Dave Sokola, who is trying to hang on to his seat in the 8th Senatorial District against Meredith Chapman, has long been a defender of Newark Charter School. Back when it was ruled that Wilmington School District would be dissolved and its students bused to the more affluent suburbs, many wealthy sought to keep their children separate. Most put them in parochial and private schools costing up to $20,000 a year…
But some wanted to escape black culture and could not afford $20,000 a year. Charter Schools were born to fill that gap. A charter is a school that is not bound by the Federal and State regulatory bodies. They cherry picked their students, and if they do it correctly, they get themselves an all-white school. Newark Charter in its early years had only one minority student.
Dave Sokola frequently uses this line. “People need a choice if they are not happy with the quality of their schools”. Many people interpret that as being not happy academically. But that line takes a whole new sinister tone, when you interpret it racially.
In searching Newark Charter School’s purchases one sees some interesting things. First, in fairness I should say Newark Charter along with Wilmington Charter have the best rankings in the state. They also have the lowest levels of low incomes, Blacks, Hispanics, Special Ed, Non English Speaking. Something public schools cannot control.
There is a reason for their good scores and the Online Checkbook shows it…. Here are a few of their perks….
BERMUDA INSTITUTE OF OCEAN SCIENCE…………… $44,400
BOATHOUSE SPORTS………………………………………..$3380
CAMDEN AQUARIUM………………………………………..$3108.15
COLONIAL PA PLANTATION………………………………..$1200
CREATIVE COMPETITIONS………………………………….$162
CUTTING EDGE ENTERTAINMENT………………………..$600
DEERFIELD COUNTRY CLUB MGMT………………………$7000
DELAWARE 87’ERS…………………………………………..$5387
DELAWARE NATURE SOCIETY……………………………..$4772
DNREC P AND R SUPPORT…………………………………..$1652
GETTYSBURG FOUNDATION………………………………..$433
HERSHEY ENTERTAINMENT………………………………..$5690.50
HISTORIC ODESSA…………………………………………….$1425
INFLATABLES R FUN INC…………………………………….$450
LIVING CLASSROOM NATIONAL CAPITOL REG………….$5700
MARYLAND SCIENCE CENTER………………………………$5593
MEDIEVAL TIMES………………………………………………$8131.65
MR JOYNER ENTERTAINMENT………………………………$7718
ORIGINAL WORKS YOURS INC……………………………….$2919
PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA…………………………………$624
STANLEY M AND ROBERT D HART………………………….$15,194.51
STAR ARMY AND NAVY……………………………………….$4062
Sullivan Specialties…………………………………………….$6478
THE ERITREAN EXODUS……………………………………….$300
THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE…………………………………… $4381
THE GRAND OPERA HOUSE……………………………………$1350
=========================================================
Ok, there is a lot of good going on here. First: exposure to a lot of things is happening simultaneously. It is no wonder this school scores well. Their students are given the full breadth of opportunity to pursue and grow. Secondly a lot of this money is funneled back into the local economy providing jobs and paying bills in each of our neighborhoods.
But like me I am sure the shock will hit most of you rather hard, when you glimpse the scope of how charters spend YOUR money. but this charter according to tests, is getting results for all its money spent; and one can see why that if someone has their child in this school, they will defend charters vociferously……. (And just in case you couldn’t guess so far) this was not written to force any changes to Newark Charter’s liberal use of money…..
I show you this because it explains exactly why Charters are bad for society as a whole and why we need to remove Charters completely from our educational lexicon…
All this money, all of it….. used to come from Christina School District… A district whose enrollment has lost 4000 students since 2005, all of them sucked up by surrounding charter schools. Today this district stands at 43.8% low income and 39.6% Afro American…. It is just 30% white compared to Newark Charter, which is 65% white and has only 11.1% Afro American and 7.9% low income…. It also only has 2,140 Charter students compared to 15,556 public students for Christina…
What we have here….are two school districts…. that are indeed separate….. but they ARE not equal………………..
This is exactly what Brown vrs Board of Education was set up to avoid. This is exactly what the entire busing arrangement set upon Wilmington and New Castle County, was set up to avoid. The disclosure of this gross inequity, should make every Wilmington Council person livid, breathing fire. It should make every Delawarean recognize the real impetus behind the Charter movement is indeed, racial. And it should make every Delaware legislator realize that any support for Delaware’s Charter Schools as they are, is support for entrenched racism.
Let me put it as blunt as I can. We have teachers in Bancroft buying pencils out of pocket so their students have something with which to write ….(the school supplies none; the parents can’t supply any)… while the money that used to come to that school is insteadn now lavishly spent on being “entertained” (by Mr. Joyner @ $7718)…..
It is not that what is going on in Newark Charter is so wrong,… no it truly is wonderful (for those students)!… The problem is that all the money for those great things going on there, is being paid for by the likes of Bancroft, Bayard, Brader, Brennan, Brookside, Christiana, Glasgow, Newark High et al.
This illustrates precisely the HUGE problem with charters… by design they take from the poor and give to the rich… Now, even if Newark Charter School were all Black, the same problem would still occur, because it’s a charter. The money would still remain concentrated in the Charter and yes, some blacks would get to excel; but it would come as a high cost to all those other ones who could not escape their public schools…. They are doomed to fail through no fault of their own.
Charters do not work for society because they take money from the surrounding schools, making all those schools around them poorer, while collecting all the wealthy students into one pocket and giving those a great experience.
We are right back in 1950’s again… The two experiences are not equal and that is unconstitutional.
And here is the shame of Dave Sokola’s efforts and of his derogatorily remarks towards Wilmington predominantly Afro American schools and their personnel,… He says they are failing and need taken over (by friends of his who will earn excessive salaries), because “those schools” don’t compare anywhere close to the quality of those students at Newark Charter… The achievement gap is wide.
Yet if Bayard just had the $142,079 listed above for Newark Charter’s excessive recreation, imagine how broader the environment of all those inner city students would be? One should ask, why don’t they have that money?
If Christina School District, just had the $20,000,000 it loses to charters every year, just imagine how that extra $1285 per student, could help? (One class of 20 = $25,700) One should ask, why don’t they have that money?
Obviously. Charters need to go. But to kill charters in Delaware, you must first remove Dave Sokola from the 8th Senatorial District and replace him with Meredith Chapman. The DSEA needs to shift some resources behind removing him and the LEA’s should work hard for that same goal….
