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Mississippi: The per-pupil cost would depend on several variables, including how much would be spent on technology, classroom supplies and professional development for teachers. Wealthier school districts could be in line to receive less money from the state. But schools could receive more for educating low-income students and those who don’t speak English as their first language.
This summer, Philadelphia became the first big city to pass a sweetened-beverage levy, which was designed to fund the early childhood program. The city will pump $12.2 million into pre-K this year, funded through the beverage tax, and hopes to ramp up funding to cover 6,500 children in five years.
States like California and districts like Boston, Denver and Houston, among others, have been transitioning to a finance model that gives principals greater authority over their schools’ budgets in exchange for being held accountable for student outcomes. Rather than manage (and limit) how schools spend their money through rules and regulations, officials focus on how to distribute monies more equally among schools.
Mr. Wilson is facing a rebellion by teachers and some parents against his plan to allow families to use a single form to apply to any of the city’s 86 district-run schools or 44 charter campuses, all of which are competing for a shrinking number of students.
Student based budgeting is a flexible budget that gives principals the ability to tailor a large portion of their budget specific to their school instead of having the district put out a one-size-fits-all budget for all schools in the district. The 2015-2016 school year is the first year student-based budgeting has been used in the Metro School District, allowing schools to spend on what they need, whether it be computers, calculators, books, furniture, or anything else the school and its students need.
Hite and Monson are projecting that charter enrollment will grow by 10,000 students over the next five years. To help offset that cost, Hite said, the District is planning to close three more District schools per year, starting in 2018. As students move to charters, the District must gradually downsize, he said, to mitigate so-called stranded costs.
A new analysis of reading and math test score data from across the country confirms just how much socioeconomic conditions matter. Children in the school districts with the highest concentrations of poverty score an average of more than four grade levels below children in the richest districts.
The goal of the funding system is simple: Give schools like Oak Ridge more money and more control over how to spend that money. In exchange, school leaders have to demonstrate their spending decisions are getting more at-risk students learning.
The new plan is a compromise that “ensures that dollars follow students according to their needs in an equitable way,” Lewis wrote March 26 to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. It lowers the amount that Orleans Parish schools get for regular and gifted students, and increases the amount for students who have disabilities, are learning English or are far behind their grade level.
The Grand Rapids School Board on Monday approved a joint fundraising agreement with the Public Museum to raise $4.8 million for renovations to the new Museum School. The Museum School opened this year with 60 sixth-graders. The program will add a grade each year until 12th grade.