HISD backs off plan to cut magnet funds
After plan draws fierce opposition, funding unchanged for 2017-18 year
Superintendent Richard Carranza this week withdrew a plan to deeply cut funding for the district’s magnet programs over the next three years.
Houston ISD Superintendent Richard Carranza this week withdrew a plan to deeply cut funding for the district’s magnet programs over the next three years, shelving a proposal that had angered parents and some school board members who consider the specialized academic programs to be jewels in an oft-troubled school system.
The proposed cuts, outlined in a presentation to the HISD board last week, would have eliminated all extra funding per student to many of the district’s 121 magnet programs by the 2019-2020 school year while cutting funding to many of the other programs by hundreds of dollars per student. Only funding for secondary-language and early-college programs were spared.
But after the plan triggered a backlash from magnet school supporters, Carranza and district officials pulled back the proposal and said they instead planned to conduct a review of the district’s magnet funding and programs.
HISD spokeswoman Lila Hollin said in a written statement on Wednesday that the district had no plans to cut funding or make changes to magnet schools for the coming 2017-2018 school year.
“HISD magnet programs are reviewed annually. Discussions about the equitable funding of schools — both magnet and neighborhood campuses — are part of that review process,” Hollin wrote.
She added that a comprehensive review of the magnet program would likely be completed by January.
Magnet programs have been one of the district’s most successful tools to lure more affluent, white students back to HISD schools after years of slipping enrollment. A 2014 Chronicle analysis found
that magnet-school enrollment has inched up in recent years, and that funding and other resources tend to follow white students when they enroll in public schools.
Two of Houston ISD’s magnet high schools were ranked among the 20 top schools in the nation by US News & World Report’s annual high school rankings this year, with Carnegie Vanguard High for gifted and talented students ranking eighth overall and DeBakey High School for Health Professions coming in at 18th. DeBakey was also named the fifth-best magnet high school in the country.
District must pay
The debate over magnet-school funding comes as the urban district prepares to make a $77.5 million payment to the state in so-called “recapture” fees. The payment, which could increase by tens of millions in future years, will bring the district in compliance with a state policy requiring propertywealthy school districts in Texas to surrender money to the state to buoy districts with lower property values and tax rolls.
Although Houston serves a large number of economically disadvantaged students, it is now considered a “wealthy” district because of its fastappreciating real estate base.
Carranza’s presentation last week to the district’s Board of Trustees said the HISD needed to rethink how it provides magnet education in order to provide more equitable resources to students from a wide variety of backgrounds. Teachers, parents and students at those schools say the district shouldn’t try to fix something that isn’t broken by cutting funding.
“It seems like every new superintendent in the state goes after magnet schools,” Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of the Children at Risk child advocacy group, said before the district backtracked. “There will be huge pushback, because these schools are doing the job that needs to be done in public education. They may be selective, but you can’t argue with success.”
Carranza’s budget proposal would have cut the extra funding DeBakey receives from the $1,125 it gets per student this year to zero by the 2019-2020 school year. Carnegie Vanguard High would also have lost all of its extra funding per student by 2019-2020, dropping from the current $410 in extra funds it now receives per student.
Touchy topic
Magnet schools and programs have been a touchy subject in Houston ISD as their prevalence and prominence has grown. While some are more diverse both in terms of race and economic status than many other district schools, critics have argued that they accept a much larger percentage of white and Asian students than those groups account for district-wide.
Only 8 percent of HISD’s students are white, according to TEA data, yet they make up about 36 percent of students at Carnegie Vanguard High. At DeBakey High, about 50 percent of the students are Asian, even though only about 4.7 percent of students district-wide belong to that ethnic group.
But the district’s demographics don’t match those of the city overall, largely because more-affluent white families have generally opted to send their children to private schools or to other districts. About 15 percent of those 18 and under in the city of Houston are white, according to Census data.
Houston ISD Trustee Anna Eastman said she’s glad the proposed cuts to magnet schools and programs appear to be off the table for next year, but she worries that any future cuts along the lines of the recent proposal would be “incredibly drastic.” She said cutting extra funding to the magnet programs is not the way to bring more diversity to those campuses.
“I think our goal should always be to create schools that draw the diversity of Houston into them and spread it across and throughout the district,” Eastman said. “I don’t think the problems in our other schools is the fault of kids in our magnet programs.”
Greater parent support
Parents of students in magnet schools also tend to be more engaged in district and school affairs, helping their students apply and get into the schools and often volunteering with campus parent organizations.
Laura Powers, who has one student at Carnegie Vanguard High and one at Lanier Middle, said she was very concerned about the original proposal to cut funding for magnet schools. “These sort of bone-deep cuts of magnet and vanguard funding would have damaging impacts on some of the district’s most effective programs, if they go through as proposed,” she said.
Still, she welcomes the coming review of the district’s magnet programs.
“I’ve heard over and over that we need to look at the way magnet funding is allocated and organized, and I agree and would like to check the overall budget,” Powers said.