Thursday, August 19, 2010

 
Senator Breslin Wields a Meat Ax to Charter Schools


State Senator Neil Breslin (left) is having a bad week.

The Senator, who represents all of Albany County, just introduced a bill to cut funding for charter schools in Albany this year and give it to the Albany City School District. Charter schools are owed $14,072 per student this year, while the Albany District will spend about $21,700 per student after factoring out the district's charter school expenses - a funding gap of $7,600 per student in the district's favor.

In other words, charter schools in Albany get $7,600 less funding per pupil than school district students--a funding inequity of more than one-third--and Sen. Breslin wants those charters to get even less than that so the Albany district can have more.

Sen. Breslin's bill (S.8472) would cut Albany charter school funding to 2008-09 funding levels, which would take $2,360 per student from charters for the school district's benefit - a cut of more than 16 percent from charter school budgets. This two-year difference is the result of a formula that pays charter schools based on the spending by the school district. As the Albany district continued to spend more, its charter payments have increased. Sen. Breslin instead wants to cut charter funding so the Albany district can spend even more on itself. By contrast, most school districts in the state have slowed their spending, resulting in most charter schools receiving the same funding or less this year than what they would have gotten last year.

This reverse-Robin Hood approach to steering more money to the Albany district is unjust and punitive toward charters schools. With charter schools already receiving far less than the district, why cut them further to pad the district's budget?

Harming Minority and Poor Students
This cruel irony is even more stark when you consider that Albany's charter schools serve a much higher percentage of students of color and students from poverty households than the district. In 2008-09, 95 percent of charter school students either were black or Latino or other racial minority, compared just under 75 percent of district students. In addition, more than 85 percent of charter school students in Albany quality for federal free or reduced-priced lunch, compared to more than 68 percent of district students.

There is no suggestion whatsoever that Sen. Breslin is promoting any sort of racism. But it is undeniable that his proposed bill would disproportionately harm public charter schools with much higher percentages of students who are poor and minority in order to benefit public district schools with lower percentages of minority students and which serve proportionately more students from middle and upper income households - the same district schools that already get more money than charters.

Faulty Legislation
The discriminatory effects of this bill against poor and minority students attending charter schools appears to be another example of an unintended consequence by Sen. Breslin. In the same week the Senator introduced his anti-charter bill, the local CBS tv news station reported a devastating account (here) of how a new health insurance law sponsored by Sen. Breslin ended up applying to only 25 percent of policy holders, rather than all health insurance policies as the Senator previously assured. Local talk radio has been having a field day with this blunder.

Here's hoping Sen. Breslin will correct both legislative problems, before further damage is done to his constituents; in the case of charter schools, those constituents from mostly poor and minority neighborhoods sending their children to charter schools. The New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), which just endorsed Sen. Breslin for re-election, may be happy with his new bill to cut charter funding, but the Senator's charter school families don't deserve such treatment.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard
Twitter.com/petermurphy26
Facebook "Chalkboard Nycsa"
posted by Peter Murphy at PermaLink 11:57 AM