Wake schools want funding to boost grad rates

RALEIGH -- Wake County school leaders said today they can have at least 90 percent of students graduating from high school if they get a major boost in funding.

The school board agreed to set the goal of having 90 percent of students graduating high school by 2013 and 95 percent by 2015. But the vote came with the provision that county commissioners give them enough money to fund academic programs, which could be as much as an 80 percent funding increase over the next six years.

“It’s important for the public to know it’s possible — with funding,” said Rosa Gill, chairwoman of the school board.

Today’s discussion was based on a proposal from two major civic organizations that would have the school board turn over school construction to the county in return for developing a multi-year education funding formula.

The Wake Education Partnership and the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce say that their proposal will allow the school board to focus more on student achievement.

A key part of the plan calls for developing a way to measure how academic achievement will be improved by increasing school funding.

Superintendent Del Burns recommended setting a 90 percent graduation rate as a goal because it would roughly slash in half the percentage of students who are not graduating from high school.

Currently, 79.3 percent of Wake’s high school students are graduating in four years. That’s higher than the state average of 69.5 percent.

In 2006, Education Week recognized Wake for having the second-highest graduation rate among the nation’s 50 largest school districts.

But board members repeatedly stressed that the goal would only be attainable if they got enough money from commissioners. They blamed the lack of money from commissioners over the past five years for Wake falling short of a goal calling for 95 percent of third- through 12th-graders passing state exams by 2008.

While the board hasn’t finalized the funding formula it will propose to commissioners, Burns presented a draft model that would raise the amount of county dollars from $300.7 million this fiscal year to $552 million by the 2013-14 fiscal year.

It’s questionable how much additional money that commissioners will want to provide. For instance, the school board is asking for $54.7 million increase from commissioners for the next fiscal year while County Manager David Cooke is only recommending an $18.5 million increase.

On Monday, the leaders of the Wake Education Partnership and the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce asked commissioners to delay voting on the budget until June 30 to give the school board more time to review their proposal.

But Ann Denlinger, president of the Wake Education Partnership, acknowledged today that it’s unlikely the commissioners will be deterred from voting on June 16.

While school leaders have been optimistic of getting more money, they’ve been less thrilled about turning over construction to the county.

School board member Lori Millberg argued they can’t trust commissioners. She pointed to how commissioners had supported converting schools to a year-round calendar before turning on the school district when parents objected.

“I don’t feel we can turn over $2 billion in school construction based on trust when there is no trust,” Millberg said.