Bill de Blasio won a substantial victory in his election last November, and interpreted that as meaning that people backed his policies. Well, somewhat. They preferred him to the other candidate, and, for the first time in 24 years, elected a Democrat as Mayor of New York.
One of de Blasio’s policies was to wage a discriminatory war against charter schools. De Blasio dislikes their independence from the uniformity of district schools and dislikes the fact that they are not tied into union contracts for their staff.
Charter schools are financed by a capitation fee which is typically lower than the per pupil money paid to district schools. On top of that district schools receive all their facilities – the buildings in which they are based – rent-free from the school district. Charter schools must pay rent for their facilities which, in New York City, can be very expensive. Some charter schools, however, are “co-located”, meaning they operate out of City-owned buildings. They do not pay rent and are therefore at a financial advantage to other charter schools. They remain, probably, at a disadvantage to district schools. (The precise calculation is complex and depends on assumptions about the cost of educating children with special needs and the likely cost of pensions paid to teachers and the associated survivor benefits).
To his surprise, Mayor de Blasio faced a backlash from voters. Charter schools are very popular. But things got worse. Next he found Governor Andrew Cuomo – one of the most important leaders in de Blasio’s own party – leading a successful legislative push to protect charters.
But Cuomo’s efforts are a temporary fix. A better solution needs to be tried. All schools, district and charter, should be paid by a capitation fee that follows the pupils. If your number of pupils goes down, so should your income. An enhanced capitation fee can be paid for pupils with special needs – though it will need to be monitored. In the UK, schools have considerable incentive to diagnose as many children as possible as having special needs. The capitation fee needs to be large enough to cover salaries and rent: schools should pay rent to the City or other district for their buildings, at a proper commercial rate. This means that if a school wants to move to different premises if, perhaps, it is expanding or contracting, it can do so without financial penalty.
But schools also need to take control of their biggest cost: staffing. At the moment this is no headache for a school principal in a district school: the taxpayer takes care of the bill. And the bill includes generous pensions and health benefits. With increasing numbers of people, especially those in professional employment, living into their nineties, or beyond, these benefits can last for 40 years. And they are followed by survivor benefit. A retired teacher may have a much younger partner. In principle, retired centenarian teachers can marry people in their twenties who will then claim the pension and the health benefits from the taxpayer for another 80 years.
Probably Mayor de Blasio believes that district schools are the best place for children, especially those from poorer families, but the evidence that he is wrong is overwhelming. Andrew Cuomo is being far more faithful to the ideals that Democrats are supposed to uphold.
Quentin Langley is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Bedfordshire Business School as well as a freelance columnist published in the UK and all parts of the US. He blogs on social media and crisis communications at brandjacknews.com
Filed under: U.S. Politics
