hard deadlines

The flacks at RIDE moved a statement from the Commissioner yesterday afternoon, responding to Thursday night's passage of the education funding bill by the general assembly. Fisking is rarely the first club out of the bag for me, but in this case, I thought a bit of an interlinear translation might be in order...

The state education funding formula which passed the general assembly last night includes a minor tweak to one of the multipliers, increasing the overall state share by .025 in 2011. When I rolled the numbers into the GoogleDocs spreadsheet (by changing the formula in column V) it reduces our loss in state aid from $2.6M to $2.1M, so our yearly hit would be $207K rather than $260K. It is not, contrary to the ProJo's breathless reporting, an "increase up to 50%," but it may be smaller decrease than anticipated.

Given the complexity of the formula, please take my numbers with appropriate grains of salt. I have a query in to the district to check.

In the typical last-day-of-the-session rush at the State House, the education funding formula moved through both houses this evening, according to televised sessions and reports on social media sites. The formula remains, in general outline, the same $8,295 (+ 40% for free and reduced price lunch) per student multiplied by the complicated state share ratio, and the amended bill can be downloaded here: H8094 substitute a.

If there is any good news for Portsmouth, it is that the bill does not take effect until the 2012 fiscal year (i.e., not the school budget currently being considered). And, in what might be considered a bit of sugar to help the medicine go down, the general assembly has increased the reimbursement amount for school construction from 30% to 40%, phased in over two years. Assuming we went to bond for $30M of school renovation, we would actually stand to gain more than the $2.6M we'll be losing through the formula.

But that is small consolation when looking at the $260K hole this formula will put in our operating budget, beginning a year from now.

I want to publicly thank Rep. Amy Rice, who offered several floor amendments attempting to ameliorate the damage to East Bay communities, including spreading the loss out over a greater number of years and giving towns the ability to exceed the cap to recover this lost revenue by a simple majority, rather than a supermajority vote. Rep. Ray Gallison also spoke from the floor on this bill, as did Rep. Jay Edwards, and Portsmouth should thank them all for their efforts, but unfortunately, given the lopsided House vote (60-14), this was not a fight they were going to win.

As a progressive, I should be celebrating the fact that we finally have a formula to help insure that state funds are distributed methodically. I wish I could celebrate.

If only the method were not so flawed, and the impact so dire for Portsmouth.

Today's GoLocalProv, in a story on the proposed education funding formula, quotes this page's editor on the impact on Portsmouth.

Portsmouth and other East Bay schools won’t be losers in new education funding system proposed by the state—they will be devastated, according to John McDaid, a blogger who covers education issues closely.

Portsmouth, for one, would lose about $260,000 a year for a decade, and, because of the property tax cap, would not be able to raise taxes to make up the difference, according to McDaid. “Obviously, that would be devastating for our schools,” McDaid said.— GoLocalProv

It's weird to be on the other side of the steno pad for a change, but I can't complain. The reporter, Stephen Beale, did a good job of getting my quotes right.

The Senate finance committee, during hearings on education funding formulas yesterday, replaced the Gallo bill (S2770) with the RIDE/Costantino bill from the House (H8094), according to a posting on RI is Ready's Facebook page. According to the post, the one change so far is pushing the implementation date to 2013.

If you want to read tea leaves, the Senate taking up RIDE's formula looks to me to be a pretty good indicator of the direction this thing is going to move, and this is not something that's likely to make anyone happy. Funding advocates will be disappointed at the two-year delay, and allegedly overfunded districts still puzzling over their allocations under Dr. Wong's Quadratic Mean are unlikely to find much solace in a temporary reprieve.

But there's a long way until a final vote, and in the general assembly, anything can happen.

Karina Wood (far right) talks with residents at the Portsmouth Library.

Over a dozen residents, including elected officials and school administration, came out for a meeting with RI is Ready founder Karina Wood to chew over the pros and cons of the several education funding formulas being considered by the state legislature.

"Some people say we can't do it this year because of the budget crisis," said Wood, "But I think it's even more important in a budget crisis because this is how your state dollars are being targeted." She noted that without a formula, inequities that had been baked into the system 15 years ago were still governing the distribution of aid.

