Friday, July 31, 2009

ASD Faces Big Challenges

Four years ago a group of business and community leaders in Allentown formed "Education 2010!" The group hired and paid a consulting firm in Denver to prepare a local "costing out study" for the Allentown School District. The reason for the study was to ensure equitable funding and a better education for ASD students, which in turn could result in a stronger regional economy, and a better quality of life for all residents.

The results of the study are quite surprising. Here's a link ...  

According to the study, these are some of the challenges that the ASD faces:

- ASD has almost 3 times as many poor students as the next highest district (Northern Lehigh)

- ASD has more than 5 times as many English learners as the next highest district (Whitehall)

-Compared to half of the other districts in the county, ASD has seven times as many poor students and fifteen times as many English language learners.

The study reports that Allentown has the lowest property value per student, less than half of what most other districts in Lehigh County have, but Allentown's tax rate is higher than both county and state averages. And the huge revenue gap between the ASD and other districts will keep increasing as more families move to Parkland and East Penn. Hopefully that trend will change, and in the future more families will choose to live in the city.

I have seen the gross inequity between the ASD and other local districts. This is unfair and unjust because the ASD child who is born into poverty deserves the same quality education as the suburban child who lives in the McMansion in the Macungies.

Why should the quality of a child's education be hinged upon local property values? It's wrong to deny a child born into poverty the necessary resources for a quality education. 

In the 2008-2009 budget, Governor Rendell introduced a new school funding formula to distribute funds based on the actual number of students in a district, factoring in the number of students living in poverty, English learners, and special needs. So Allentown would be getting more state funding this coming school year. But now because of the current budget crisis, those funds are at risk of being cut. This is really bad news for the ASD because if programs are cut, the needs of students will not be met.

What would help to improve this dire situation? Allentown's taxes are already too high.

The ASD would certainly benefit from more community involvement and help from business leaders, but that's not enough.

We believe that school district consolidation into a county district is worth looking into. Of course, there would be people who would complain that their hard earned tax money shoudn't be used to help some poor inner city kid who can't speak English. Not everyone wants to "share the wealth." And considering today's current divisive political atmosphere, overt racism in the media, and the classism and racism in our society, it doesn't look like people are willing to come together on important issues like education and health care. The Republicans are more concerned about stopping President Obama than listening to the American people.

But why not share the wealth, since a child who has a quality education is more likely to go on to college, help improve the economy, and benefit society as a whole. It's a good return on your investment. And what could be more important than our children?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post! Thanks for the info!

I think the basic issue is that every kid deserves a chance at a good education. Then students can choose another path if they prefer (when they're teens), but it should be their own choice.

Today in poor school districts, it seems that the choice's being made for the kids before they even enter first grade. No matter how hard the teachers work, they just can't teach kids well when they don't have enough resources, and when so many students struggle because English isn't their first language. Once kids fall behind, it's very hard to bring them back up to speed.

These kids deserve a shot at a better future. I hope ASD gets its funding despite the budget cuts.

Angie Villa said...

Thanks anon 8:12. You are right, every kid deserves a chance.

Here are some things that would help: I think that every elementary teacher in the ASD should have a full time aide in the classroom.
And I think pre-school should be mandatory for all ASD kids. There are two early childhood centers in the ASD that offer free Pre-k, I think we need more.

Anonymous said...

From the second page you link to: "In the case of Philadelphia, legislative opposition required that the resources be moved into other appropriations – but the children of Philadelphia will receive exactly what they are entitled to based on the February budget plan."

Wow. You're so right when you say people are not willing to come together on issues like education! It's too bad we have to resort to gimmicks to make sure kids get the money.

Jeff Pooley said...

Excellent post--I couldn't agree more.

Anonymous said...

Angie, very good points here. I agree, no child should ever be disadvantaged in terms of education. But you also still have some open questions and issues.

First, you are right there are far too many school districts in the state and we need consolidation, whether it's on county lines or some other measure. I think though the biggest challenge you'll have is the fiefdoms that are in place. People don't want to give up control - and that's as much an ego thing as anything else.

Second, Allentown the city has fostered many of the problems the school district is having. An out-of-control rental market has resulted in a large number of people relocating here with their kids. It has put an incredible strain on the district, and the city has not handled it well. An example is the number of multi-unit properties that are being taxed as single units. This costs the city and the school district valuable revenue.

Third, I'm glad you brought up President Obama as he is a strong believer in charter schools. In fact, he has challenged states where there are caps on the number of charter schools allowed to increase or remove them so that more children can benefit. On this issue the Democrats in the House/Senate and the Teachers Unions are the roadblocks to the President.

I'm curious what your thoughts are on these points.

Angie Villa said...

Anon 8:47, thanks, good points. I think some of our elected officials are really out of touch with reality when it comes to the importance of funding education.

Jeff, thanks.

Anon 12:16, You are right, there are many issues and questions I have not raised in my post. Education is complicated, but I wanted to focus on how important the funding is. People talk about "personal responsibility" but I think that when kids are born into poverty they need a boost just to level the playing field with other kids who are not disadvantaged from the start.

I believe that Allentown is starting to deconvert multi family units into single homes, but I think the city should be focusing more on enforcing some rules regarding how many people are allowed in one unit. I will need to research this more because I don't know all the facts.

There are "control and ego" issues that school consolidation raises, but we could start small, with a merger of two or three districts.
But I have a feeling that would not be enough.

I am aware that President Obama does support charter schools, he's also a strong believer in early childhood education. Personally, I am not a big fan of charter schools, although I have some friends who send their kids and rave about them. But the parents are required to volunteer and be very involved with the school, and they have the resources and time to do that. Disadvantaged kids don't have that, so they lose out on the opportunity. I think public shools need to be improved to meet the needs of all kids. I think some of the charter schools are too experimental and don't have enough experienced teachers, and sound too gimmicky.

I don't see the teacher's unions as a roadblock because teachers are the ones who the president should be listening to, not politicians, or CEO's. Teachers know what is going on in the classroom and that the needs of all students must be met. Rendell seems to be in touch with reality more than most.

Angie Villa said...

Readers, for updates and info on PA school funding, here is a helpful website. You can follow them on Twitter too.

http://www.paschoolfunding.org/

Anonymous said...

Really great column, excellent job here again as usual.