New plan to change way schools receive funding: Based on need, not size of enrollment

The method by which Philadelphia public schools receive funding may get a drastic makeover if a new district allocation plan is adopted by the School Reform Commission.

The weighted student-funding formula will ensure a level playing field by providing underfunded schools that have a high number of needy students with more money and resources, said Superintendent Arlene Ackerman.

"The [plan] is a means to an end," she said, "a way to distribute our dollars in an equitable way."

The current model funds schools based largely on enrollment, a one-size fits all approach that is in part to blame for an unequal distribution of funds to schools, said David Weiner, the district's chief accountability officer.

The formula, which will be created by a districtwide committee, will change the way money is given to schools and who decides the funding distribution within schools, he said.

Resources will be given to schools based on certain requirements, including the number of bilingual or poor students.

After receiving the funding or additional staff, school advisory councils, made up of parents, teachers and in some cases students, will then decide the school's budget, academic plan and services. That responsibility was once a principal's alone.

Fifty-seven schools have been selected for a pilot program that allots an additional $150 per student, which will be spent using a community-involvement budget process in the 2010-11 school year. Full implementation for all schools will be the following year.

District officials will present the details of the funding formula to the SRC at today's meeting.

Michael Lerner, president of CASA, the principal's union, was among a handful of education insiders who questioned whether the district may have to dip into the pockets of less-needy schools to pay for the new funding formula.

"I can't see how the district with its limited resources can allocate more resources in one area without taking it from another," he said.

But Ackerman said there's no need to worry. "Already we have a system that's unfair," she said. "There are some low-performing schools that are at a disadvantage, there are high-performing schools that are at a disadvantage." But, she continued, "It will be fair to all the schools."

Most of the federal dollars that are already included in the district's budget won't be available for use in the formula, Weiner said. But any money the district may get if Pennsylvania is selected in the federal Race to the Top contest could be, Ackerman said.

Yesterday, she and other officials, including state Department of Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak, headed to Washington to speak before a panel that would determine whether the state will make it a step further in receiving roughly $400 million.

The state is one of 16 finalists in the competition. The Philadelphia district would be eligible for up to $50 million, which could be a boost for some of the district's key reform plans, Ackerman said.

She said that she'll give it her best shot. "We'll certainly make an impression on the panelists," she said.