Charters are racist… No, they are not run by racists… Not filled by racists…. Not supported by racists… But the idea that a good school which can manipulate who enters, which gets the lion’s share of resources while the neighboring schools surrounding it go hungry, have no resources, are punished, closed, whose teachers are fired for poor alleged results,…. is nothing more…nothing less…. than the perpetuation of systemic racism…
Charters run themselves exactly like a racist “private” schools, yet do so with the taxpayers’ money. Not fair. If you are Afro American and pay taxes, your own money is supporting the keeping of your race down as long as charter schools remain anywhere near your house.
WE NEED TO REMOVE CHARTERS COMPLETELY FROM DELAWARE SOIL.. (or come up with different funding, such as line items for each school in the state budget).. They are separate. They are not equal….
kavips 
26 comments
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August 3, 2016 at 11:08 pm
Kevin Ohlandt
Reblogged this on Exceptional Delaware.
August 4, 2016 at 10:10 am
Exe
You are a moron. Most of those items are field trips, where parents are sending in a check and then the school turns around and writes one check to the organization.
August 4, 2016 at 10:21 am
A
Wow what a load of crap, take a walk through these schools, plenty of diversity, i know plenty of low income children that go there. That struggle with same issues district schools have. The money you talk of being given away is bc the money follows each child that goes to any Charter school. And as for them being better educated, we’ll maybe that has to do with the fact thier teachers are not locked into 10 yr contracts, and after the first year if the teacher is a bad one, they are fired. Where public school has plenty of crappy teachers that kill a child’s want to even learn. I went through this a few times in public schools and its appalling. Racist, wow the low low places politics will go to try to win. And all you are doing is setting our country back to the past and causes more racism then we have seen 10 years ago. Crazy just crazy.
August 4, 2016 at 11:35 am
justamom
I recognize many of those items. They are field trips. Parents pay out of pocket. We write a check to the school. They write a check to the organization. I went to public school. My parents did the same thing there. Please, show me the checkbook for Newark High School and its two lower feeder schools. Let’s see the check they write for field trips and prom, for the football team. That’s what you are seeing above. As for tax money……The money that comes from the district follows the student that comes from the district. No student, no money. Why should CSD get the funds for a student they aren’t educating? And NCS gets less per student than CSD, so CSD is keeping some money for a student they aren’t teaching anyway. NCS teachers buy supplies out of pocket, every teacher everywhere does. Parents at NCS happily provide supplies as well, often extra to help those who can’t afford to send them in. We donate supplies yearly to fill backpacks for kids who don’t have them. We have TREMENDOUS fundraiser participation. Not all the money in that checkbook is tax money. I’m so tired of this argument. If the anti charter movement spent half the time raising up their own schools that they do tearing down NCS, maybe there wouldn’t be such a disparity in the level of education. There are low income students at NCS. There are minority students. There is free/reduced lunch. There is an outreach program. You push them down, make demands, and still they rise. Every student. The students that get free lunch. The students whose parents speak another language.
August 4, 2016 at 11:42 am
kryan67
Do you have an ounce of common sense??? These charges are from moneys collected from the parents. Parents pay the school for field trips, dances, etc., and the school pays the vendors, directly. This is not money taken from the tax payers. This is money that is paid by the parents. And, children who have free/reduced lunch also have free/reduced costs trips. Please, take a moment to research before you post the incorrect information that the tax payers are on the hook for these charges.
The charter school that you seem to question most is NCS. A school that randomly picks students for admission. How can random selections be racist???
August 4, 2016 at 11:51 am
kavips
kryan67
You must have proof. Please direct us to it.
August 4, 2016 at 12:18 pm
kavips
Hi, I was expecting this.
Delaware Checkbook.
That IS what the state pays. It cannot, and does not include private donations… How could the state access your account? It can’t. It can only write checks out of the General Fund. These totals, are what the state wrote a check for…
Just like your checkbook does not include money your mom sends for your kids.. If so, there a first a deposit, then expenses are written off that amount.
I’m sorry to be the unfortunate person to break this to you, but there are NO deposits made by Newark Charter School into this account.
It is like your Mom giving you cash, and you spending it, then writing the expenses off your checkbook….
You should be asking Mr. Meece…. “where did all our money go?”
And now, we know why Tom Wagner was told in no uncertain terms to pull the audit that was investigating how all the Charter Schools spend their money…. and why he HAD to put his chief investigator on administrative leave. Not for wrongdoing, but to silence her for what she uncovered.
You see… The government can track public money…. But it CAN’T have track private money.
Charters are money making entities. No one starts a charter out of the goodness of their heart. In this case, they saw that by extorting parents to pay for things, and then charging the state for the full amount… they made money…
You have a right to be concerned. You obviously think your money went to pay for what you were told… You obviously think what I posted was baloney because your own checkbook shows it to be otherwise… No animosity on my part for your emotional outbursts. In fact, considering the size of the graft and corruption, they are quite understandable…
But the reality is this… These are what were charged to the state… Therefore I WOULD RECOMMEND you demand full accountability from Newark Charter (their income tax forms); send them to me to be published and I will oblige. Because in truth, I want you to be right. I want to know that all the money you spent, plus the gigantic amounts the state paid for these “trips” all went to a decent cause. This apparent theft is so huge it makes me sick to my stomach. I would like to know that it is not true… In other words, we are both on the same page here.
Here is a link to the Delaware Checkbook categorized for all “Student Activity” in Delaware….
And now…… you too, know……. the rest of the story…
🙂
August 4, 2016 at 12:23 pm
kavips
A…
You, indeed, are a fool.
You lied about the diversity in Newark Charter.
You lied about the struggle.
You lied that the money being given away follows each child.
You lied about why they were better educated. Blaming public school teachers instead of the obvious.. $449,575.29 spent on field trips for its students.
You lied about public school having crappy teachers. When all of your charter schools teachers, CAME from public schools.
You tried to obfuscate systemic racism while it is right up front in your face…
A…. you indeed are a fool.
August 4, 2016 at 5:30 pm
justamom
So, you’re telling us that all those years I went to public school and my parents wrote a check to the school for my field trips, the school was pocketing the money and the state was footing the bill for me to go to the Smithsonian or a Broadway show in NYC? I call bullshit. It works the same everywhere. Parents write check to school, school writes one big check to organization. There are no deposits on your list because there are separate lists for revenue and expenditures. Good grief.
