Local School Topics

Washington, D.C., has become a school district where charter schools enroll nearly as many students as neighborhood public schools. As the charter model becomes more and more prevalent in the District, school officials are forced to look at the future path of public schooling in D.C. While some believe the exponential growth of charter schools is a good thing for education quality overall, others fear the expansion of these schools will permanently put traditional public schools in a minority position, where they will lack clout and resources to educate D.C., children, effectively.

Charter School Growth: Numbers Don’t Lie

Charter schools first came to Washington D.C. in 1996. The movement has slowly expanded across the school district to the point where 43 percent of D.C.’s students attend one of these schools today. According to Education Week, that translates to nearly 35,000 students at 100 campuses across the city. Charter school enrollment appears to be on a path to continue this expansion by approximately 10 percent each year.

According to the Washington Post, enrollment in traditional public schools in the District was at just over 45,000 in 2012. The number indicated a one-percent growth in public school enrollment from 2011 to 2012. If that trend continues, it won’t be long before charter school enrollment outpaces enrollment at traditional public schools.

The competition with charter schools has taken its toll on D.C.’s public school system overall. This year, low enrollment numbers are forcing DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson

Like other school districts across the country, Chicago Public Schools is decrying a budget crisis that could lead to the closure of dozens of schools across the city. However, after a recent audit found a surplus in the district’s budget, some are accusing district officials and the mayor’s office of crying wolf. In fact, recent news about potential budget surpluses has fueled the fire over proposed school closures and sparked more protests by teachers, parents, community members, and the local teachers’ union.

This video reports on a CPS budget crisis.

Does Budget Surplus Suggest Fuzzy Math?

Officials of Chicago Public Schools continue to assert that a billion-dollar deficit in the district’s budget is fueling plans to close public schools across the city. However, Truthout reports that in the midst of discussions on school closures, a recent audit has discovered that instead of a deficit in the Chicago Public Schools budget, a surplus of $334 million was recorded! The district responded that the money came from early payments from the state and county. Other sources claim that the money is a combination of underestimating revenue for the year and underspending.

Truthout further claims that this is not the first time Chicago Public Schools has “played” with the budget numbers. The previous year, the district estimated it would suffer a budget deficit of $245 million. The district instead reported a surplus of $316

Like other school districts across the country, the Detroit Public School system has felt the pinch of the sluggish economy. In an effort to balance an already tight budget, the system has proposed a multi-faceted cost cutting approach that includes the closure of some schools throughout the district. Unfortunately, the repercussions of that decision may be felt by hundreds of students. Some of those hit the hardest could be the students attending Detroit’s vocational schools.

Vocational Programs in Jeopardy

The Detroit Free Press reports that the five vocational centers run by Detroit Public Schools could be in financial peril, due to dwindling enrollment numbers and budgetary constraints throughout the system. The centers have provided a wide range of vocational training to Detroit Public Schools students, as well as students from outside the district, for a number of years. Vocational training has evolved from the standard automotive and cosmetology offerings to incorporating everything from business administration to hospitality and construction.

Students in the vocational centers attend regular high school course at their neighborhood school before heading to the vocational centers for the rest of their education. In addition to providing students with career-centric training, the courses offer a pathway to a college education that might not otherwise be available. Many of the students and their parents see the centers as an effective way to break the poverty cycle in the city, by providing students with practical training and education they will be able to take with

Chicago Public Schools faces many challenges today, as it strives to educate a wide and diverse student body. To achieve that end, the school system offers a wide range of programs to help students succeed and even excel in their academic endeavors. Check out these six programs currently offered by the Chicago Public Schools district.

Academic Decathlon

Chicago Public Schools boasts the highest enrollment in this national competition than any other school district in the country. Approximately 70 schools compete within the local district in the Academic Decathlon, with nine-member teams representing each school. Each team must consist of three students with an A-average, three students with a B-average, and three students with a C-average.

Students compete in seven different academic areas and on three different levels of competition. The purpose of this activity is to foster a spirit of teamwork, while individual members work toward academic excellence. Nearly all of the students that participate in the Academic Decathlon through CPS graduate from high school, and more than 70 percent head to college after graduation.

Arts Education

The Department of Arts Education strives to offer Chicago students more opportunities to explore various forms of art outside the classroom setting. The department provides offerings in dance, theatre, music, and visual arts. In addition to providing programs for students, the Department of Arts Education serves as a resource for teachers and administrators within the Chicago Public Schools system.

The goal of the Arts program is

Serving more than one million students each year, the New York City Department of Education is the largest school district in the country. This district faces serious challenges when it comes to ensuring all students in the city get at least one or two hot meals every day, regardless of their income level. With a wide variety of services provided by the School Food division of the New York City Department of Education, students throughout the city get the nutrition they need all through the school year and beyond.

About NYC School Food Services

According to the NYC School Food website, this department serves around 850,000 meals to more than 1.1 million students in New York City every day. The department offers a free breakfast program to all students in the city, based on the philosophy that students that start their day with a nutritious meal perform better academically. The department also serves lunch and 1,700 schools across the city, including free lunches for many students that qualify.

According to the Human Resources Administration of the New York City government, qualification for free or reduced-price lunch is based on family income level. A family of five qualifies for the free lunch program if their monthly income is $2,927 or below. That same family of five can also qualify for a reduced-price lunch, where the student only has to pay 25 cents per meal, if their monthly income is $4,165 or