In Virginia, school systems are legally prohibited from raising revenue. Every dollar that runs a public school system comes from the locality, the state, and the federal government — in about that order. You likely have heard or read about yearly struggles between localities and school systems as each entity tries to allocate/advocate for scarce dollars. These struggles can often become quite public, vocal, and in some cases nasty.
Since 2011, you have heard or read essentially nothing about any acrimony between the Roanoke City Council and the Roanoke City School Board concerning local funding for Roanoke City Public Schools (RCPS). This definitively has not always been the case, to the detriment of both entities. In the early 2000s, RCPS had a graduate rate hovering around 50% and half its schools were not accredited. Not surprisingly, there was considerable acrimony between RCPS and city council, not the least of which was because there was a yearly budget struggle between the two entities. This budget struggle was exacerbated by the inclusion of all RCPS capital improvement projects in the city’s capital improvement plan, which ended up being calamitous for both.
Fortunately, in 2011, under the leadership of then-City Manager Darlene Burcham and then-Vice Mayor Dave Trinkle, the city worked with RCPS and then-Superintendent Rita Bishop to create a straightforward funding formula for RCPS. It took the parties meeting twice per month for over a year to create the funding formula. It was based on a detailed analysis of costs and needed investments. It also included a “joint services” committee that assured a partnership between the city and the school system to find joint savings. The funding formula removed politics and replaced it with a partnership.
The funding formula gives the school system 40% of the city’s local tax revenue. With that 40%, the school system is held accountable for all its costs including 100% of the debt service on all of its capital projects. When the city’s revenues go up, the school system gets to invest in bettering our educational system. When the city’s revenues go down, the school system has to cut costs.
Since the funding formula has been in place, the frustrations and confusion have disappeared. So have the politics. Both the ups and downs have been shared. Yes, with 70-plus percent of students having free or reduced lunch (which is only growing), the school system has constant needs for investments, yet the school system has dramatically improved performance in areas like accreditation and graduation rate, with all schools accredited and the graduation rate in the 90th percentile. The funding formula is clearly a best-in-class process that many localities should emulate.
Darlene Burcham and Dave Trinkle understood the inextricable tie between the school system and the city. After Darlene left, Chris Morrill became city manager and continued to make the school system partnership a critical priority. What Darlene, Dave and Chris knew then and know now is that partnering with the school system is critical to the city’s success. When we increase graduation rates, we decrease crime, we increase employment, we increase home ownership, and, therefore, tax revenues. We drop the costs of running the city and increase the revenue.
The city now finds itself with a budget surplus, and there is an ongoing discussion about not sharing it with the school system. In other words, the current city leadership is separating the school system from the rest of the city when it considers investment dollars. The current city leadership wants to break with what is working very well and go back to the past of politics and frustration. Instead of following the formula that has worked so well, they want to only share the downsides. These leaders do not understand the vision within their own strategic plan that puts education first in their seven areas of strategic importance.
In fairness to the current members of council, none of them were on council when these agreements were hammered out over many months, so hopefully they will take heed of this guidance. While they were not on council when these agreements were reached, they similarly were not on council when the school system was woefully underperforming.
There are some council leaders who get the bigger picture and understand what Darlene, Dave and Chris know so well. Let’s hope their influence guards the trust and partnership that is so crucial to the future of our city. Let’s not break what is working great.