) 10000 per student, that includes both educational and capital expenditures. Losing 86 students in CSD means CSD is losing the educational portion of funds for those 86 students but retaining any of the capital funds that would otherwise be associated with the 86. I do not know the specific amount that follows the child but my guess is that is a 1/3 of the 10000. If that is incorrect then just adjust for the following analysis. The TPS loses .3x 10000=3000 x 86= 258000. Eve has commented that CSD lost 1.5 million due to a loss of 86 from CSD. Then the other assertion is that NCS gained 400. 400 – 86 = 314 students who were NOT in the TPS system. The CSD district though had been receiving their portion of the local and state taxes for these 314. Free money. Student wasn’t being educated in the TPS, wasn’t utilizing taxpayer funds, and wasn’t requiring resources in the TPS but the TPS still had the revenue associated with these students. When the 314 entered NCS, the children are entering into a public school which is to be funded with the monies that follow the child. Using the assumed number of 3000 per student, CSD must forfeit 3000×314= 942000 because the monies are intended to educate the child which is what the charter is tasked with doing. 942000+ 258000=1.2 million. This number is close to the 1.5 million CSD claims to have lost. They lost 942000 that was more or less free money because the 314 were not “IN” the system but the TPS was still receiving it.
NCC county has roughly 30% of students outside of the TPS’s. That means the local districts are gathering and utilizing funding that is not being used to educate 30% of students. Public charters are a tap into that free money because they ARE public schools and our country supports public education. It is not a loss or a debt of the local district. It is a re allocation of the public education funds that are supposed to follow the child.
There have been repeated claims of “white flight”, racism, socio economic filtering, skimming,segregation and the like against CSW & NCS in particular which are unfounded other than “jello thrown at the wall” assertions that, based on attendance, the schools are engaged in unsavory behavior. I challenge anyone to enter NCS for the simple observation of who is in the school. Is it the same profile as the local TPS? No, but the school is multiracial and it is a voluntary choice. It won’t be the same profile because it is voluntary. No school authority has ever tried to dissuade submission into the lottery. It is inconceivable to me that a “lottery” can be viewed as “skimming” yet that is the comment over and over. IT IS A LIE AND MISCHARACTERIZATION by the individuals who oppose charter options. When CSD school board members repeat it over and over, and a state legislator joins the chorus in the perpetuation of a lie for political means NOT educational, IT IS deceitful. Alternative schools are not intended to replace the TPS. They offer what many parents and students seek but cannot obtain in the TPS.
You Kavips, claim the charter schools can’t provide depth. Depth of what? A prevalent depth of disruptive behavior? Glasgow – fights, police, etc. Teachers within the districts can describe the insurmountable issues of children who come to school without any intention of being supportive of the school system. Additionally there are large portions of parents who won’t support the school, teachers, or administration in their efforts to reform the environment.
The bonus program is ill conceived but parents and children of charters did not demand such a program be instituted. The problem of funding stems from the huge lack of action by our legislators and DOE for district adherence to NSA and redrawing or consolidating our districts. They are engaged in social engineering just like workforce housing that is not based on fact but instead political correctness.
Charters are not the poison. The poison has been festering in the districts in NCC, the DSEA, and DOE for some time and charters are offering parents some form of elixir to calm the constant pain of inefficiencies of our dysfunctional districts. That is not to say all charters are effective nor that the bonus programs are an effective tool. The TPS’s have benefited by being monopolistic. The loss of revenue attacks the monopoly but why not fix the TPS and then the demand for an alternative system or school would be unneeded and unwanted.
The repeated mantra of under serving students always focuses on those profiles that are politically correct to label victims. The fact is our TPS’s have been focusing on these demographics for years and far outweigh the services the TPS’s have been providing to average or above average students whose only crime is they are not a politically correct profile or demographic. The takeaway is if you are white, Asian, Indian, average/ above average income, or above average academically; “you already have more than you need and you don’t deserve the funding”. Forfeit your right to appropriate educational services to students who support the system the least and do not appreciate the resources they are offered. It is class warfare and it is despicable. ALL students deserve appropriate education not just the ones deemed politically correct.
The bonus program is wrong, but the attitudes about TPS reform and who is underserved of educational services is just as wrong.
January 27, 2014 at 11:06 pm
kavips
Thank your for being clearer with your comment. I don’t have the time to answer now; I did read it and will get back… 🙂
July 6, 2014 at 5:38 pm
All About Common Core, Charters, and Public Education | kavips
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