There’s a longstanding problem in our educational system — school choice — that has inadvertently created a threat to a local educational asset: Warwick Community School. I’m also writing to affirm that Warwick’s school is not going to close.
Warwick’s school (WCS) is going to stay open. The School Committee of the Pioneer Valley school district recently voted in favor of recommending to the Commissioner of Education, Jeffrey Riley, that he close our school. The School Committee did not follow the protocols for closure, as required by the state Department of Education, which the committee well understood, so it is unlikely he will choose to do so. Their failure to follow those clearly defined requirements is the latest indication, among many, that they do not have apt leadership.
The threat to our community school, however, is a direct result of the school choice program.
School choice empowers parents to send their child to a school district other than the one they live in. The sending district pays $5,000 and the receiving district banks that money. It gives parents the flexibility to choose where their child is educated. School choice also helps fill seats in a half-full class. Incoming students add little expense for an existing class, yet bring money into the district.
Why is this a legislative albatross? To my knowledge, no school in the Bay State, public or private, spends $5,000 to educate a child. It costs much more. As a result, sending districts get a discount and receiving districts take it on the chin.
School choice money, however, can be significant income.
In the case of Warwick Community School, fifty percent of its population in FY19 was school choice. Those choice students brought $115,000 into the Pioneer Valley district. In the last 15 years, because Warwick’s school is a superb Level One school, it has earned over $1,000,000 for Pioneer Valley.
By golly, Warwick’s school is a cash cow. So why do they want to close us?
Schools with high school choice populations may have to spend money on more aides, incurring expenses that use up the $5,000 received for a child. School choice may become a money-losing proposition. That’s what happened in Warwick. The district administration claimed that the school choice kids were costing more money than they generated for the district. That was untrue — there were no added expenses due to the school choice kids – but the committee used that argument to justify voting to close Warwick’s school.
School choice was not meant to function this way. Compensation for a receiving district was supposed to be sufficient to pay the costs of educating a child in that district. There was supposed to be no shortfall, no negative consequences for participating in school choice. The financial elements of the program, unchanged in over twenty years, however, put Warwick’s school in peril. If Pioneer Valley received a payment for a school choice child, at the district’s current per pupil cost, there would’ve been no talk of closure.
It’s time we worked hard to change this legislation. School choice, a program that benefits parents and school districts, needs to be updated. The program is not working as intended and it put our school in peril.
Warwick Community School? Don’t worry about it. With apt leadership from our town fathers and mothers it will be just fine, now and in the future.
(Lawrence) Doc Pruyne is the chair of the Warwick Selectboard.