I have a question concerning the most recent deal that throws still one more lifeline to the Chester Upland School District.
Delaware County Judge Chad Kenney on Friday approved the state's revised financial recovery plan for Chester. The key to the deal is a big reduction in the amount that Chester Upland has to reimburse its charter schools for special education students.
The agreement calls for charter schools to be paid $27,028.72 for each district special education student it accepts. That's the figure that was suggested by a bipartisan committee on special education funding that was co-chaired by state Sen. Pat Browne and state Rep. Bernie O'Neill back in December 2013.
That's still more than what the state originally proposed. The plan first put forward by state-appointed receiver Francis Barnes called for the amount to be reduced to $16,000 and change per student. The charters screamed foul. They argued that kind of reduction placed an unfair burden on them.
Judge Kenney nixed that idea, while noting that even if approved it would not pull the district out of its current financial morass, swimming in about $23 million in red ink that officials said would balloon to as much as $50 million by the end of the school year.
Talks between Chester Upland and the charters came up with the new figure. and the bottom line is that Chester Upland will be paying a lot less for special education students in charters than the the $40,000 per student the district has been shelling out.
So here's my question.
If the charters now apparently are willing and able to get by being compensated $27,000 for each student, why was Chester Upland, maybe the poorest district in the state, on the hook for that $40,000 figure for years?
Anyone have an answer?
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