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Thursday, May 5, 2011

NYC Public School Parents: 20 Questions that should be asked of DOE about Fair student funding & the education budget

NYC Public School Parents: 20 Questions that should be asked of DOE about Fair student funding & the education budget

20 Questions that should be asked of DOE about Fair student funding & the education budget


The mayor is due to announce his education budget tomorrow, Friday. For the DOE fair student funding formula,see here. The next PEP meeting (May 18 at 6:00PM at Long Island City HS at 14-30 Broadway in Queens) will apparently vote on it, but CEC's are also being provided with briefings in the meantime and allowed to ask questions.

1- What is the base funding per student that schools receive, and how does that compare to last year and the year before?

2- Why are elementary grade students funded at lower levels than middle and HS students, especially when the class sizes in these grades are supposed to be kept smaller?

3- How is poverty defined – free or reduced lunch students or both? And why isn’t there a separate standard for each, given their widely different income levels and challenges?

4- Why are the selective specialized schools given more funding per student? Doesn’t this lead to