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D.C. mayor shares $4.8 million proposal to keep tutoring programs

The announcement from D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser comes in the midst of a tense budget season and fears of cuts

By Lauren Lumpkin | 2024-03-20

A student participates in a math tutoring session at Perry Street Preparatory Public Charter School in Northeast Washington. (Cheeriss May/for The Washington Post)

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said she wants to spend $4.8 million to sustain intensive tutoring programs for students next year, extending a multiyear effort to help children recover from the setbacks they experienced during virtual learning.

Bowser said Wednesday the request will be part of her budget proposal, which also includes a 12 percent hike to the per-pupil funding formula that largely determines how much money schools get. The increase would flush schools with an additional $341 million, but it comes as the city's finances are strained by higher teacher salaries, rising costs due to inflation, flat revenue and the need to use local money to cover expenses that were previously funded by one-time federal pandemic aid.

The combination of those factors means dollars will not go as far as they used to, officials said. Some school leaders in recent weeks have said they expect to cut positions.

Bowser called this budget "by far the most difficult" one she'll submit to the D.C. Council. "Even with this increase, this year our schools will also be making tough decisions," she said.

The mayor's announcement about the funding for high-impact tutoring -- a specific kind of academic help that consists of frequent, small-group sessions -- came at a citywide summit on the topic. She touted the effort's success, including a recent Stanford University study that found that students in D.C. were more likely to attend school when they had sessions. "Last school year, we found that students enrolled in high-impact tutoring were likely to reach their math and literacy goals," Bowser said.

The new dollars, however, would replace just some of the $33 million in federal aid that the city has spent over the last three years to offer intensive tutoring to students in need of the most help -- including $16.6 million this school year. The last tranche of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, more than $386 million in D.C. and also known as ESSER III, must be spent or planned by September before it goes away.

The elimination of the pandemic dollars will have varying effects on schools. At Moten Elementary School in Southeast Washington, teachers will continue to do the bulk of tutoring, Akela Dogbe, its principal, said at the Wednesday summit. Justin Lessek, founding executive director of the Sojourner Truth Public Charter School, said that budget restrictions have prevented the school from expanding tutoring. Schools that contract nonprofits or universities to bring in tutors may have to scale back, other leaders said.

Tutoring programs in D.C. mirror efforts seen throughout the country. School districts, after the worst of the pandemic, quickly built and expanded tutoring efforts to help students catch up academically.

Bowser also proposed new money for high school programs -- including $5 million for dual enrollment and student internship programs and the Advanced Technical Center, a facility in Northeast Washington that trains high-schoolers for careers in nursing and cybersecurity. She said an additional $17 million could be used to open a health clinic at the site to offer services to residents and training for students.

She also shared a $600,000 proposal to open a second Advanced Technical Center, at the Whitman-Walker Max Robinson Center in Southeast Washington.

The mayor is slated to ask the council to approve a $2.7 billion proposal to support the city's traditional public and charter schools. She was scheduled to present that plan -- along with the city's entire budget -- to the 13-member body Wednesday morning, but the presentation was canceled.


This article was downloaded by calibre from https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/03/20/tutoring-budget-schools/


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