All Resources

This Week in Charter School News

Charter School Capital

August 19, 2014

FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmail

charter school newsWelcome to Charter School Capital’s weekly round-up where our team will feature charter school news about operations, policy, funding for charter schools, charter school facilities financing, and other trends.
This week is all about school staffing and “the growing need for school choice.” Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!


 

Why are 50% of U.S. School Staff Non-Teaching Employees?

A new report released by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute examines why the number of non-teaching staff in the United States has increased by 130% in the past 40 years.
Here’s a summary of the topic found on the first page of the report:
“The number of non-teachers on U.S. school payrolls has soared over the past fifty years, far more rapidly than the rise in teacher numbers. And the amount of money in district budgets consumed by their salaries and benefits has grown apace for at least the last twenty years.
Underneath the averages and totals, states and districts vary enormously in how many non-teachers they employ. Why do Illinois taxpayers pay for forty staff per thousand pupils while Connecticut pays for eight-nine? Why does Orange County, Florida employ eleven teachers aides per thousand students when Miami-Dade gets by with seven”

__________________________________________________

The Cost of Neighborhood Schools, and the Growing Need for School Choice

The former executive of New Schools for New Orleans, Neerav Kingsland, has written an essay for the Washington Post about the challenge of neighborhood schools.
“For much of our nation’s history, neighborhood schools have been bastions of exclusion, not inclusion. And this exclusion persists to this day.

For every child who gets preferred access to a neighborhood school, there are many other children denied access to this same school. What is inclusive for one set of students is exclusive for a much larger set.”

Kingsland’s essay follows the announcement that the D.C. mayor’s office has released plans to redraw elementary school boundaries, a proposal that could affect thousands of families.

Want to share?
FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmail