The Board should not cut support for kindergarten programs. Period.
I am distressed by the $27.5 million in cuts that Portland Public Schools needs to make for the next fiscal year, 2012-13. I am further frustrated by the PPS School Board’s approach to Title I cuts, as reported in the Oregonian article “Portland School leaders grapple with $6 million drop in anti-poverty money” by Betsy Hammond (here):
Portland Public Schools expects a precipitous drop in federal anti-poverty funding next school year -- to $14.4 million, down from $20.2 million this year -- and leaders are trying to figure out how best to ration help for vulnerable students.
The money goes mainly to add teachers and specialists at schools that serve a concentration of low-income students and to provide free full-day kindergarten at those schools instead of the half-day version the state pays for.
It also funds many small programs that target struggling low-income students, including prekindergarten, summer school, after-school programs and home visits to Spanish-speaking preschoolers and their parents.
District leaders say they face three basic options and may need to exercise more than one of them:
Limit federal anti-poverty money to fewer schools.
Reduce the per-student amount that schools receive.
Reduce or eliminate special programs such as summer school; literacy coaches; and special "wrap around" mentoring and support for Jefferson High students.
There is, or course, a fourth alternative: use general funds to cover the loss of these anti-poverty Title I funds and make cuts in other parts of the PPS budget. There may be federal rules to finesse, but PPS is not facing just a $6 million drop in Title I funds. It is facing an overall deficit of $27 million (about 5.6% of a projected $483 million same program level budget), more than half coming from increased costs (here) such as pay and benefit cost increases (here).
Potential cuts to Title I supported programs should not be approached in isolation. They should be considered as part of the needed $27 million in cuts.
In making the $27 million in cuts, two educational reform principles should guide the Board: (1) shift resources to early childhood programs because they are most effective; and (2) preserve programs for the most disadvantaged because they are the students most in need.
The Board should not cut support for kindergarten programs. Period.
I’ve previously suggested the Board could save $472,188 to $867,844 by shifting ten percent of high school classes to independent online courses (here). If they really pushed independent online courses, making very sophomore, junior and senior take one (the equalling seventy-five percent of the high school students), for example, they could potentially save (and shift) $3.5 to $6.5 million.
Beyond cuts, the PPS budget for 2012-13 should include very modest funding to expand the Mandarin immersion program and to pay for a pilot high school study abroad program,
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