August 4, 2016 at 5:59 pm
kavips
Justamom:
Since you obviously won’t take my word for it, take a look for yourself…
This sideshow argument of whatever happens inside of Newark Charter School’s finances, does in no way change how as long as we have Charter Schools, education remains separate; while not being equal. Especially when teachers out of pocket have to buy pencils for their students in Bancroft, while Charter School kids run off to DC….
August 4, 2016 at 6:18 pm
LA
Kavips, I would like to know your qualifications? Have you worked in a school district business office? Are you even aware how money is allocated or what happens to funds when parents pay for school trips, etc? Not Newark charter but other schools? Do you have proof of what you claim or is all this one sided? You, sir, like a lot of people today, only get half information or half truths and decide to spread your so called knowledge on the people and create anger and animosity towards your target, which is NCS. Today people are against charter schools because they feel they are biased. When I was growing up it was the vo-tech schools, who did in fact, cherry pick their students. There weren’t lotteries. You were selected mostly on grades, but I suspect there were other factors being that there were mostly white students at Hogdson and black students at Howard. If you look at the schools today, ALL SCHOOLS, we have gone back to neighborhood schools. Why? Because bussing does not work. People don’t care about the schools if it’s not in their community. There are schools in some districts that are mostly Hispanic, 98% in fact. Thomas Edison, a wonderful charter school in Wilmington, it mostly black. They run their charter much like Newark Charter. Have you taken any of that into consideration? No, I’m sure you haven’t because you choose to vilify one school, Newark Charter. Why? Because your child didn’t get in? I know lots of people who haven’t and their children go to neighborhood schools which population varies based on the neighborhood.
You want to talk money. Charter schools get less per student than other schools. Not just Newark Charter. Tax dollars are spent on the child. If schools needs funds for repairs, that tax money cannot be used. Take for example, the DMA, a wonderful charter school. They wanted to expand their building. They ask the state for money but the state said no. The DMA had to raise the funds themselves. Newark Charter needs a roof, cannot use tax dollars. In district schools, money is constantly wasted. Newark Charter has a budget committee that checks over how money is spent. Parents are involved on that committee.
Charter schools are necessary. District schools should use them as an example and maybe they can provide better education. Stop,vilifying a great school and instead look to help the other schools in the state.
August 4, 2016 at 6:40 pm
LA
Justamom, please don’t waste your time. This person is a troll and does not know what he is talking about. Monies are collected from the parents or from fundraisers. It is put into an account at the state and when all monies are collected/raised a single check is issued to the vendor. Kavips, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Posting a screen print shows nothing. I’m done, no longer worth my time.
August 5, 2016 at 8:50 am
Louise Thomanek
If Christina School district had the money, would it be spent for the children or for more administrator positions that do not benefit the children? Children need small class sizes, welcoming environments, educated and dedicated teachers. The bureaucracy is taking more and more money. The charter schools deal with less administration and focus on the needs of children. Why do you think so many parents are opting to send their children there.
Louise Thomanek
August 5, 2016 at 3:30 pm
kavips
Louise.
There seems to much you don’t know… Only 17% of charter schools are better than the public schools around them. 35% are worse. The rest are the same.
Charter schools do take money from public schools… In Delaware one of every 5 students is a charter student. Which means that 4 out of every 5 students are suffering in underfunded public schools. Any one knows that +1 – 4 = -3… We are doing this state and its students no favors by continuing charters.
Christina pays out $20 million to Charters a year. $20 million which could better the lot of 4 times those in charters.
If charters were absorbed by public schools, all those good scores would be averaged into the entire district and Christina would be one of the best districts in the state.
If you are Afro-American and pay property taxes or state income taxes, or any other tax in Delaware, you are paying for the continual put-down of your own race as long as charters continue to fester in this state. Your race is kept out of charters, (one charter had the question “does your mom pick watermelons” on its application) and must suffer sitting out 12 years of childhood in under funded public schools…. Getting rid of Charters is the first step to closing the achievement gap. A gap that is smaller in non charter states, looms much larger in charter states.
When one measures the costs to society and compares them to the benefits Charters don’t pay their weight. Far better to reabsorb them into the public system sharing both the wealth and costs across a larger pool.
Charter Schools spend less on teachers than do public schools. Charter Schools have higher student/teacher ratios than do properly funded public schools in all areas that wisely made charters illegal.
Charter Schools skim 30% of the money off the top and let the remaining 60% be split up to pay the costs of the school.
Charters even if filing under a non profit, often pay exorbitant jacked-up rents for their property which are pumped up to generate income to those who put charters on their own properties. Just ask Chris Castagno about his income from the now defunct Pencader Charter. In public schools which own the land, all that income goes straight to students.
Bureaucracy in public schools is far leaner than it was just 8 years ago… There is more bureaucracy per student in Newark Charter than there is per any public district in Delaware….
========================
Bottom line, EVERYTHING you just said was a myth. Charter Schools may be good for a few students but it comes at a cost to the entire district that is unequal, unconstitutional, and immoral…
You will lose your charter school one of these days. You can’t win by being wrong all the time….
August 6, 2016 at 12:33 am
Kurt
The contradiction in this argument is that on one hand you infer that money allocated to other schools would somehow magically make things great for CSD if shifted yet you state only 17% are better than the public schools around them. Surely a district absorbing such a number of students would also incur expenditures to at a minimum maintain student to teacher ratio (or is more students per teacher better for performance?).
The children in NCS are there because their parents want them to get a great education. Yes teachers are great but the key is parent involvement and working together with the teachers.
And, although there are preferences for students of the schools employees and siblings, the remainder is truly random within the Newark area. Statistically, the population of those remaining students admitted to the school must reflect the demographic of those who apply. I have myself seen the names randomly pulled out of a drum in front of hundreds of people.
Your belief that the CSD would somehow be among the best by absorbing the students from NCS is poorly supported. Actually the facts support just the opposite. NCS, according to the article below, spends about $12,000 per student ($26 MM / 2100 students) whereas CSD spends about $19,000 per student ($300 MM / 15,500 students). What is even more absurd about your contention is the fact that you use $0.45 MM in student body expenditures to justify the the performance of the school when by my count (granted I dont have a calculator in front of me), the accounts for a grand total of ~ 1.7% of NCS annual expenditures.
https://exceptionaldelaware.wordpress.com/2016/07/26/delaware-education-funding-which-schools-get-the-most-per-student/
The article states that “For districts like Red Clay, Christina, and Capital, they have some of the highest number of low-income students in the state. Capital’s low-income population is at 51%. That aspect alone gives these districts additional federal Title I funding.”
