The News Journal just put up an article on the charter school funding scam and their bias towards charters is painfully clear.
Saranac Spencer has just proven herself as one of the worst education reporters in the history of Delaware. First off, I know you reached out to more people than Alison May, Bob Silber, Greg Meece, Kendall Massett, and two legislators for this article. Second of all, you didn’t research the facts behind this story at all. If the charter supporters were so shocked by the reversal of the Delaware DOE’s decision because they planned for it in their budgets, didn’t that throw up a major red flag for you? The districts didn’t know about this at all until last week. Charters planned their budgets months ago. Doesn’t that point you in a direction of collusion Ms. Spencer? Do you even know how to investigate an issue? I know you read my blog post. You completely ignored the fact this was done in closed-door meetings at the DOE by a rogue Associate Secretary of Education and Secretary Godowsky didn’t even know about this until last week. That was the true story here. But you used the word transparency once in the article.
Furthermore, the DOE didn’t “begin looking into this in April”. It was brought to them by Greg Meece and his merry band of firestarters over at Newark Charter School. Or, as you put it, the beneficiary of $1 million dollars in this debacle. The fact that the DOE is in negotiations on this matter after Secretary Godowsky told legislators this would NOT happen this year shows them to be proven liars, yet again.
May said Wednesday night that the department was in discussions with district and charter leaders that would determine which formula would ultimately be used this year.
And what you didn’t even touch on is the fact that the DOE (or is it?) is eliminating the match tax allocations from a restricted status. Yeah, you forgot that VERY big part.
For the 2016 fiscal year, the district had excluded $9.3 million. Under the adjusted formula for the 2017 fiscal year, it would only be able to exclude about $650,000.
Actually publishing this elusive formula would help. Did you even bother to look at Christina’s budget to see what that means? What programs and district services would have to be cut for Christina students? Take away from poor students so the more affluent students at Newark Charter can get more “cafetoriums” and Title I awards when they aren’t even a Title I school? And before some NCS parent or teacher says “that is federal money”, you’re missing my point. No. Not one mention of that. It’s all about what the poor charters aren’t getting. Poor Greg Meece. Boo-Hoo. Poor Kendall Massett. Boo-friggin-Hoo. Ms. Spencer didn’t even bother to see what those cuts are and what they will mean. She took the side of the charter advocates and didn’t even ask the districts what their opinion was. That is bad journalism and in very poor taste on a controversial issue. I got lambasted by those “charter school supporters” because my article wasn’t “true journalism”. Guess what, your article was not true journalism. Not even close. I have a good excuse. This is a blog. But you, you represent the largest newspaper in the state. And your taking sides is not a good work ethic or even close to journalistic integrity. How about the News Journal starts to really investigate what goes on in this state instead of being a public relations vessel for the DOE and the Delaware Charter Schools Network. It is getting really old.
But the worst bit of sloppiness in the article is the fact that THE NUMBERS DON’T ADD UP! If you look at Christina’s preliminary FY2017 budget, there is something very wrong with her figures. To anyone who decides to look up their budget, it shows over $49 million in Christina’s local restricted budget. Now I can figure out where she got her $9.3 million figure from very clearly. But to the readers of the News Journal who don’t happen to venture over here or bother to look up their budget, it paints a picture that Christina is skewing their numbers by 94%. That is just bad journalism. When the true story, based on what the charters are claiming to be true, is a very different percentage. That comes out to 17.8% if you take the TOTAL restricted funds they have of $48,389,296 by the very disputable $8.6 million the charters are claiming to be shortchanged from. See what they did there? Painting a picture like that on an already controversial issue is very deceptive. It makes me wonder who in editorial is doing the fact-checking and let’s this hack work through to the printing press.
If you subtract $650,000 from $9.3 million, you get $8,650,000. Which number in this scenario shows $9,306,899? That would be salary and wages. But what the News Journal seems to forget is the fact that this district had a referendum last year. And certain funds were earmarked out of the referendum revenue they will get to support the promises from that referendum. Like restoring positions they cut when they lost their referendum attempts last year. Which they have to do. But the News Journal Lois Lane wannabe doesn’t bother to look into that important detail.
State Rep. Paul Baumbach plays the wishy-washy side here.
“The main concern is not that we are looking at the formula,” said state Rep. Paul Baumbach, D-Newark. “The main concern is that too few eyes were looking at the formula.”
So whose responsibility is that? What Rep. Baumbach fails to mention here is who has determined the formula for many years. It is not the Delaware Department of Education. It is the Office of Management and Budget, which comes out of the Governor’s office. I pointed out in an article last night there was something very wrong with Christina jumping from $2.4 million to $7.3 million in payments to Newark Charter School over a three-year time span. Especially when Newark Charter’s students that choiced from Christina only went from 1200 to 2000 in the same timeframe. For a formula that hasn’t changed in well over a decade, except for minor inflation costs, that sure is one hell of a leap. What has the Office of Management and Budget been doing with this formula? Was this the same Office of Management and Budget that forced the Delaware Auditor of Accounts Office that forced Kathleen Davies to be put on leave? The Auditor of Accounts for Delaware who was investigating charter schools in various inspections at the time? One of which just so happened to be Newark Charter School? I know that is a fact because I gave them the tip! It looks to me like Newark Charter School has benefitted from this elusive formula for years! Betcha didn’t know that very important fact Ms. Spencer!
The News Journal only mentions Baumbach and State Rep. Kim Williams as the legislators who reached out to Godowsky last Sunday. There were many more.
But the topping on this farce of an article was the quote from Kendall Massett, of the lobbyist Delaware Charter Schools Network.
“This should not be a district-charter fight,” Massett said. “It’s about equity.”
Equity? Coming from a paid lobbyist? This woman has the unmitigated gall to bring up equity? When she knows exactly what Newark Charter School does? My God Kendall, please, just stop. Equity and equality are too very different things. Equity in this conversation would be closing down Newark Charter School based on their 21st Century racism, discrimination, and social engineering. It is RACISM folks. They can say they are coming around to it now, but the way their school is structured now with their demographics, it would take years for them to turn this discrimination factory around. It is the affluent keeping out the unwanted. It is segregation. The very same school that will get more money and wants to cry poor? When they just spent over $1.4 million dollars on a STEM lab and a performing arts center (or cafetorium as some may want to call it), when they refused to let a disabled six year old girl apply for their precious lottery until we beat them up over that? Or when they get Federal money designed for Title I schools and they aren’t EVEN A TITLE I SCHOOL? And our Delaware DOE was the one that submitted them for the award? And they only qualified because the surrounding district was Title I? The fact that this school applied for grant money, DOE performance funds, and a minor modification for a “performing arts center” that is actually a cafeteria and an auditorium already shows their inability to tell the truth. And people just keep handing them dollar after dollar, and they want more. Wake up! Don’t you see what is going on here?
If this goes through tomorrow, Secretary Godowsky will have gone back on his word to the General Assembly legislators. When he knew about this is immaterial at this point. He knows about it now. And if he does go through with it, we all know it isn’t even him making this decision. It is Governor Jack Markell. If this doesn’t go through, and things stay on course with our largest media outlet in the state heavily slanted on the charter side of the equation, it will happen eventually. For a state that wants to do soooo much to help our kids in poverty and who are considered at-risk, we sure have a funny way of showing it.
The Season Of Myths 