Melissa Bailey Photo
As she made her 13th pilgrimage to the state Capitol to ask for money for charter schools, Dacia Toll found herself accompanied by New Haven parents like Iffy Ferguson — as well as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
Toll is president of Achievement First, a New Haven-based charter company that runs charter schools in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven. She emceed a rally of 500 charter school parents and advocates Tuesday, as the state legislature began to hold hearings on Gov. Malloy’s proposed education reforms.
As the legislature proceeds with what Malloy has dubbed the “Education Session,” Toll led the troops to rally for his 163-page education proposal, Senate Bill 24, which would boost state funding for charter schools from $9,400 to $12,000 per student. Malloy proposes giving charters an extra $1,600 per pupil in state funding — and asking districts to pay another $1,000 to bring them up to $12,000. The issue has proved controversial in the past, such as at this 2010 legislative hearing.
Seven buses of parents from New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford converged on the Capitol Tuesday to support that change. The parents pulled on bright blue T‑shirts with the slogan, “charter schools are public schools,” then marched out into the brisk evening to assemble outside the Capitol.
The group included Iffy Ferguson (pictured above) and her son, Toby, a 6th-grader at Elm City College Prep, one of Achievement First’s New Haven schools. She said her reason for standing there is simple: “We want to get the same funding that the other schools get — because charter schools are public schools.”
Common Ground High School, New Haven’s environmental-themed charter high school, brought 30 students to the rally.
Taking the podium, Toll said this is her 13th annual trip to the Capitol to fight for more charter school money. This is the first year she’s had the governor’s support in that quest.
“For us, 13 is a lucky number,” Toll reflected.
Malloy took the podium and declared this is the time to replicate successful school models, including charters and magnets.
“Your presence will convince others that this is an investment that needs to be made,” he told the crowd.
Toll said now that the charters have Malloy on their side, they need to turn their focus on convincing the legislature. She brought up two proponents from both parties to prove that task may be possible: Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney of New Haven, a Democrat, and state Sen. John McKinney, the Senate minority leader both spoke in favor of the charter schools.
Toll then led the ralliers into the Capitol with two instructions — no signs and no chanting.
Toll.
She was the first speaker to walk up to the microphone in room 2C of the Legislative Office Building, where the Appropriations Committee was opening a public hearing on education spending.
Charter schools have seen only a 1 percent increase in state funding over four years, she told the panel, which is chaired by New Haven’s “Two Tonis,” state Rep. Toni Walker and state Sen. Toni Harp.
Malloy chose to boost charter funding to $12,000 per pupil because that’s the basis on which the Education Cost Sharing grant, the state’s main engine for funding public school districts, is calculated.
An increase to $12,000 would “still leave us shy” of the average per-pupil expenditure, Toll said — and even lower the average expenditure in the districts where the charters are — but “it’s a tremendous step in the right direction.”
Toll said she calculated the per-pupil expenditure to be $14,000 based on a state report. ConnCAN, the statewide education watchdog group, said the statewide average per-pupil expenditure in districts that have charter schools is $12,690; it’s much lower than that in the rest of the state.
Charter opponents, including state teacher unions, have argued that charter schools create a two-tier educational system. They say charters cream the least difficult students, while leaving traditional public schools with the most difficult challenges and greater burdens, a charge charter proponents deny. Critics also cite national studies that show charter schools in general performing no better than other public schools.