I personally have donated money, goods and time to NCS to support needs. It is somewhat expected and certainly given cheerfully when educating our children is seen as a collaboration. Parents and friends donate services such as lawn care, painting, and other maintenance to reduce costs/spending, and there may be other local monetary donations in support of the school.
Although there may be a high percentage of Charter schools are no better or even worse than the public schools in their district, that is not the case with NCS (as you state so yourself). So instead of focusing on the unsupported racist tendencies of Charter schools, you would be better served to recognize achievements done the right way, learn from those who are successful, and advocate for reform in support of the students of CSD.
Signed an Afro American father of two NCS students.
August 6, 2016 at 2:02 am
kavips
Thanks Kurt,
I’m missing your contradiction. You somehow mushed up local money and a national study of nationwide student performance.. OK, I see, you mistook that 17% total to be local. No, it isn’t, It was the first national study done by Stanford University to see how on multiple levels, charters stacked up against public schools across the country.
But I understand what you are saying if that were the case locally, but it isn’t….What we do get by returning students and moneys back to public schools is a larger revenue pot, so all fixed costs becomes lower percentages.
And btw, you don’t have to sell anyone on why Newark Charter School is popular. That is not even part of the equation here; a n equation which remains focused on those who don’t get in, and therefore are penalized for it. Like you, they also are predominantly Afro American.
If I dig a hole in my back yard and find a spring of fresh drinking water and no longer have to pay a utility for it, I’m as happy as you are being a parent associated with Newark Charter. But, if that spring it turns out, was the city water main I burst open, then my bounty comes at a price for the whole city…
Someone looking out for the whole city would eventually approach me and say, “you can’t be using that water, We have to seal it off.” This is the equivalent argument against charter schools.
Btw. Redid your calculations of gross/student for my own curiosity.:
Newark $27 mil/2140 = $12,616/student
Christina $245mil/15553 = $15,752/student
Again you misinterpreted the category of what I was saying which would indeed make things confusing… I was talking about test scores or proficiency levels and you are talking about funding. What I meant by my statement was that if you take the smart people now outside Christina’s district and put them back inside the district, and recalculate the scores, the average rises up to levels of all other schools.
Beware of dollar-per-dollar comparisons though. For public schools have special-ed which sometimes averages $35,000 per child, and they deal with more indigent social problems than would Newark Charter. Somewhere locally, there is a study that pulls out Christina’s special-ed dollars and students and recalculates the numbers and establishes a close parity between Newark Charter and Christina district. If I can’t find it, I might have to be the one to do it over again.
i’m still not sure what you mean by stating I use $450 K to justify the “performance of the school”. As you said, it is a small percentage of the total, even smaller when you add the capital costs of building to additional buildings.
To judge a school one should use their own personal experience to justify it. I’m fine with that, and as a dad, that is exactly what you should do.
I’m simply buried the myth on which charters were founded which said they would benefit all a districts children if allowed to compete for students against public schools…
That myth gets shattered when you see teachers buying school supplies out of pocket in Bancroft, while $400,000 at a Charter is spent on treats…
You don’t have to defend that. Everyone who gets treats, loves the fact they get treats… As I said, near the top of my original article, That is a good thing and it would be wonderful if all students had the same opportunity…
But unfortunately, they don’t, because a percentage of their funds gets skimmed off the top to go to charters… Elsewhere I have illustrated how society loses when charters come to town. It’s seen readily by the basic math where if 1 out of 5 goes to a charter, and assuming its a good one, then society gets a net gain of +1; and a loss of -4, for a total impact of a -3….
Charters make a worse society in the macrocosm than an all public school district. The reason is all centered around the funding…
August 6, 2016 at 9:13 am
Kurt
What is the reduction in fixed cost if you bring in these students from Charter schools? While some things like certain utilities can be diluted over more students, certainly things like the number of teachers must go up and perhaps buildings to house these students (i.e. buildings or trailers). Were there “good ole days” in CSD before Charter Schools robbed them of resources? If not what makes you think bringing the few students/money back in house would be any different today?
The article referenced in my first post states “The below figures are based on what each district and charter spent as expenditures in FY2016, based off information provided by the State of Delaware, regardless of the revenue source.” Am I misinterpreting that this is annual expenditures of money from all sources, Federal, State, and Local?
Also your $245 MM for Christina is incorrect based upon this article. It is the highest of any School District in Delaware and at $301.8 MM dollars. The same is evident in the graph on the site shared in my original post.
https://ballotpedia.org/Christina_School_District,_Delaware#Budget
I am not an educator but I have tutored kids since I was in High School all the way through college and beyond and I don’t believe that kids in the CSD are any less smart that the kids that go to Newark Charter. Achievement in my mind is about hard work through encouragement and support from parents and teachers coupled with self motivation. If those children in Charter schools started in the CSD and were at the top of their classes, it would not be because they are “smart”, it would be because they themselves worked hard to achieve that success along with supportive parents and teachers.
As far as Newark Charter School benefiting the entire district, there is certainly a limit to it as founders and staff may get preference to the open slots, but certainly that should improve over time to a degree depending on how long staff stays so that their children move through the grades. NCS is too new to make that determination right now and I am unfamiliar with other charter schools.
It should not be necessary for Bancroft teachers to buy school supplies with their personal money. Parents and communities need to step up and support their schools. Set up donation boxes at work or spend their own money if they have it. My wife bought an unused microwave off of Craigslist for cheap so that my son’s kindergarten class would have a way to heat lunches since the old one was broken. My uncle who lived in Indiana passed away some years ago, but at his funeral an elementary teacher recalled how as his children started elementary school in the early 70’s that he told her that if there is anything that she needed for their class, to let him know and he and the other fathers will take care of it. He lived in a very modest house and was an hourly worker but he had a vested interest in his children’s school.
