The very basic flaws in the Fair Student Funding formula

 Below are the comments I made at the Fair Student Funding Task Force session this afternoon.  Though I focused on the issue of class size of course, others contributed critical comments on other aspects for the formula; including the way it provides  extra funding to the specialized high schools despite the fact that their students are among the highest achieving in the city, the manner in which DOE makes cuts to schools via the mid-year adjustment forcing schools to excess teachers after the school year has begun (does  any other school district that uses a weighted student funding system do this?); and the under funding of schools who have to wait for November or beyond for more funding even though their enrollments are higher than projected, including schools that have gotten scores of new migrant students without the staff to teach them; and more.  

Not to mention that the formula insufficiently supports the needs of any students, so any increase in the amount provided to poor students, or those who are homeless or have disabilities would inevitably cut funding from other students, in a zero sum fashion.  A rough transcript of the proceedings is here; more info about the materials and minutes of the Working Group is here.

 If you want to send in comments, you can email FairStudentFunding@schools.nyc.gov ; deadline Oct. 27.  Thanks!

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My name is Leonie Haimson and I’m the Executive Director of Class Size Matters.v There are some very basic flaws in in the Fair Student Funding system:

1-      The formula provides insufficient resources to ensure that schools can meet basic student needs – forcing principals to excess staff and cut critical programs and services, as seen from this year’s the budget cuts that have had hugely damaging impacts on most schools.

2-      The formula was designed in 2007 to incentivize principals to maximize class size – which is not only harmful to student learning but also in conflict with new state class size law, recently signed by the Governor. The FSF Taskforce created by the City Council in 2019 surveyed principals, of whom 80% of the identified large class sizes as a consequence of the FSF formula.[1] 

3-      The entire school funding system must be realigned to ensure that schools can meet the new staffing needs mandated by the law. 

4-      Relevant to this issue is how the programs prioritized by successive administrations have been funded separately from the Fair Student Funding and are instead funded on the basis of the need to staff entire classes, rather than individual students, as the previous DOE funding system was designed to do before FSF was introduced.

5-      There is precedent for creating a whole separate allocation system for smaller classes.  In fact, 3K and PreK classes are not subject to the formula.  Instead, schools are funded for an entire 3K and preK class no matter its size, and then capped at 15-18  students, with one classroom teacher  and one classroom paraprofessional. If there are more students per class than these caps, schools receive funding for a whole new class. This is so that they can meet the state law that caps class sizes in these grades. Special education PreK classes are capped at even smaller levels, with additional service providers. [2]

6-      The DOE also provides additional funding outside the formula to each school to “sustain Gifted and Talented (G&T) programs with enrollment lower than 18 students” in grades K-3, though the regular class sizes in these grades can be as large as 25 (in Kindergarten) and 32  ( in grades 1^st-3^rd.) [3]  This additional funding totaled more than $2.8 million last year and allowed schools to keep gifted classes in some schools as small as six to eight students per class.[4]

 Whether within the flawed FSF system or in a separate school allocation, as currently exists for 3K, preK and gifted classes, this task force should propose the creation of an additional funding mechanism to support and ensure the phase in of smaller classes in grades K-12, at the legally prescribed levels.

 

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[1] https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2021/11/why-fair-student-funding-task-force.html

[2] https://www.nycenet.edu/offices/finance_schools/budget/DSBPO/allocationmemo/fy22_23/fy23_docs/fy2023_sam026.htm

[3] This is the language from the FY 2022 School Allocation Memo entitled “Gifted and Talented Supplemental.  https://www.nycenet.edu/offices/finance_schools/budget/DSBPO/allocationmemo/fy21_22/fy22_docs/fy2022_sam096.htm The FY 2023 SAM has not yet been posted, though the DOE disclosed in a presentation dated May 2022 that they intended to spend $2 million  in federal ARPA funds to expand gifted & talented programming for FY 23. https://classsizematters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/FY23-Stimulus-and-C4E-Engagement-Plan-1.pdf  

[4] See the spreadsheet here: https://www.nycenet.edu/offices/finance_schools/budget/DSBPO/allocationmemo/fy21_22/fy22_docs/FY2022_SAM096_T01.xlsx

 

Bloomberg's flaws, according to the NY Post and Times

On Thursday, the Mayor flew off to Miami without visiting the Bronx families who lost eight of their children to fire. Instead, they sent Chancellor Klein.

After a lot of negative comment, Bloomberg flew back later that evening. Here is an excerpt from the AP article that was syndicated throughout the country, including the Sun:

Asked by reporters in Miami why he did not cancel his trip because of the fire, Mr. Bloomberg said he had other things to do, and grew testy after the questions persisted. He would not say when he planned to return to New York City, but ended up flying back late that night.

On Saturday, the NY Post published an editorial concluding that this was just the latest indication of how Bloomberg “is a deeply flawed mayor.”

"Time and again over the last five-plus years, Bloomberg has demonstrated an appalling inability to connect with the people of New York in times of crisis. …His enemies charge that Bloomberg cares about process, and not people - and you know what? The allegations resonate. Last month, it was his refusal to lift alternate side of the street parking after a brutal ice storm. Whether it was last summer's Con Ed power outage, the Staten Island Ferry tragedy - or even last month's school-bus fiasco - Mike has come across as aloof and arrogant."

On Sunday, the Daily News added its two cents on the Mayor's missteps, in an article entitled "Mike's harsh winter."

The NY Times doesn’t deign to notice the Mayor's flaws on its editorial page – in which city politics or our schools hardly exist as a concern anymore – but ran an article on Sunday which, while pointing out some of the same examples, also claims that he has learned from his mistakes.

The headline as written by one of many NY Times' relentless boosters among the editors: Bloomberg, Criticized Again for Response to a Crisis, Tries to Strike a Balance:

“….those very traits that have helped make him a popular mayor and the subject of cocktail-party presidential speculation have frequently caused him trouble in responding to the travails of ordinary New Yorkers, whether parking in a snowstorm, coping with a power failure lasting days or mourning the sudden loss of nine people, eight of them children….…. This winter, his administration set off an uproar among parents by upending children’s bus routes in the midst of a school year, a move he defended for days before conceding it might have been better handled. Many parents were already upset about the enforcement of a cellphone ban in schools that did not take into account their need to keep in touch with their children.

Then last month, he incensed New Yorkers by failing to suspend parking rules as a snowstorm iced in vehicles across the city. After telling New Yorkers to stop “griping” over the thousands of tickets that had been handed out, he abruptly canceled them. Mr. Bloomberg’s quick reversal of the parking tickets and his response to the brouhaha over his Miami trip suggest that he is hearing the message. Showing a new willingness to change direction in the midst of a choppy course, he testily defended his trip to reporters in Florida at first, then decided to come back that night.”

Bravo! I guess we all should congratulate Bloomberg on his willingness to listen to his large staff of PR managers, who are smart enough to read the papers and watch the local TV news.