I have always believed budgets are moral documents that reveal the values of the people who make and those who approve them. As former vice-president Joe Biden once noted: “Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”
Here is a link to the RPS Budget that a majority of the board, the superintendent and the school board’s lawyers tried to hide from the public. Check back later for a full analysis.
Meanwhile, click RPS BUDGET, have a look and share your thoughts with me. To start the community conversation, check out what our friend, John R. Butcher, has to say. ~ Carol A.O. Wolf
Our Neighbor, Norfolk
By John R. Butcher
Free and Reduced Lunch PopulationFree and reduced lunch population is a measure of poverty. As reflected in the Department of Education’s October 31, 2013 report, RPS ranked as the 9th highest free and reduced lunch population in the Commonwealth with 17,351 or over 74.25% of our students receiving subsidized meals under the Federal school lunch program. The graph shown below depicts Richmond’s status as compared to neighboring districts and the state average.
Norfolk is 92 miles away by car. Some “neighboring district.”
Then we have the dates: The graph stops at 2014. The “Program Statistics” page on the VDOE Web site has Free/Reduced Lunch data thru 2018-2019.
Even more to the point, VDOE has a more general measure of poverty, “economically disadvantaged.”
Economically Disadvantaged A flag that identifies students as economically disadvantaged if they meet any one of the following: 1) is eligible for Free/Reduced Meals, or 2) receives TANF, or 3) is eligible for Medicaid, or 4) identified as either Migrant or experiencing Homelessness.
The VDOE Fall Membership database provides the economically disadvantaged populations through 2018-19 for the state and all divisions. Here are those data for Richmond and the peer jurisdictions:
Still more to the point, this appears to be an official embrace of the School Board’s “Blame the Students” excuse for its own failure.
It is clear, of course, that economically disadvantaged students underperform their more affluent peers. On the SOL pass rate, the state average difference is about 20 points, depending on the subject.
But Richmond magnifies that effect: Because of the awful schools, Richmond’s students, economically disadvantaged and not, grossly underperform their peers. For example, on the reading tests (Richmond is the enlarged, gold points):
For the School Board to blame poverty for its own failures is a shameless lie.
It begins to look like reading this budget will be about as much fun as reviewing the performance of Richmond’s schools.
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