Into The Lion’s Den; West Charlotte Schools Could Reap Millions In Additional Funding
With accusations that racism and financial discrimination were driving forces behind the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education’s decision to close predominately high poverty and minority schools on the city’s West side still stinging the community, flying under the radar has been the likely prospect that schools along the same educational corridor stand to reap millions of dollars in extra funding next year.
Indeed, while Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools braces for budget cuts that officials say could top $90 million, the CMS Investment Study Group – a combination of some of the city’s most recognizable philanthropists and community leaders – has quietly been exploring options for how to best use private money, gifts and grants to help CMS achieve goals “tied to student performance and equity,” by providing funding outside the district’s budget.
Earlier this year, as the Board of Education and top CMS brass struggled with decisions on school closures and sweeping district-wide changes, the Investment Study Group (ISG) announced that it intended to focus its philanthropic efforts on helping to improve graduation rates at West Charlotte High School.
Specific plans on how to accomplish that goal are still in development but up to a dozen schools – largely high poverty and minority – that feed into West Charlotte High could be involved and stand in line to receive millions of dollars, while the district as a whole faces dire budget cuts.
An exact dollar amount that the ISG will ultimately bring to the table is still unknown, but the group includes nearly a dozen of the area’s biggest foundations and philanthropists: the C.D. Spangler Foundation, Bank of America, Wachovia-Wells Fargo, the Belk Foundation, the Duke Endowment, the Knight Foundation, Novant Health, the Leon Levine Foundation, and the Duke Energy Foundation.
If each of the groups donated $5 million to the ISG cause, for example, the amount raised would reach upwards of $50 million. The C.D. Spangler Foundation, by way of comparison, donated $4 million last year to CMS, including nearly $1 million in scholarship funding for African-American males at West Charlotte High.
The ISG is still on track to unveil its recommendations by the end of the year for an educational initiative to help advance student achievement and funding levels to support it, according to Leslie McCray, vice president of communications for Foundation For The Carolinas, the group charged with facilitating the ISG committee study.
The ISG’s final recommendation, she said, could focus on implementing one particular program at several schools, or myriad programs and activities at just a few schools. Those specifics are still being discussed.
While a decision on what type of educational model or program to implement and fund is being made independent from CMS, McCray said, the ISG has relied on data and advice provided by district officials, as well as studying ideas and programs that have proved successful for other districts. The group has also solicited input from Westside community leaders, parents, and even students, McCray said, through rounds of public forums.
“Hopefully, that will lead to a plan that everybody is happy with,” McCray said.
The confluence of the ISG’s decision to focus its initiative and private capital on the Westside’s education corridor and the school board’s decision to close or dramatically change some of those same schools, however, is raising questions.
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