Now, I am not originally from Delaware, but clearly this is a desirable destination for those who want to have affordable living on the East Coast. Property taxes are extraordinarily low and difficultly passing referendums in the CSD is common. I just saw a post on an article where a comment was made “We chose Delaware precisely because the taxes are low. If I wanted to send my kids to public school, we would move them into one of those states [Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or Maryland]. This is the reason I have voted no and will continue to vote no to Christina referendums.”
This plus the fact that people may have difficulty making ends meet with taxes at their current level makes the passing of increased taxes that much more unlikely. Unfortunately these decisions are at the expense of our children’s education.
I find it difficult to believe that bringing in 3 or 4 student per class from the dissolution of NCS would solve the issues of the CSD (or however many from the dissolution of other schools).
I think we have to support these referendums and our children to give them the best chance but we also have to hold our educators and ourselves accountable. I don’t know how well our communities support the children that live in them, but parenting, after school tutoring, mentoring, and overall support is key. This would do much more for the Public schools than elimination of charter schools ever could.
August 6, 2016 at 7:14 pm
kavips
Kurt
Thank you for your insight and questions.
Let me explain economies of scale. And this is based on theoretically assuming those Newark students would fall back into the system.
CSD pays Newark $7.3 million and gives up 2008 students. Those student’s returning would fit into the existing structures already available. CSD was 4000 students larger back in 2005. Without looking it would probably stack up to 158 each in 9, 10,11,12th grades. 158 each in 6,7,8th grades, and 180 each in 5th to 1st…..
Take High School. They would be divided among 3 high schools. But due to geography let us assume all go to Newark High. (4X158) or 632 students would be spread over 4 grades (158 each) which means in all the 30 classes being taught simultaneously, there would be a bump or 5 people added per class. Plus buses which probably already pass close to their house, simply stop and pick them up, and of course there is no change in utility costs, no change in personnel costs, no changes in any cost… That is theoretical of course, there may be some additional personnel costs due to log jams in mandatory classes of English and Math, but compared to the $7 million received, would be inconsequential as to cost per benefit.
That $7m may not seem like a lot, but it is over half the entire district receives total from the Federal Government… It is 7% of what they receive from local taxes. It is 6% of what they receive from the state…
Lol, just curious, when was the last time you got a 7% raise?
So it is a big deal… $7 million can hire 140 brand new teachers….(income and benefits= $50K.) 140 Teachers added to the current 1062 would at 1202, which divided by 15553 students would drop the entire district from a 15:1 student teacher ratio to one in the high 12’s… that is a BIG DEAL.
Moving on to your next point.
I agree that all people are pretty much born equally intelligent plus or minus 5%… Basically genes make us intelligent all the same. From there we become products of our environment…
The average active vocabulary of an adult English speaker is of around 20,000 words, with a passive one of around 40,000 words…
Children from low-income families often enter first grade with a 3,000-word vocabulary. Their peers from middle-income families know 5,000 words, and those from wealthy homes know up to 10,000 words…..
Mostly the disparity comes from ranges of experience. If you live your first 5 years in one room, occasionally going out to the street, your vocabulary and your knowledge base will be severely limited, say when compared to someone your age who has lived in 3 different countries so far.
You can’t cover that deficit by hard work… Imagine trying to use hard work to learn what a goat is,having no idea of what a mammal, animal, farm, hoof, horns, or farmer were? True it can be done. Spend all night with these books on farm animals and by the next morning, that impoverished student will know what a goat is. But one whole day was wasted just teaching a school kid what a goat was when his peers knew at age 1 by visiting Milburn Orchards!
Hard work can’t cut it. Especially if there is no adult home to watch the kid…
But we can fix this. It will take an 11:1 student teacher ratio in every school with over half of its students below the poverty level.
The best way we learn is by being exposed to things and having them explained to us. Learning is an emotional process, not rational one. We learn what we want to learn and the best motivator is a human being who has time to guide us on our way…
And that is the cost of charters. Taking away money from public schools does real damage to those who need the most help…
August 6, 2016 at 7:29 pm
kavips
And Kurt:
I ignored the differences we had on Christina’s budget because on the side, discussions were ongoing at that time to find the discrepancy… The budget is around 238 million and the 300 million total includes the other special programs.
Go to your original source and check out the bottom comments… And know, you had something to do with that…..
🙂
August 7, 2016 at 9:12 am
Kurt
kavips,
Appreciate the discussion. Because it is all supposition I am not sure we can be on the same page. Again, not being from this area and knowing the history, I would assume 1/2 the number of students spread out over Newark High School and Glasgow but even more than that, there are those that would have chosen private school if NCS did not exists so my numbers are 40% of what you assume (2 student per class).
I am fortunate to work for a company so raises are regular for me, but while you talk about a 7% raise the reality is it is less than this. If it would indeed be $7 MM isnt the total budget $238 MM, so the “raise” is not 7% but rather 3% and that is assuming 100% of those student come back into CSD which we know is not the case.
While you focus on vocabulary, and I agree this is fundamental to school work, math is certainly something that is based on hard work. Take this from someone whose academics and career has been focused in this area. Practice and instruction is of critical importance and most children can master this with support. Now, I can’t deny that a child who has lived in multiple countries and all the experiences that come with it are an advantage, but a 3% increase in the school budget wont make up for this. The child that lives in one room for his first 5 years will still have the lesser vocabulary by the time he enters school versus the ones who have personal experience in subject matter. By the way, I am sure that you are not of the opinion that reading books on animals all night to find an example of a goat is actually is a waste of time when you have also found out about llamas, rheas, and mules and how they differ from horses .
Without those resources what can be done to equalize this? I am of the opinion that educational TV programs can be helpful in moderation, reading is certainly beneficial, and interaction with adults who can educate and mentor whether a parent or a mentor (i.e. Big Brothers Big Sisters). Now hopefully an adult is home for a 5 year old but a 3% increase in the school budget wont change this. Mentoring and community programs seem to be one way of addressing this. However, most assuredly, as children get older, hard work is the only way to cut it. No matter how good the teachers are or how low the student to teacher ratio is, if hard work does not take place outside of the home.
The real difference is the involvement of parents (or their surrogates), and although teachers are important, they can only carry the child so far. You never addressed my question of whether things were great for CSD (or if you like Newark High School and Glasgow High School) prior to the upstart of Newark Charter? In fact, you may not have to go back too far since NCS has yet to have a class graduate with a high school diploma.
