Are Philly schools’ 2022-23 budgets a ‘massacre’ or advancing equity?

Philadelphia’s principals’ union is calling next year’s $3.9 billion school budget a “massacre,” with many schools losing teachers and other positions crucial to kids’ education.

The reality, the Philadelphia School District chief financial officer says, is much more nuanced: While some schools will have fewer positions, some will have more, and overall, the 2022-23 budget represents an increase of $170 million over this year’s spending plan, and allocates dollars more fairly on a per-student basis.

“There’s a tendency there to think about the building and we’re looking at it in terms of resources for students,” CFO Uri Monson said.

Robin Cooper, president of Commonwealth Association of School Administrators (CASA), the union representing district principals, though, said buildings cannot do more with less.

“It’s just a slap in the face, repeatedly,” said Cooper.

CASA cited a survey of its members showing that schools are losing an average of five teachers in next year’s budget, that 45% of schools will lose assistant principals, 73% will lose climate managers, 67% will lose literacy and math specialists, and 73% will lose special education compliance monitors. (The union said it had about a 55% response rate in the survey, sent to principals only.)

Monson said enrollment decreases are driving some of the losses.

The district is losing roughly 4,000 students annually, and losses will be compounded next school year by the fact that the school system held off on leveling — its annual process of redistributing teachers based on actual enrollment, typically in October, where some schools get teachers taken away and others gain them. That means however many teachers would have been lost from past leveling will be combined with projected enrollment drops for this year.

Schools are also seeing a change to how federal relief funds are allocated. For this school year, the district responded to principals’ concerns about returning to buildings after a pandemic by paying for two extra positions for each school that it deemed “off-track,” or not meeting academic benchmarks, and one extra position for each school that was considered on-track. Principals had discretion to decide whether they hired assistant principals or, say, climate managers — positions that would become CASA members.

Though the district is spending roughly the same amount on that program this year ($44 million) compared with next year ($42.5 million), the way it’s being distributed is being changed. Off-track schools will get one extra position, and on-track schools will get money to spend as they see fit, with funds allocated based on school size and weight given to federal poverty allocation.

That’s because of both feedback from some principals who said they would rather buy programs than have positions, and because the district applied an equity lens to the spending and saw that the large number of small schools in the district skewed the per-student distribution, Monson said. Depending on where they’re enrolled, there’s now an up to $1,900-per-student gap between big and small schools in spending, he said; the new distribution will lower the gap to about $630.

Monson emphasized looking at the spending plan by student population, not by building. Of the district’s 216 schools, 68 enroll 350 or fewer students.

“I fully appreciate that those schools are getting less on a building perspective,” said Monson. “On a per-student perspective, they’re still getting more than anyone else.”

One principal, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal from CASA, called this year’s budget process complicated but workable.

“At our school, we’ve been able to get everything we need,” said the principal, whose school saw an enrollment drop. “Did we get everything we wish? Certainly not. I know some of my colleagues suffered greatly, and that’s tough. I understand CASA’s fight, but there are schools like ours where if you prioritize, you can make it work.”

The principals, advocates, and politicians who participated in CASA’s town hall Monday night suggested that any cuts to student services are unacceptable when emerging from a pandemic, and indicated they will fight hard against the changes, which will be formally presented at Thursday’s school board meeting.

“At some level, I’m offended that we’re even having this conversation,” said Donna Cooper, executive director of Children First, the Philadelphia nonprofit. “The cuts that are on the table are taking resources away from children in the toughest year of their lives.”

With two months until the district’s budget must be formally adopted, those who oppose the changes say they will keep pressing until cuts are off the table.

“We are not going to accept this proposal as it is,” said City Councilmember Cindy Bass. “I’m ready for a protest. They need to hear from us loud and clear that these cuts are unacceptable.”