Above Composite by Daniel del Pielago who says: Vince Gray and Kaya Henderson are doing nothing different than Adrian Fenty and Michelle Rhee – Disinvest in schools, Close Schools, Repeat!

The April 25, 2012 edition of WPFW’s Latino Media Collective focused on the DC Public School budget for fiscal year 2013. Mayor Vincent Gray is quick to point out that there are no proposed cuts to the DCPS budget, which is true enough. While the amount the city is planning to spend on education has not changed from 2012 to 2013, the source of those funds and the ultimate destination has. The problem in a nutshell is the cost of Michelle Rhee’s pet project the IMPACT teacher evaluation system. Bonuses paid to “highly effective” teachers was coming from private sources (mostly the Walton Foundation, i.e. Walmart). Those private funds went away along with Michelle Rhee and the cost for the bonuses now gets plowed into the budget for each individual school. So, while schools are paying for IMPACT, they won’t have money for other things like librarians, special education coordinators, etc. How this is going to improve the quality of education in DC’s public schools and in the charter school system is unclear.

Latino Media Collective co-hosts Daniel del Pielago and Oscar Fernandez were joined in the studio by Soumya Bhat, Education Finance and Policy Analyst at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute and Bruce Monroe at Parkview Elementary School Parent Leaders Sequnely Gray and Beverly West.

This broadcast gives more incite into the impact of Mayor Gray’s proposed DCPS budget on students than anything you’ll find in the mainstream press. I’m just sayin’. [haiku url=”http://www.grassrootsmediaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/wpfw_Latino_Media_Collective_on_DCPS_-Budget_4-25-12.mp3″ title=”Latino Media Collective on DCPS Budget”]