According to USA Today, for Newark High School and Glasgow High there is a substantial difference between the performance of disadvantaged students and non disadvantaged students. This would suggest it is not the school as much as the individual circumstances and dissolution of Charter schools will not change this. By the way, I am interested to know what your profession is and how it relates to this subject.
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/delaware/districts/christina-school-district/newark-high-school-4604/test-scores
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/delaware/districts/christina-school-district/glasgow-high-school-4605/test-scores
August 8, 2016 at 12:14 am
kavips
In regards to your query of life before charters, the answer is yes, according to holding schools accountable to scores, the scores were higher across the board before charters started skimming the top students. And there were more extra curricular activities.
We have learned much lately from results posted by the testing companies. We have learned that scores follow poverty levels, and that blaming teachers is just cruel and inhumane. A bad teacher in a wealthier school will keep getting raises, while a really great teacher in a poor school will get fired. Prior to this Governor, we had a test system that measured progress over the year. It compared end of the year to the beginning and that worked well. Progress was made at all income levels. That worked well but was scrapped for the Smarter Balanced which is inherent with flaws. You can check your child’s grade level’s practice test here… Most adults fail the 5th grade tests in Math and English. Most are professionals who’ve taken classes above their bachelor’s…
3% may not seem like much.. But it is the margin below parity. In otherwords if you are operating at 97% of the funding you desperately require, that 3% makes all the difference in the world.
And that was just one school. Over all there is between 20-21 million pulled out of the district for assorted charters in this state…
Returning that to public would immediately benefit the 80% of the area’s students who remained in public schools.
August 8, 2016 at 3:15 pm
Kurt
Kavips,
Again appreciate the discussion. If I look at the performance of 9th grade for reading in Delaware as an example, there are only 3 schools which show up as outliers, those being Newark and Wilmington Charter Schools above the normal distribution and Moyer School below all others (which I assume is now closed).
Looking at 2012 to 2014 data, it is very clear that PLI (percent low income) by school correlates strongly with the performance of the school. You state yourself that “We have learned that scores follow poverty levels, and that blaming teachers is just cruel and inhumane.” How does shutting down NCS change that? The answer is clear….it doesnt. The story below illustrates pumping money into the Newark NJ school system with a plan, financed by a Mark Zuckerberg $100 MM donation. Outcome is that there is not so much to show for it. Why?
The article states that Mayor Booker and Gov Christie set out to “create a national model for how to turn around an entire urban school district”. The author states that viewing it “as something that can be imposed from the top down as opposed from the bottom up, or at least in combination”, was really a very central flaw.
Of the $100 MM, approximately $50 MM went to the teacher’s contract to make them more accountable for student performance and shed ineffective teachers but the return in the class room is hard to see. Approximately $25 MM went to expanding Charter Schools, some of which she claims are excellent. Approximatley $20 MM were thrown away on high priced consultants.
http://hechingerreport.org/what-happened-with-the-100-million-that-newark-schools-got-from-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-not-much/
This goes to my point that getting into our communities and providing leadership, mentoring, and support right from the very beginning is much more important than throwing an extra $6 MM or $7 MM at a $245 MM budget.
According to the Center for American Progress, they list 15 school districts in Delaware where Christina has the highest expenditures per student at more than 32% of the 2nd highest performing district (Appoquinimink) in terms of return on investment. What was the Appoquinimink difference in addition to less expenditures? Appoquinimink had 21% low income whereas Christina has 60% and the Appoquinimink area is rural. (By the way, Lake Forest was #1 yet had 53% low income students and 33% less expenditures)
https://interactives.americanprogress.org/projects/edu-roi/2014/index.php?state=DE
These are objective numbers coming from an organization that has John Podesta and Tom Daschle as central figures, so the assumption is not to satisfy the Democratic voting base by showing a great return on investment, but rather to bring forth the truth. In some ways I feel like I am standing on conservative ground (perhaps I am) which is somewhat bothersome since I am a life long Democrat myself, however I am about logic, numbers, and results.
This discussion has me considering what can I do to make the situation better. Even though I have two young children myself, maybe all three of us going to disadvantaged communities working with the children there would be something well worthwhile.
Our schools performance as a nation has been flat over the last 10 years despite more and more money being pumped into it. I dont mind paying more when it will help but I dont feel confident that is the case here (and I would venture that many feel the same way). Most would consider this a poor return on our investment.
We cant shut down our successes and consolidate only to make more failures. I think your math of +1 – 4 = -3 is incorrect. I would propose that -4 -1 (NCS) = -5 and certainly -5 is much worse that -3. Just like many parents (perhaps even yours), they had to learn to make money stretch to get things done that needed to be done, we have to do the same with our public schools starting now. Let’s get the train on the right track before spending our money. Lets recruit volunteers to help the Elementary teachers and the community centers. Assign community leaders and teams to promote learning and achievement. According to the Bible, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” Prov 29:18. Lets help to give our kids a vision, to stand in where there is no father; to stand in where the single mother works 2 jobs just to get by.
We are losing focus of our goals. If a school whether public or charter is doing well let it continue to do well. Let’s learn from it where we can and do things to emulate it whether by the same or alternate/surrogate methods. Money alone has yet to solve the issues of our schools, but if we can work together as a community for a common goal, I am confident our schools will thrive.
August 9, 2016 at 2:02 am
kavips
Kurt,
Thank you for your insight and questions. First, I was relieved to see I didn’t have a book to read since all three of your comments waiting for me were fortunately the same. For a second, I was afraid you were taking a cue from my prolific postings. Heads up for future reference: to prevent spam all comments with links go automatically into moderation. However, If the server detects sufficient conversation has ensued beforehand, it allows those comments with one link to go through immediately. For your sake (or anyone reading this) simply send the comment (it will disappear on your end but will not yet show on mine); upon my next visit, I’ll have notification it is waiting for my perusal…
>FYI behind your three outliers. Wilmington has a very high selection criteria, chooses only the best applications from above the canal. Newark has a 5 mile radius which due it’s location, is more than 65 percent white, and only about 11 percent are black, according to figures from the Department of Education. Only 7.2 percent of its students are low-income, and only 5.6 percent are special education., of which, Moyer (defunct), was a successful special school for special-ed students that got shut down by the former Secretary Mark Murphy to show he was serious about closing schools with low test scores. It was comprised only of special ed students for heaven’s sakes, who now have been transferred and are applying downward pressure to scores on previously normal good schools.
