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Notebook NEWSFLASH: June 2007
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by Dale Mezzacappa
Amidst a swirl of controversy and considerable parent protest, the School Reform Commission has spent weeks considering whether to renew the contracts of six education management organizations, or EMOs.
But another set of contracts with school managers, worth far more money, has gotten far less scrutiny – those with three for-profit companies that operate alternative and discipline schools.
These companies receive a total of about $40 million to serve fewer than 3,500 students who have been expelled from regular schools or are seeking to return after dropping out. They were spared from the District’s plan to negotiate a 10 percent cut in outside contracts – and to terminate some contracts entirely – to help close last fall’s surprise $73 million budget gap.
Instead, these companies were denied promised annual cost-of-living increases that were built into their five-year contracts.
District officials say the special treatment is because, unlike the EMOs, the companies – Community Education Partners (CEP), Camelot Schools of Pennsylvania, Inc., and Cornell Abraxas – assume responsibility for the cost of educating each student rather than just receiving an add-on management fee like the EMOs.
“As we work through this process, we were trying to cut the contracts that impacted the classroom the least,” said spokesperson Amy Guerin. “These alternative education contractors provide direct classroom services, facilities, and highly-trained staff for an at-risk population.”
Foregoing the cost-of-living increase next year in these contracts could save the District as much as $2 million. “That is not insignificant,” Guerin said.
But as deep cuts have been made across the District and the SRC faces a need to find additional savings, some education activists are concerned that there has never been a thorough evaluation of what, exactly, Philadelphia is getting for the huge outlay of funds on disciplinary schools. The District has never had any public discussions of the best options for dealing with school safety and discipline, hasn’t provided any data to back up the per-pupil outlays, and hasn’t explained why one provider gets more per pupil than another.
“This is a substantial amount of money, and there just aren’t hard facts out there,” said Len Rieser of the Education Law Center, which advocates for the legal rights of students.
By contrast, three studies, one done in-house, evaluated the effectiveness of the EMOs. Their conclusion – that the EMO-operated schools did no better than ones run by the District in improving student achievement – sparked citywide debate on the wisdom of keeping the private managers. They mobilized parents, riled the companies, and put pressure on the School Reform Commission and legislative supporters of privatization to justify their decision-making.
On the discipline schools, however, “public accountability just hasn’t been there,” Rieser said. With such tight budgets, “the whole point of getting information to the public is so that we can talk about the best uses of money we have.”
Community Education Partners, the oldest and largest of the discipline school operators, receives the lion’s share of the alternative education funds – some $30 million – for three discipline schools (CEP at Hunting Park, Allegheny, and Miller) and an accelerated school for overage high schoolers and returning dropouts. Their funding dwarfs the District’s $19 million combined payout to all six EMOs this year.
Camelot gets about $8 million for two discipline schools (Boone and Shallcross) and one accelerated school, and Cornell Abraxas about $2 million for a program that serves troubled third and fourth graders.
Any suggestion that CEP and the other providers aren’t sharing in the pain of the cutbacks is not true, said Barbara Braman, senior vice president of CEP and a former longtime District official.
“We were not spared at all,” she said. This will be the second budget year in which CEP and other providers took a freeze in the promised increase based on the Consumer Price Index, which will be an effective 4.2 percent cut from what was anticipated, Braman said.
“We lost income, and we didn’t cut direct services to kids,” she said. “You make other economies - do other things.”
Braman would not say exactly what economies were made to accommodate the freeze, or whether it cut into company profits. "I can say that the people who work in the schools didn't even know there was a freeze," she said.
As public and legislative concerns about school safety have grown, the for-profit industry that promised to take the most troubled students out of circulation and give them a dose of behavioral and academic medicine grew along with it, with CEP in the lead. The Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1999 started a special grants program for districts that used private companies to run discipline schools.
Former superintendent David Hornbeck first brought Nashville-based CEP to Philadelphia in 2000. Subsequently, the SRC and recently departed CEO Paul Vallas undertook a massive expansion of slots for students with serious infractions, outsourcing all disciplinary schools to for-profit providers and a few nonprofits, while dramatically expanding CEP’s role. These company-run schools have now completely replaced the expensive and largely ineffective discipline schools that the District had run itself for decades.
