The new Charter School of Wilmington will be 2800 students.

Christina District currently sends out $3701 per every child it sends to charters.  That amount varies depending on district, but just to get an idea, let us use that figure.

The new school will take 2800 students….   Therefore 2800 students times that dollar amount equals $10,362,800…  This amount to paraphrase Ross Perot in the 1992 campaign, will act as a giant sucking sound siphoning off of all 4 districts created out of the desegregation debacle.  Christina, Red Clay, Colonial, and Brandywine….

Systemwide those 4 districts currently have 55,794 students….  Subtract the 2800 out of them, and systemwide there are now 55,294 students left…

The loss of $10,362,800 across those 4 districts of 55,294 boils down to an average loss of $196 per student.

Go to the state’s website, click on your district, click on your school… Your student population should appear on a graph. Hover on the top of the last dot on the graph, (that would be 2014) and the student population appears in a little white box. Take that number and times it by $196 to get the shocking revelation of what this Charter costs your school….

This represents the drain of resources this giant charter will cost this area… $196 per child…  The reality is that in some districts it will be much worse.  If by some slim chance all of the students came out of Red Clay for example, the real cost of this charter would be $566 per student and none of the other districts would be affected….  But in reality most likely it will be split, though not equally.  Best guess is Christina and Red Clay each pick up a third of the loss, Brandywine and Colonial split the remaining third as sharing two pieces of 1/6th……  If so, the losses to each district would run thusly:

Christina   933 students lost   $3,453,033     total students in district (16721)    adjusted district total (15,788)  loses $218 per student across entire district

Red Clay   934 students lost  $3,456,734       total students in district (18295)    adjusted district total (17,361)  loses $196 per student across entire district

Brandywine   467 students lost   $1,728,367     total students in district (10802)    adjusted district total (10335)  loses $167 per student across entire district

Colonial     466 students lost   $1,724,666    total students in district (9976)    adjusted district total (9510)  loses $181 per student across entire district

Just a guess… So now, go to your school and figure out its total loss per school, per grade, and per class….

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Your child is losing this part of your tax dollars so those owning the new school get rich.  There is really no other honest explanation.. They can’t teach better.  They can’t discipline better.  In fact, if one takes the charter schools across the state, and isolates them by income, they all under-perform the public schools on the same economic level….   A public school with only 8% low income, does better than any charter school with 8% low income.  Likewise a public school with 95% low income, does better than a charter with 95% low income…

What this school does is pull out students from your schools to give them an inferior education, just so those owning the charter school make a profit (rent money) off of your property tax dollars… Property tax dollars that should be going to new and improved services in your districts schools…  

And this in that process, cuts down on the investment of your child… If your child goes to Brandywine in 2015, he will have $167 less spent on him than he will in 2014.  If your child goes to Red Clay, he will have $196 less spent on him in 2015, than he will have in 2014.  If your child goes to Colonial, he will have $181 less in 2015 than in 2014.  If he goes to Christina, he will have less $218 less spent in 2015, than in 2014….

Most likely a referendum will go out asking you to pay more … to cover that difference… And …That is a huge difference.. Figure a class of 23 kids? $5014 less per classroom!… That money will need to come from somewhere or class room performance will have no other choice but to go down…

You will ask… Why do I have to pay more?   The answer will be:  honestly?   … so those owning the Bank of America Building off Rodney Square in Wilmington, get paid….

That is the only reason and that is why you need to take action …. as soon as you finish reading this….

Do you know your Representative or Senator?   Click on those two links and you will soon.

Do you know how to contact them by email or phone?  Go to these email links for House and Senate and you will soon….

Simply express your dissatisfaction with your representative for allowing this to go forward… Right now, that should be enough… Make it explicitly clear you are against the Philadelphiazation of New Castle County’s 4 school districts… We are Delaware!  We are not Chicago. We are not Milwaukee. We are not Washington DC. We are not Philadelphia.   There is no reason except for the greed of a handful of well-connected men (no women), as to why we should trash our school systems as did happen in all those cities…….

Contact them today…..