So to your question how does shutting down Newark Charter help overall? $7 million and 2000 students return to Christina which would apply upward pressure to test scores and diversify the student body to include more of the elite cadre of students. I have not seen any studies of such, but do get told that having smart students become friends with average, elevates the whole class. But without data, that could be perception more than anything else, and on this, I have seen no data. At least it’s a hypothesis.
The Newark NJ Facebook infusion was a disaster primarily because of its misguided focus on charter schools, which was the recommendation derived from $50 million in consulting fees. But the exodus of students and the public funding that goes with them out from Newark Public Schools, wound up deepening a financial crisis in a school district that still educates most of the children in the city.
There was an exhaustive study done across Philadelphia the year they closed multiple schools which compared the testing results from 2004 before charters were allowed, to 2014 with too many charters… Although some charters were similar to Newark Charter and performed well, considerable charters did not, and the public schools which were being put in financial straight jackets, diminished drastically in excellence… Over all, the entire city became dumber across ten years by a factor around 10% on their test scores..
I understand your enthusiasm for charters. You are successfully in one. But overall charters darken and eliminate opportunity, instead of providing it…
Which is why, your math problem though mathematically accurate, -1 -4= -5, it does not have correlation in reality, except for the feelings of those currently in Newark Charter.. For if closed, the students and money would return to the district and that has immense benefits for the remaining 80% of children stuck in public schools.
And here is the disclaimer i lifted from your link to the American Center for Progress…
Please interpret our individual district productivity evaluations with a heavy dose of caution. The connection between spending and educational achievement is complex, and our data does not capture everything that goes into creating an effective school system.
They are correct. Outside sources are not knowledgeable that Christina handles all deaf children in a separate school under a separate account, all autism children under an additional separate account, and all REACH children under a separate account. They calculate using the grand total. Special education is very expensive and that inflates the total plus since these macro totals also include those special children from Colonial, Appoquinimink, Brandywine, and Red Clay,it skews the accounting in their favor as well.
Your perception that our schools performance as a nation has been flat over the last 10 years despite more and more money being pumped into it is another myth often quoted.
Unfortunately that may be a perception because of a one sided push across media, but it does not stand up to real evidence. How would you measure one great huge nation’s educational performance where every state has their own standards and tests? If only there was one test that has been used since the 80’s which was consistent year after year and showed how education compares + or – to one set standard…..
Well, there is. It is called the NAEP and is subtitled the nation’s report card for it is the one solitary benchmark consistent since 1985 and is the ultimate measuring device upon which all educational success or failure is measured…
As an aside, the national score has consistently climbed since 1985 which means our kids today are on the average, smarter than we in our time frames….that is until Common Core came on the scene. 2015 marked the first time ever scores dipped. Those who were the deepest immersed in Common Core (Delaware lead), dropped the most. Those states bypassing Common Core, continued to climb but they were too few in number to elevate the national average.
Being data driven, I’ve concluded Common Core is no good and a curriculum driven by teachers as it has been for the past 30 years, was preferable to this one constructed and enforced from the top down..
August 9, 2016 at 3:06 pm
Kurt
Kavips,
It seems to me there isn’t enough data to justify that common core is no good.
In reality
1. The NAEP 8th grade math scores across the nation dropped on average so I am not sure we can attribute Delaware’s slight drop to Core Curriculum. Not only that but 2015 for Delaware was right at the national average. Reading for 8th grade dropped slightly but so did it for Maryland and New Jersey. Scores from 2003 to 2015 were 8th Reading 265,266,265,265,266,266,263, 8th Math 236,240,242,239,240,243, 239, 4th Grade Reading 224,224,226,225,226,225,226,224).
Even so, I submit that one data point does not make a trend so its effects are inconclusive to this point.
2. By all accounts Newark Charter is one of the best if not the best of the publicly funded schools in Delaware by its rank on State Standardized tests and it is a Core Curriculum school. It would seem to me that the curriculum itself for its purposes (which is to prepare student for college) is capable.
With that said, I think it is important how Core Curriculum is being implemented and at what point in the process students are tested against it. This could very well could be an issue within CSD.
If the Smarter Balanced Assessment tests examples that you linked are the current or future basis for State Assessments but they certainly appear to be extremely challenging at the grade level tested (I looked at the 5th grade math test). If there are plans to position this to take the place of the DCAS assessment I am not sure that is a correct measure. A lot of preparation has to go into making this work and it has to start at the Kindergarten level (as is the case I believe with Newark Charter). I agree that most Public Schools would not likely be set up to manage this expectation. If it was rolled out in 2015, then it should at most apply only to kids who are starting Kindergarten in 2015 provided the necessary systems and support are in place to do it.
And for the record, when I say systems and support, $7 MM from NCS won’t accomplish this and I don’t think $17 MM or will either. It would be great if all students could perform well on those test but we shouldn’t set our kids and ourselves up for failure. Do we lower expectations in order to guarantee we meet them? Should there be different curriculum and test standards for those who are planning on attending college versus those who are not? Would we be doing a disservice to those kids who choose the easier route? I think there has to be real discussion about how we make achievement possible for all and I still think it has to be both Federal/State/Local entities as well as community.
The teacher to student ratio you spoke of as needing to be around 11:1 is probably still insufficient particularly when it comes to this standard and the parent to child ratio at home is 0 to 1 or 2 or 3 (either because the parent is not there or not capable of helping). The reality is NCS would most likely be successful anywhere but again it is not exclusively because of the teachers, or because of their individual intelligence, but most critical to the success of these kids is their parents. Their parents chose to submit their names into a lottery for enrollment, their parents make sure that homework and reading is done every night as the teachers request.
Finally, just for the record, your upward push in test scores, assuming a total of 160 students in the 9th grade going into Christiana, Newark, and Glasgow High Schools averaged in with the scores of those schools (2014 scores) I calculate a grand total elevation of 17 points in reading (the one calculation I made) from an average DCAS reading score from 805 to 822. It’s a nudge at best, not a push. In fact, even with all of those NCS students averaged in (assuming none went to private schools or had no school choice), the average is still below the state average of 835.5.
Again, I appreciate the discussion but I see no proof to suggest that dissolving NCS and folding in its students the various CSD schools (under the assumption they would enroll there) would make any meaningful difference either in performance of CSD relative to the state standard or other state districts.
