DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Group pushes for 65-cent school standard

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- An advocacy group is pushing for every U.S. state to adopt a requirement that 65 cents of every dollar spent on education go directly to the classroom.

First Class Education, founded earlier this year, argues that the amount of money spent on schools matters less than curbing spending on administration, Stateline.org reported.

"Taxpayers want to make sure that before we're asked for more dollars, we know we're getting the most out of our dollars that are currently being spent on education," said Tim Mooney, a Republican political consultant from Arizona, who founded the group with backing from Patrick Byrne, president of Overstock.com.

Byrne pointed to the schools in Washington, D.C., which spend about $12,000 per pupil and have average test scores near the bottom.

Nationally, an average of 61.5 percent of the education dollar goes to the classroom. Maine, New York, Tennessee and Utah are the only states that meet the 65-cent standard, down from seven states four years ago.

Statement of Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)
Chairman, Committee on Education & the Workforce

Hearing of the House Committee on Government Reform on “Declaration of Education: Toward a Culture of Achievement in D.C. Public Schools”

May 20, 2005

I appreciate the opportunity to provide testimony to the Government Reform Committee for its important hearing on improving the District of Columbia public schools.

It has been an honor to work with Chairman Davis and other members of the Committee in recent years on some of the issues and challenges facing students in the District. In 2003 I was proud to work with Chairman Davis and other members of the Committee to write the legislation that ultimately became the D.C. Parental Choice Incentive Program, the first federally-funded school choice initiative in American history.

The D.C. school choice program has gotten off to a strong start. As the program enters its second year, parental demand for the D.C. choice scholarships is outpacing the supply by a 2-to-1 margin. The program is already providing new hope to more than a thousand low-income families in the District of Columbia, and it’s working to the benefit of all D.C. students by injecting new competition into the local education system.

The creation of the D.C. school choice program also has meant a lot more money for the D.C. public school system – about $26 million more, so far. That’s the amount of extra federal education funding the D.C. school system has received to date, on top of the federal funding it is already receiving through programs like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind), because Congress agreed to appropriate extra funding for the D.C. public schools and charter schools along with the choice program.

I know many people in the District would like to know exactly how that $26 million is being spent. The D.C. public schools reportedly spend an average of more than $12,000 per pupil, among the highest average per-pupil expenditures in the nation, yet District school children rank near the bottom in academic achievement when compared to their counterparts elsewhere in our country. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2000, 69 percent of D.C. fourth graders scored below basic in reading, and only 10 percent ranked at or above proficient levels in writing. In the following year, District students ranked last in the nation in both SAT and ACT scores. And those are the ones who stayed in school. According to the data I’ve seen, about 42 percent of D.C. students drop out of school – a rate far above the national average.

And now let me tell you what I really find troubling.

According to an analysis of 2004 data from the National Center for Education Statistics provided by the organization known as First Class Education, the D.C. Public School System spends only about half of its funding in the classroom. The analysis found that only 49.6% of education dollars in the D.C.P.S. go toward classroom expenditures. That’s the smallest percentage in the United States. All 50 states spend a larger percentage of their money in the classroom than the D.C. Public School system does.

Which brings me to one of the two topics I actually want to focus on today: an initiative we call Dollars to the Classroom.

For years I’ve advocated for a fundamental change in how we spend our money on education. Particularly when it comes to federal dollars, I think we need to change our focus.

Our investment must be targeted to helping students. That means bypassing the bureaucracy, and putting our money into the classroom. We took important steps in No Child Left Behind to send more money to classrooms, but there is work yet to be done.

A recent column written by George Will described the so-called 65% solution – a proposal that would ask states to spend at least 65% of every school district's education operational budget on classroom instruction. As Mr. Will described it, that’s 65% of funding that would be spent on “teachers and pupils, not bureaucracy.” In the case of the District, it would mean less money going to bureaucracy, and more money for things like teacher salaries and classroom supplies.

I’d be interested in knowing whether the 65% solution might be something the D.C. schools could embrace and adopt. And if the answer is no, I’d be interested in hearing why.

I’d also briefly like to mention another issue that is essentially about fairness for students.

The No Child Left Behind Act, like a number of other major federal education laws that preceded it, makes clear that we want to provide equitable participation for private school students. But while the law is very clear on this point, there is some evidence this aspect of the law isn’t being fully executed in the District of Columbia.

I’ve asked the U.S. Department of Education to look into whether or not children in private, Catholic schools here in D.C. are getting access to the services they deserve – the services they are guaranteed under No Child Left Behind. I fear the answer is no.

For those who may not know, I work closely with the Center City Consortium, a group of 13 inner city Catholic schools within the Archdiocese of Washington. According to the Archdiocese of Washington, DCPS has not provided equitable services to its eligible private school students for a few years, resulting in funding that has been set aside to serve these students remaining unspent by DCPS. Now I understand that last fall, through discussion with the Department of Education, DCPS agreed to provide some of these services to students at these Archdiocese schools using some of the old funds, and that’s good news. However, I would be interested in knowing how and when DCPS intends to get current in providing these services and spending these back funds as required by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Once again, I’d like to thank Chairman Davis for the opportunity to provide testimony for this important hearing.