Council Proposal to cut Funds From DCPS - Amidon Bowen Advocacy Committee
/Dear Chairman of the Council and Councilmembers,
We are writing to express concern over the Council’s proposal to cut some funds from DCPS central office, including:
● Food services for afterschool meals
● The learn-to-swim program for underserved students
● Funds for ongoing school security
It is possible, and likely, that there are some inefficiencies and ineffective programs within the DCPS central budget. But figuring out exactly which to cut would require talking to people working in schools and more time than we have now.
I understand and applaud the Council’s desire to prioritize stability in school budgets. However, stability cannot be our only goal, and prioritizing stability over both adequacy and equity doesn’t make sense. As of now, Council is proposing to redirect hundreds of thousands of dollars to schools, some serving few students classified as “at-risk”, while simultaneously cutting critical services – like afterschool meals, learn-to-swim programs, and front-line security – for underserved youth.
Council should instead consider:
● Whether schools facing steep cuts had more staff than other schools with similar sizes and populations
● Available PTO funds, some to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars
● Other unusual circumstances, such as remodernization efforts, which might warrant holding staff harmless
In other words, Council should look at the whole picture. Beyond this budget cycle, we also encourage Council to consider structural changes to mitigate budget cuts in the future:
● Limit the opening of new schools to cases when it is needed to meet in-boundary demand and after possible boundary changes, given that each new school increases costs systemwide
● Fund schools to account for midyear mobility, which should help to offset resources lost with declining enrollments
● Require DCPS to provide a full accounting of their budget and include both local and federal dollars so that we can start doing the work to see where cuts may be warranted in the future
Thank you for considering what’s at stake here.
Amidon-Bowen Advocacy Committee
Ps. More details and graphs here: https://betsyjwolf.substack.com/p/dcs-school-first-legislation.