August 10, 2016 at 4:48 am
kavips
Thank you for your comment.
First, Common Core IS no good. That was 2014’s battle and conclusively has been proven and all are beyond that. All are simply awaiting this election to reorganize and redo education to get back on track from this sideshow.
Second, the national dip in NAEP IS the first time EVER that has happened. This is a huge event, especially since the proponents of Common Core kept saying to all dissenters.. “We know what we are doing! Just wait for the NAEP and its strong growth will prove what we are doing is right”. It actually proved what they were doing was wrong.
Those little bumps in the NAEP are huge. One point for the whole nation to rise in two years is gigantic. Two points are a miracle and anything higher must be attributed to a higher power.
Likewise a single point drop, is huge. Two points are a disaster. I’m not sure you understand the scale of the data you posted. Assuming the accuracy of what you posted, 8th Grade reading dropped below 2003 levels!!! How could that have happened! 8th Grade Math dropped below 2004 levels!!! It dropped 4 points from 2013. How could that have happened? 4th Grade Reading dropped to levels unseen since 2005.. How could that have happened?
It happened because every state rolled out Common Core by 2015….which is why the national average dropped and why our state and surrounding states all dropped as well. Remember, the NAEP average has NEVER gone negative before Common Core… NEVER… One can’t dismiss the immensity of this tragedy occurring to our children…
The Smarter Balanced unfortunately is the new DCAS. This will be it’s third year of replacing it. As you saw, a lot has to go into making it work and ideas similar to yours were actually touted by parents to legislators because they DO make good sense; but were summarily dismissed. The Smarter Balanced is best described as an attempt to make children jump higher by raising the bar two grade levels. If the bar was three feet, raising it to five feet does not help those who couldn’t make it a three feet, jump higher. The entire philosophy behind it, is false science.
And I guess we will just disagree on the impact $7 million or 140 new teachers could have on a large district like Christina … I know it would come at the loss of something you value dearly and naturally expect that has some element in seeing things as you do. I respect that.
Education should be about opportunity… Public education should be about guaranteeing all, the opportunity to take advantage of something to make their lives better. Education should be varied so those who are very intelligent, can make the most of their experience and provide society some future benefit. Those challenged academically should also make the most of their opportunity and become better than they could have been without the opportunity.
The Smarter Balanced gets in the way of that.
It would be nice to go lower than an 11:1 student teacher ratio, but there are cost issues behind doing so. Doing so is very expensive. An 11:1 ratio is really not necessary in areas where everyone is a good student Which is why this is limited to k-5 in schools with poverty levels over 50% and in ninth grade at schools with those same poverty levels. And the beauty is that you could still put 33 people in a class, just have 3 teachers each responsible for 11 students.
Just curious, in your model of recalculating the scores of the 9th grade in the three Christina schools, did you adjust the state average by deducting Newark Charter from the average total?
I haven’t had time to reduplicate your equation, but hope to at some future point.. .
Appreciate the discussion.
August 10, 2016 at 2:11 pm
Kurt
Kavips,
I don’t have the data at hand as you do nor the time to reasearch and become properly educated to adequately respond to your posts, so I will leave you with more questions than answers and then let things stand.
1) Common core may not be good for schools who are not prepared to implement and support it (and perhaps that is a majority of schools), but independent of that, the fact is NCS is a Core Curriculum school and its scores are among the best if not the best in the state so it is possible to achieve within this curriculum.
2) Bill Schmidt, University Distinguished Professor of statistics and education at MSU (my Alma Mater by the way) felt one of the major differences between the top-achieving countries and the United States is the “presence of focused, coherent and rigorous curriculum” and that the only way the United States could have such standards would be if they were developed and implemented on a nationwide basis (2010). He was encouraged by the new National Standard.
Some 5 years later, Bill developed a Navigator to help teachers because he realized “We are asking teachers to depend on textbooks that are not well aligned and also vary widely, meaning children with different books may get entirely different, incoherent opportunities to learn important mathematics”.
“One of the most serious consequences of what we found is that textbooks contribute in a significant way to the inequalities in our educational system,” Schmidt said. “The Navigator can create a bridge for teachers to make better use what they have, until newer well-aligned textbooks become available.”
Now maybe hindsight is 20/20 but in my industry we always talk about having the right tools for the job. You can’t give someone a manual to a MacIntosh II with a fork and a knife and tell them to fix a MacBook Air.
My conclusion is as previously posted. It is not that Core Curriculum is bad but that it is likely most schools are not set up to support it. Previous curriculum may have been inadequately aligned with this standard so you would have to apply it 1) beginning with those immersed from the very beginning (i.e. Kindergarten) and 2) to those properly set up to support it. The intent is good but for many or most public schools, the resources, structure, support, and implementation plans seem to be inadequate.
I do agree with your statements of education and opportunity and again I struggle with the notion of whether every 8th grade student needs to be able to pass the Smarter Balanced criteria. Certainly there are those who will never use the equation to calculate the area of a trapezoid in their future jobs. But at the same time, we dont want to sell any student short because they dont have the encouragement or support to succeed in a challenging curriculum that prepares them something they are very capable of if given a chance.
As far as my calculation, I did not adjust the state average. My calculations (though certainly could be wrong), simply took the average score of each schools 9th grade reading score multiplied by the number of students (14′-15′) (Chistiana = 207 x 802 + Glasgow = 270 x 798 + Newark = 511 x 810) plus the 160 from NCS multiplied by 922. I added them up and divided by the total number of students. The average without NCS was 805 and with NCS was 821. Naturally the higher percent of the NCS students would increase the average but I have no way of knowing the distribution. Evenly divided, the smallest 9th grade school class at Christiana would go from 802 to 826 with the addition of 53 students with an average score of 822.
Honestly I dont know where I found or if I tried to calculate the average score. If I calculated it is possible it was done incorrectly because it should be a weighted average based on the number of students from each school (of which I did not research for 41 schools) That being said, comparing to the published scores of each individual school, CSD would pass Penn (Colonial) and Woodbridge and approximately equal duPont A.I. essentially moving them from 33, 34, and 35 out of 41 schools to 31, 32, and 33.
I appreciate you insight and I have learned more about the school systems here in Delaware and am better for it. We may have some differences but I think we want the same bottom line and that is to make sure all of our children are getting the education they deserve.