Klein: School Funds Set More on Need;

Revised Aid Formula
Klein: School Funds Set More on Need

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein announced last week a new funding system that would drive significantly more money to city schools with higher poverty rates, low achievement scores and large numbers of English language-learners.

LOOKS, ACTS LIKE SMALLER CLASSES: Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein has balked at requests by the United Federation of Teachers to add staff in order to reduce class size, but he noted that when Principals in Empowerment Schools were given discretion last year, 'they spent about 60 percent of the money on new Teachers. If the same pattern is followed this year, that will mean thousands of new classroom Teachers.' Under the plan, 693 historically "under-funded" schools will receive an extra $110 million. The city will also use $230 million of the approximately $1 billion in new state aid to ensure that schools that would have seen a drop in funding under the new system do not lose any money for at least two years.

Most for Those in Need

The Chancellor emphasized that while schools will not lose money when senior Teachers with high salaries leave or transfer schools, Principals will need to take the salaries of new hires into account when drawing up their budget.

"For too long, some schools and some students have not had their fair share," said Mr. Klein. "We are sending new funds to schools with the highest needs."

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten noted that the plan adhered to an agreement last month between the Chancellor, the UFT and a coalition of parent and community groups.

"The numbers clearly show the city honored the coalition agreement not to destabilize schools that work," said Ms. Weingarten in a statement. "No schools were hurt and at the same time there is new money for high-needs students, special end, school safety and expanding pre-k."

Amidst the increased flexibility for Principals is the option to lower class size, a long-held priority of the UFT.

Expects More Teachers

"Last year when we gave discretion to Empowerment Schools," said Mr. Klein, "they spent about 60 percent of the money on new Teachers. If the same pattern is followed this year, that will mean thousands of new classroom Teachers."

But Ms. Weingarten argued that the option was not sufficient. "Conspicuously absent is any mention of directing money to reduce class sizes - a new state mandate," she said.

The new funding formula is based on assigning each student a "weight" and having the dollars follow the student. As a result, some schools, such as Boys and Girls High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Lehman High School in the Bronx and J.H.S. 210 in Queens, will receive up to $400,000 more than last year.

For example, a fifth-grader with an average family income and no special needs is assigned the base weight of 1.0, worth $3,788. A fifth-grader living below the poverty line would have an additional weight of .24, or $909. If he was also designated as an English Language Learner, his weight would go up by another .40, or $1,515, which would mean a total of $6,212 for the school he attended.

Achievement Component

For sixth grade and up, the system replaces poverty weights with student achievement weights. A student scoring below the standard on citywide tests would be weighted between .25 and .50 to bring additional money to his school. In order to remove the financial incentive for low-performing students not to move up, schools would not lose the extra funding as a student's test scores improved or he or she placed out of English language programs.

The money in the new funding formula is supplemented by billions of dollars in additional state, Federal and other spending streams.

About 26 percent of schools have more than 80 percent of students living in poverty. Those schools will receive 35 percent of the $110 million in new funding. A quarter of city schools have more than 20 percent of students designated as English Language Learners, and they will receive 35 percent of the new money. Middle schools, acknowledged by city officials and advocates as some of the most troubled places in the city's education system, currently have 18 percent of the city's public school students and will receive 21 percent of the new funds.

The Put the Public Back in Public Education coalition forced the city to make sure that schools would be held harmless for any Teachers who leave schools during the next two years. But Mr. Klein also emphasized the changes he maintained.

Principals' Discretion

"Principals will be responsible for the real cost of new hires," he said. "If they think it's preferable to spend the money on a less-expensive Teacher and save the money for something else, they'll have the freedom to do that."

The union has filed a grievance against a city practice, which currently forces Teachers to reveal their salaries when seeking to transfer schools.

The city has begun posting the new school budgets on-line for review by the public, which also show what a school would have gotten under the old funding formula. Robert Gordon, the Department of Education official who led the budget reconfiguration effort, promised that the charts were accessible to the average viewer.

"You should not have to go back to school to understand a school budget," he said.