“It happened by fiat,” Rieser said of this sea change in policy. “I don’t think there was any public discussion of what the District’s approach to school discipline problems should be. I don’t think those of us outside the District and some of those inside have a very extensive idea of how successful CEP is with kids educationally and how justified the substantial extra expenditure of money is.”
One issue is that CEP is paid not based on how many students actually enroll and attend, but based on its building capacity. That means that it can be paid for students not actually being served. Its original contract was based not only on actual enrollment, but on day-to-day attendance. That was changed, however, when CEP signed a new five-year deal in May 2004.
Moreover, based on documents from the District, CEP gets roughly $3,000 more per student than Camelot. But there has never been any study of the effectiveness of Camelot’s program vs. the one at CEP, which relies largely on students learning at their own pace at a computer.
The District is limited in how much funding it can divert from slots in disciplinary schools, since the state legislature has been providing funds specifically for that purpose through “Alternative Education Demonstration Grants.”
The SRC passed a 2007-08 budget that counts on receiving an additional $54 million from the state, which includes $22 million in such grants. But that amount is not now included in Gov. Rendell’s proposed budget. In the past, Rendell has called for more accountability for the money.
The biggest champion of the grants – and of CEP – has been State Rep. John Perzel, who had considerable clout as Speaker but has less now that he is no longer in the House leadership.
SRC James Nevels was in Harrisburg June 19 lobbying for the additional funds. He could not be reached for comment.
Rieser said that raising questions about the effectiveness of the discipline schools is not well received.
“If you ask questions about it, it’s been presented that these schools in their current form at their current cost are what we need in order to have some degree of safety in Philadelphia,” he said. “Any discussion is almost treated as somehow being unconcerned about school safety. But there are lots of ways money can be spent to improve school safety. This is only one.”
Contact The Notebook at 215-951-0330 x2107 or flash@thenotebook.org
In May, the School Reform Commission approved the following:
- A $2.18 billion operating budget for 2007-08
The budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 includes deep cuts in many areas, including elimination of 250 teaching positions at schools with enrollment declines and as many as 240 central and regional office positions, and cuts of over $10 million in contracted services. The SRC voted to restore 100 teaching positions and several other programs that the administration had proposed eliminating. These restorations will necessitate $18 million in additional cuts to keep the budget balanced. The commission committed to holding two public meetings in July or August to review additional expenditure reductions before they are adopted. The budget is balanced based on an assumption that the state will appropriate $54 million beyond what is now earmarked for Philadelphia in Governor Rendell’s proposed state budget.
- A resolution calling for the District to produce a class size reduction plan
The SRC called for management to prepare a plan by June 20 for achieving class size reduction in early grades in 2007-08 and subsequent years, and committed itself to consider amending the 2007-08 budget to invest in lower class sizes and make offsetting adjustments.
- A $535 million capital budget for 2007-08
The capital plan provides funding to complete construction of Audenried, Fels, and Lincoln High Schools, as well as Barry and Willard Elementary Schools and a new elementary school at G Street and Hunting Park Avenue. The six-year capital plan, totaling $2.7 billion over that period, also includes funding for a replacement building for West Philadelphia High School and for a new Kensington High School. Renovations account for the vast majority of the spending plan.
- A series of measures drafted by Mayor Street, in consultation with parents, aimed at ensuring more parent input into the budget process
The resolutions included a commitment to an unprecedented posting of four years of detailed information about each school’s budget – which is now available on the District’s website. Two additional budget hearings, to be held June 20 and June 27, were scheduled, in which SRC and District officials will be present to respond directly to questions from the public about budgetary issues. The commission also committed itself to publishing a detailed five-year financial plan by August 30, as well as a plan for involving stakeholders in future budget proceedings.
June 20: March for Education Justice. 12 – 12:45 p.m. Municipal Services Bldg., Broad St. and JFK Blvd. Join parents, students, and citizens passionate about public schools for a rally for greater student and parent participation in budget decisions and against cuts in the classroom. For more information, call Paula Tavares at 857-829-1754 or Aissia Richardson at 215-236-2100.
June 20: School Reform Commission session. 1 p.m. 440 N. Broad St. This is the SRC's last scheduled voting session of the school year and will look at over 100 resolutions including contracts for EMOs. For more information, call 215-400-4040.
