Christopher Peak Photo
Matt Wilcox: We need more information to vote yes.
New Haven has begun the year-long process to charge tuition for the suburban students who come to its inter-district magnet schools — a proposal that could eventually generate at least $4 million annually if it wins needed approvals.
Superintendent Carol Birks announced at last week’s Board of Education meeting at Celentano School that she’d sent a letter to the state’s new education commissioner asking for permission to charge nearby towns for the extra cost of educating their kids. That money would be paid by the other school districts, not the parents themselves.
She said the commissioner requested additional financial information about the district’s spending on its inter-district magnet schools.
Birks added that she plans to meet with neighboring superintendents.
Under a state law passed in 2016 — almost as soon as New Haven and Bridgeport first brought up the idea of charging tuition — districts have to obtain the commissioner’s approval and then wait a full school year to start sending suburban towns a bill.
Birks suggested phasing in her plan over three years. She proposed charging nearby districts $750 in the 2020 – 21 school year, $1,500 in the 2021 – 22 school year and $2,250 in the 2022 – 23 school.
Altogether, for the 2,645 suburban students who currently bus in to New Haven’s magnets, that could mean up to $5.95 million in additional revenue once the fees are fully phased in. Or even more, if suburban enrollment grows, as Superintendent Birks projects in numbers she provided to the school board.
But, as the board’s decision to maximize the number of magnet-school seats for city residents also takes effect, suburban enrollment could also drop. Even for 1,890 suburban students, the district would still pull in $4.25 million in additional revenue from tuition.
That would essentially cover the cost of making more spots available to New Haven students, as the district stands to lose up to $2.8 million in extra money that the state pays directly for suburban students.
Still, legal challenges could delay the payday, as they’ve done in Bridgeport, which finally won its case before the state’s appeals court three weeks ago.
The school board has taken another look at charging tuition after the Independent reported last month that suburbs are being paid millions in state funds for students that they don’t teach.
The state’s main funding mechanism, the Education Cost Sharing formula, sends money to the district where students live, not where they go to school. Last school year, that meant it paid out $13.8 million to the suburbs for students in New Haven’s magnet schools. Those towns are still on the hook for some responsibilities, including the excess costs of special-education services.
Officials said that arrangement was put in place years ago to win support for the inter-district magnet program — the state’s primary tool for racial desegregation — as high-income earners in the suburbs paid more than $1.5 billion to rebuild New Haven’s schools and the continued subsidy for the magnet program.
In total, between the Educational Cost Sharing formula and supplementary grants for the magnet program, New Haven receives roughly $12,550 for each city resident and $8,385 for each suburban resident in its inter-district magnet schools, including for transportation.
Charging tuition would close part of that gap, eventually raising the base amount of revenue for each suburban student to $10,635.
Suburbs Face “Difficult Choices”
West Haven Public Schools
Superintendent Neil Cavallaro: The state needs to fix this.
In doing so, it would also ask New Haven’s neighbors to share in the costs of running a big school system that’s attempting to integrate across race, class and borders, by shifting some of the cost onto their budgets.
West Haven’s Superintendent Neil Cavallaro said that would put his town government and school system in a tough spot, requiring “several difficult choices.”
Without any additional state support, he said they would have to make cuts to afford the tuition fees, “eliminating programs and possibly laying off teachers.”
He said they might even choose to withdraw from the inter-district magnet program, “giving students and their families less options.” However, he added that the district doesn’t have enough classrooms if students “were forced to come back.”
“To be blunt, neither the Board nor the City have the funds to withstand such a large bill,” he said in a Friday morning email.
Cavallaro said that West Haven’s financial troubles already landed it under the Municipal Accountability Review Board’s oversight, which has approved a five-year plan that doesn’t include the estimated $1.93 million in tuition costs by the 2022 – 23 school year.
“It’s my hope that, prior to the education commissioner granting permission to charge, he takes into consideration the financial impact and burden of the surrounding cities,” Cavallaro said. “Especially those like West Haven, Hamden and East Haven, who are all Alliance School districts” that receive extra state funds to boost their low performance.
“I have alerted several members of our legislative delegation about this issue. I am hoping that the other towns will do the same,” he added. “While I give New Haven the credit for raising this matter to light, the solution must come from those at the State level including the legislature, the Department of Education, the Department of Administrative Services, and the Governor’s Office.”
Deadline Approaches
Christopher Peak Photo
Darnell Goldson & Tamiko Jacskon-McArthur ask Superintendent Carol Birks about magnet tuition.
Superintendent Birks must formally notify other districts by Sept. 1, but the tuition plan is still waiting on two approvals.
With just two weeks left before New Haven needs to formally alert surrounding districts, they’re still waiting on the state education commissioner’s sign-off.
“This has been a three-year process,” said Darnell Goldson, the board’s president. “If we don’t make that Sept. 1 deadline, we are now two years in the hole. There’s an opportunity for us to recoup some money out of there; it should be our money. We don’t want to lose that on a technicality.”
“Neither do we,” Birks said. “My staff has been working really hard on this. We’ve had several conversations. We feel the same way, and we are doing our due diligence to pursue this.”
And as board member Matt Wilcox pointed out at Monday’s meeting, the New Haven Board of Ed itself hasn’t even voted for the plan. Its members said they need Superintendent Birks to provide more information about the plan’s pros and cons before they’re asked to make a final decision.
“I’m frustrated because I feel like it’s like pulling teeth to get information,” said Tamiko Jackson-McArthur, the board’s secretary. “This isn’t new. You know that we were going to ask questions about this. Why is it always: ‘I’ll get back to you’? This should the top-of-the-list. This is a project that we want to see happen.
“It’s making me feel like there are barriers being put up, because people are worried what the other municipalities are going to do,” she went on. “What are they going to do? If they want to go build a bunch of schools, then they’ll take their kids out. But they’re not. They’re going to work with us, and we’re going to work with them. We don’t want their kids to go anywhere, but we need some kind of help financially. We want them to get just as good of an education.”
Previous stories on New Haven’s inter-district magnet schools:
• Suburbs Profit Off New Haven’s Magnets
• Magnet School Tuition Back On The Table
• Magnet Lottery Rigged For Suburbanites
• Suburban “Pushback” Feared On Magnets
• Goldson Targets Magnet Hustle