Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet endorsed a new way of funding schools for next year’s budget cycle Thursday – a change he hopes will make the budget easier to understand.
His proposal will look similar to the “weighted student formula,” which assigns financial “weights” to students based on who they are – English-language learners, or those who are gifted and talented, for example.
But, at least in the first year, Bennet’s proposal does not go as far as giving schools financial advantages for having high numbers of these students.
Schools will get the same amount of money with this formula. It will simply make the budget more transparent by having dollars follow the kids.
Already, more money is devoted to some students. Elementary principals receive an extra $134 a year, for example, for each student who qualifies for free lunch.
Bennet said the formula for the 2007-08 budget “preserves the status quo” so people have time to get used to it.
And the proposed new system paves the way for a more controversial method of school funding, one that would give more money to poor schools, and grant principals more discretion over how to spend that money.
“Over time, there may be winners and losers,” said DPS chief financial officer Velma Rose.
A report released in June by the advocacy group Metro Organizations for People found that DPS schools – no matter what the student makeup – are funded fairly equally throughout the city.
In the report, the group called for the district to eventually adopt a more weighted formula so schools with large numbers of at-risk students would receive more money.
School board members said at a work session that they want to have further discussions.
“Are principals in the buildings really ready to have that responsibility thrust on them?” said board member Kevin Patterson. “The answer is no.”
Bennet, too, said he hadn’t made any decisions about the “weighted student formula,” which has been adopted in Cincinnati and Oakland, Calif.
In other business, board members decided against a two-day private meeting at GOP leader Bruce Benson’s ranch this weekend after the media challenged that the meeting be open to the public.
The board decided late Thursday to reschedule the retreat to an open meeting for Monday.
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