June 20: School Reform Commission special budget hearing. 6 p.m. 440 N. Broad St. This is an opportunity to testify or ask questions about District and local school budgets and to get a deeper understanding of how the district prioritizes its spending. For more information, call 215-400-4040.
June 27: School Reform Commission special budget hearing. 6 p.m. 440 N. Broad St. To register to speak, call 215-400-4040 by 4:30 p.m. the day before the meeting.
June 29: Environmentally Healthy Schools: Protecting Occupants and Improving Performance. 8:45 a.m. – 5 p.m. Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch St. Learn about school IEQ (indoor environmental quality), industrial hygiene, and environmental health from government agencies and national organizations, and learn strategies to solve IEQ problems at the local level. For more information, contact Dion Lerman, 215-471-2200, x109.
June 30 – July 5: National Education Association’s 145th Annual Meeting and 86th Representative Assembly. Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch St. The first two days will be devoted to discussions, conferences, and exhibits. During the Representative Assembly, delegates will debate issues that impact American public education, elect top officers, and set policy for the 3.2 million-member Association. For more information, visit www.nea.org/annualmeeting/index.html.
July 8 – 10: National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF)’s 2007 Annual Symposium: Schools Organized for Success: The Future of Teaching. Sofitel in Philadelphia, 120 S. 17th St. Collaborate with coalitions from over 30 states to develop and refine strategies for improving teaching quality, school performance, and student achievement, helping to transform schools into genuine learning organizations. For information, registration, and fee details, visit www.nctaf.org/resources/events/annual_symposia/2007AnnualSymposium.htm.
July 10 - 13: Education Commission of the States National Forum on Education Policy. Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel, 17th and Race Sts. Join plenary, concurrent, and small-group session topics that offer opportunities for policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders at all levels of public education across the nation to carefully reflect on current practices and emerging promising strategies and to share information, ideas, and lessons learned. For information, registration, and fee details, visit www.ecs.org/html/meetingsEvents/NF2007/NF2007_main.asp.
July 16 - July 18: National Conference on Volunteering and Service. Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch St. This year’s conference theme, “The Power of We,” brings together more than 2,600 people from the nonprofit, government, and business worlds dedicated to improving communities through service and volunteering. For information, registration, and fee details, visit www.volunteeringandservice.org.
July 17 – July 20: Science in the Summer: Genetics. Every Philadelphia Free Library branch will have a series of free science workshops for children grades 2-6, investigating genetics: building a cell to learn more about chromosomes and genes, extracting DNA from a strawberry, examining their fingerprints, and constructing a DNA molecule. For more information, call your local library or 215-686-5372 or visit www.library.phila.gov/libserv/scisummer.htm.
July 17 - July 19: Building and Leading a Data-Driven School Improvement Process at Your School: A Summer Institute for School Leaders. Logan Hall Terrace Room, 249 S. 36th St. Principals and teacher leaders will learn how to use data to build better school improvement plans and how to convert their plans into daily, weekly, and monthly actions. For information, registration, and fee details, visit www.gse.upenn.edu/leadership/institute.
Aug. 8: School Reform Commission Meeting. 1 p.m. School District Board of Education's auditorium, 440 N. Broad St. To register to speak, call 215-400-4040 by 4:30 p.m. the day before the meeting.
Aug. 13 – 14: Service-Learning Institute for Faculty. Drexel University, University Club, 3250 Chestnut St. A two-day service learning institute for faculty, covering basics of course construction and community partnership, as well as evaluation and assessment and institutional advancement of civic engagement. For more information, visit www.upenn.edu/ccp/PHENND/events.html.
Aug. 15: School Reform Commission Meeting. 1 p.m. in the School District Board of Education's auditorium at 440 N. Broad St. To register to speak, call 215-400-4040 by 4:30 p.m. of the day prior to the meeting.
Every Thursday: Talk radio program “School Days” with Sandra Dungee Glenn, School Reform Commission member. 12 – 1 p.m. WURD 900 AM. Call-in number: 215-426-1310.
Ongoing: Check your local school's budget history online. The District has posted a four-year history of school budgets as well as a summary for each school at www.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/cfo.
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