Johnathan Kozol: Segregated Schools are the Shame of the Nation
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' Poverty hits all-time high
Almost 68,000 students, or 51 percent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' enrollment, get lunch aid for low-income families this year, the district announced today.
That's an all-time high for a district that nudged past the 50-percent mark in the middle of last school year, as the recession worsened and new applications for aid came in.
During the past decade, the number of low-income students has grown faster than overall enrollment, pushing the poverty level up from 37 percent in 2000. That represents almost 28,000 more kids living in low-income homes.
The latest numbers represent an increase of 2,650 students from last fall, even though overall enrollment dipped slightly this year.
Nineteen of CMS's 171 schools now have poverty levels over 90 percent, and 61 top 75 percent. Levels range from 97 percent Devonshire Elementary and Williams Middle in the center city to 2 percent at Providence Spring in the southeast suburbs.
The lunch-subsidy numbers, used to gauge school poverty nationwide, are so high in CMS that some taxpayers and public officials question their accuracy.
A recently released Census Bureau report estimates that in 2008 only 13 percent of children 5 to 17 in Mecklenburg met the federal standard of poverty, which is $22,025 for a family of four. The Census numbers include children who attend private, charter and home schools.
CMS, like other N.C. public schools, uses a much higher cutoff for lunch aid. A family of four making up to $40,793 qualifies for reduced-price lunches. The cutoff for free lunches in North Carolina is $28,665. In CMS, 59,044 students, or 44 percent, fell into that category.
Poorest Schools need the Best Teachers, panel says
Top-notch teachers are the key to providing all children in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools a chance to reach their full potential, speakers at WFAE's public conversation on equity agreed Tuesday.
Superintendent Peter Gorman's quest to entice strong teachers into needy schools won praise from the four panelists. But the first audience member to claim the microphone highlighted the challenge:
"If you succeed in moving your best teachers to your worst schools, doesn't that mean your worst teachers are going to end up in the best schools?" he asked.
Few easy answers emerged as about 90 people came uptown to ImaginOn to hear Ann Clark, CMS's chief academic officer; Lindalyn Kakadelis, a former school board member who now heads the conservative N.C. Education Alliance; Richard McElrath, a retired teacher just elected to the board; and Julian Wright, a lawyer, CMS parent and former chair of CMS's volunteer advisory panel on equity.
"I don't think we're anytime soon going to get to the problem where all the good teachers are going to go to the high-poverty schools," said Wright, who argued that CMS has a long way to go toward ensuring equal opportunity, and that high concentrations of poverty almost always stymie success.
Panelists agreed that academic success remains elusive for too many students at high-poverty schools. But they had different ideas about causes and solutions.
Kakadelis said CMS's current score card on equity, which focuses largely on buildings, technology and books, stems from an era when segregated schools were shortchanged. Today, she and others said, the more important gauge is teacher effectiveness, which is harder to measure.
Clark lauded her boss's recent push to spend the next four years working with teachers and national experts to craft a system for measuring and rewarding good teaching.
McElrath said he likes that plan, but it must include extra pay to reward effective teachers willing to tackle the toughest task: helping children of poverty achieve at top levels. Like Wright, he didn't think that would deprive other schools. "Because you're going to pay someone more to be a brain surgeon, that doesn't mean other people aren't going to work," he said.
Kakadelis and some audience members said CMS should be more creative in tailoring schools to the needs of students. Kakadelis pushed school choice - including using public money to let low-income families choose private schools or home schooling - as the best prod for innovation.
One audience member, who identified himself as a 1978 graduate of CMS, accused leaders of intentionally creating "a mess" in public education: "The system must keep poor people ignorant because it feeds the prison-industrial complex."
Wright said he believes CMS "puts its money where its mouth is," spending thousands of dollars more per student at some of its highest-poverty schools in an effort to overcome their disadvantages. But he said money can't solve all the problems: "There aren't enough dollars in the desk to shuffle them."
Lawyer: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools owes Charlotte Charter Schools $6 million
The state Supreme Court has refused to hear Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' appeal of a ruling that says the district owes local charter schools millions.
Richard Vinroot, lawyer for 10 charter schools in and near Mecklenburg County, said he sent CMS a letter Friday saying the debt comes to just over $5.9 million – with a further yet-uncalculated bump in payments for the current school year. Vinroot says the Supreme Court decision ends a legal battle that has dragged on for 4 1/2 years.
“For the little charter schools, it's a huge victory and a huge amount of money,” he said today.
CMS officials said today they're aware of the decision and will have their lawyers brief the school board on Tuesday. Until then, the district declined comment.
Charters are independent public schools licensed by the state, which requires local school districts to pass along a per-student share of local money for education. The charters that sued CMS say the district improperly pulled part of its budget out of the calculations before giving charters their share. Since the first ruling against CMS in January 2008, the number of schools suing has grown from four to 10, and the debt has gone from $1.3 million to Vinroot's current calculation of $5.9 million.
Vinroot says the money is due immediately, with some of it dating back to 2001. The charters have not been awarded interest during the time CMS has appealed, he said.
The Supreme Court decision does not affect a separate lawsuit filed by the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law against CMS and other districts this September, seeking local money for construction.
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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, Charmeck.org, Whitehouse.gov, Youtube, Google Maps
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