CSD Would Receive $1.8 Million From Fed Stimulus Package
Decatur Metro | January 29, 2009 | 12:38 pmThe AJC has sifted through the education portion of the federal stimulus package, which passed the House last night, and has broken out how much each Georgia school district would receive.
As it currently stands, here’s what City Schools of Decatur would get over the two year period…
2009
Title 1: $224,200
Construction: $732,300
IDEA: $275,300
2010
Title 1: $224,200
IDEA: $333,700
2009-2010 Total: $1,789,600
The AJC explains “Title 1″ and IDEA in their glossary as follows…
“Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): A federal law saying schools must provide free programs to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Their disabilities range from physical impairments such as blindness to emotional or behavioral handicaps to specific learning problems that affect one’s ability to process information.
Title I: Federal funds that target schools and districts with a large number of students living in poverty.”
That $732,300 for construction would be just a splash in the bucket of the potential Renfroe addition/renovation, which the Superintendent recently estimated would cost between $10-12 million. The 5th Avenue renovation was estimated between $5-6 million.
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Call me crazy but I have to wonder:
Exactly how does CSD qualify as a district with “large numbers of students living in poverty”? And I’d be curious to know what exactly they’ll do with $600K+ from IDEA.
Before anyone screams that I’m anti-education or whatever, let’s remember that these are OUR tax dollars and we SHOULD hope that they are spent appropriately and prudently.
I sure hope our school-involved parents are asking (no, demanding answers to) the same questions.
Frankly, our national education policy has never been to ask hard questions. It’s simply been to throw money at schools with virtually nothing to show for it other than the economic protection of teachers’ unions. It’s not anti-education to ask whether this approach makes any sense. And since this spending has been — quite absurdly, in my view — been billed as an “economic stimulus,” it’s all the more questionable.
The explanation, of course, is in Rahm Emmanuel’s stark admission that a crisis is an opportunity to for politicians to get away with all sorts of stuff they’d never pass in less panicked times. I’m not saying Republicans are any better — they are surely not — but this utterly pork-laden “stimulus” should disabuse anyone of the notion that the Dems’ election win will bring any real “change” to DC. It merely changes the interest groups whose wheels get greased by the ever-expanding federal budget. No matter, I’m sure our kids will have no objection to paying the massive tax increases all this spending will require a few years hence.
…..Private School it is!
Runswithdogs:
Not sure, but it may refer to those children who live in the public housing areas downtown. I don’t know the legal definitions but it may include those kids whose parents receive subsidies/assistance ie housing, food stamps, etc.
Can anyone clarify?
If you get free/reduced lunch – you are considered to be living in poverty. CSD also has a lot of special ed students covered by IDEA. I don’t like spending either, but the more CSD gets from the feds the less they have to take from Decatur with an increased millage rate. I pay a lot of federal taxes and see the benefit of very little of it… if we are going to go into massive debt… it’s nice to at least see where the spending lands and to see it spent on kids rather than golden parachutes for Citibank execs.
runs with dogs…
I wouldn’t call you “crazy” for not being able to find the answers to your rather simple questions, but it does rhyme with crazy. Title I funds are allocated to schools (primarily) based on the % of kids in attendance that qualify for free/reduced lunch. Maybe those kids aren’t in YOUR neighborhood, but they have been living in Decatur for a long time. It should be noted that the funds are given based on %’ s, so the number of wealthy kids getting yanked out inner-city public schools and going to private schools actually has an effect on whether or not the school gets the extra funding.
Incidentally, why are you hopeful that others are demanding answers on behalf of your tax dollars?
For those of you who aren’t sure why Decatur qualified for Title 1 funds and other grants that specifically support low-income children and families, here is some food for thought.
At latest count, Decatur’s school system had 2,823 students, 763 of them which qualify for Free and Reduced lunchs. That’s roughly 27% of the total student population. Both Renfroe Middle and Decatur High are slightly higher around 30%. You can see this information here:
http://app3.doe.k12.ga.us/ows-bin/owa/fte_pack_frl001_public.display_proc
To qualify for Reduced lunch your family would have to earn no more than 185% of the federally defined poverty level. And for free lunch your family would have to earn no more than 130% of the federally defined poverty level.
Federal guidelines define poverty for a family of 4 as an income of $21,200. 185% of this equally $39,220 and 130% of this equals $27,560.
Bottom line, there is plenty of need in Decatur and it’s school system.
You can see the rest of Decatur’s school system report card here:
http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=102&SchoolId=45543&T=1&FY=2007
Hi Runs with Dogs,
I invite you to volunteer at the annual Decatur Season of Giving next December. You will be SHOCKED at the number of needy families who live in our little 30030 zip code. A lot of them are also senior citizens, who don’t qualify for those Title I funds in schools. It’s a sobering reminder — these families were living in poverty before the current fiscal crisis.