Wood talked the attendees through the bills being considered (Costantino/RIDE bill (H8094), Ajello (H7555) and Gallo/Corvese (H7123) and stressed that RI is Ready liked certain elements of each.

The Ajello bill, said Wood, has a more robust set of multipliers for groups identified with extra education challenges (English language learners, reduced price lunch, etc.) but did not set a target for an enlarged state percentage, and would cut "overfunded" communities drastically over three years. The Gallo/Corvese bill aims to increase the size of the state share, and holds communities harmless by starting with current funding levels, but would only be triggered by two successive years of positive state revenue. "That's never-never land," said Wood. "We just feel our kids can't wait."

The RIDE/Costantino bill, Wood said, was attractive for its innovative phase-in mechanism (communities gain funding over five years, but losers are spread over 10), but suffered from a low foundation amount (just $8,295) which did not include many big-ticket local items (transportation, utilities, etc.). And the formula itself, with its reliance on a complicated quadratic mean, came in for some criticism. School Committee member Marge Levesque noted that economic disadvantage was double counted, once in the multiplier for reduced-price lunch, and again in the EWAV number. "That's hitting us twice," said Levesque.

"When Dr. Wong testified last week," Wood said, describing the Brown professor who developed RIDE's formula,"He said no other state has a formula like this. He meant that as a academic, that it was innovative." Wood noted that this was not necessarily a positive thing, and commented on Wong's perhaps unintentional candor. "He was not saying it as a politician. He was just being honest."

There was a lively discussion among the attendees of the perceived shortcomings of each bill. Sen. Chuck Levesque noted that the Ajello and RIDE proposals, were described as revenue-neutral. "But they are not revenue-neutral to the local district," he noted, since towns like Portsmouth would be required to pick up an additional share.

Supt. Susan Lusi noted that a key difference between the current bills and the commission work they grew out of several years ago was the commitment to additional funding, rather than simply splitting up the current pie. "Funding our Future [the earlier formula study] presupposed more money to distribute," said Lusi. "Right now, that's clearly not the case."

Wood agreed, noting that one of the key principles that many in RI is Ready agree on is the goal of 50/50 state and local funding. The current state level, 36%, is far below the national average.

Karen McDaid saw this as the root cause of much of the disagreement about the particulars of the formula. "It seems to me that until we increase the size of the pie, we'll continue to squabble over the size of the pieces."

Nancy Zitka wondered about the lack of additional Federal funding to address obvious disparities for districts like Providence. Kathy Melvin expressed her concern about getting locked into a formula when the state budget was in such obvious distress. "You're forcing responsibility onto the local communities," she said, "And they may not be able to maintain."

And even if they wanted to, Len Katzman pointed out, S3050 is a serious political challenge to any local official who might risk angering taxpayers by seeking to exceed the cap. "That puts at great risk those proponents of education."

"That's why we have this language in our principle that says 'automatic," said Wood, describing the proposed language for relief from the cap to offset the loss in state aid.

By the end of the evening, the group seemed to have reached some consensus on the big themes — no double counting of free lunch and EWAV, the foundation amount needed to have all items included, and the goal needed to be a bigger pie over time.

"Otherwise," said Sen. Levesque, "We're fighting over the morsels and not seeing the big picture."

Full disclosure: I am a member of RI is Ready, and I helped organize this event.

Karina Wood, co-founder of "Rhode Island is Ready," a grassroots education advocacy group, will be speaking about a state school funding formula tonight at the Portsmouth Public Library, 2658 East Main Road, The one-hour event begins at 6:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. For more information about the group, see Rhode Island is Ready on Facebook.

Education funding formulas have become a hot topic in the general assembly this year, and the Race To The Top effort has put increasing pressure on the legislature. RI is Ready has been in the news recently with their advocacy event at the State House and testimony at the House Finance Committee.

See recent ProJo coverage:
RI Lawmakers weigh plans to establish school aid formula
Activists press need for school funding formula