Aspire Public Schools is a K-12 school system focused on improving public education by preparing underserved students for college, training highly effective teachers and sharing innovative best practices.
The Diversity in Leadership Institute (DLI) partners with Loyola Marymount University to offer a 16-month fellowship cohort for diverse educators seeking administrator credentials.
July 24, 2024 – Aspire Public Schools has been named the lead recipient of the California Teaching Commission (CTC) Diverse Education Leader Pipeline Initiative grant, in partnership with the Diversity in Leadership Institute (DLI) and Loyola Marymount University. The grant, totaling up to $3.9 million, aims to train, place, and retain diverse and culturally responsive administrators and education leaders to enhance student outcomes in public schools throughout the state.
Aspire Public Schools will oversee two separate grants, each with a different school serving as the lead Local Education Agency (LEA). Aspire Firestone Academy will lead the Southern California consortium, which includes all 11 Aspire Los Angeles schools, Bright Star Schools, New Los Angeles Charter School, ICEF Public Schools, and Perris Unified School District. Aspire Lionel Wilson College Prep Academy will lead the Northern California consortium, encompassing all 9 Aspire Bay Area schools and all 16 Aspire Central Valley schools, Rocketship Public Schools, Voices Academies, Envision Public Schools, and Sequoia Union School District. These partnerships highlight the collaborative nature of the initiative and the broad impact it aims to achieve.
“Aspire has a long track-record of supporting the professional growth of our team members, from pre-teacher programs to graduate-level teacher residencies. The Diverse Education Leader Pipeline Initiative grant will advance Aspire’s commitment to create pathways for teammates that are authentic to their identities and aligned with their career development aspirations, without worrying about financial barriers,” said Mala Batra, CEO of Aspire Public Schools. “This will further our efforts to establish diverse leadership pipelines that reflect the demographics of the communities we serve, which is essential for creating empowering and culturally responsive learning environments.”
The Diverse Education Leader Pipeline Initiative grant addresses the significant lack of Black and Brown leadership in education across the state. In partnership with DLI, the grant supports individuals with teaching credentials in obtaining administrator credentials through a 16-month fellowship that combines in-person and virtual components, with credentialing provided by Loyola Marymount University. Fellowship participants receive mentoring support extending beyond the fellowship by an additional year, focusing on culturally responsive school leadership.
“The Diverse Education Leader Pipeline Initiative grant is a transformative step toward closing persistent student equity gaps and increasing diversity within the TK-12 school administrator pipeline,” said Laura McGowan-Robinson, Founder and CEO of the Diversity in Leadership Institute. “The grant will empower aspiring leaders from underrepresented backgrounds, equipping them with the tools and opportunities needed to effect meaningful change in our communities.”
The grant awards $30,000 per fellow, eliminating the financial burden on participants and their schools. DLI will continue to seek additional funding to cover any remaining gaps, ensuring the program remains fully accessible and free to participants. The grant funding opens up eligibility for teammates from the consortiums to participate in the DLI cohorts. The grant will cover cohorts starting in the fall of 2024, 2025, and 2026, eliminating any additional fees for participants and the associated costs to their schools.
The grant provides up to 62 fellowship seats, valued at $1.86 million, for the Southern California consortium and up to 69 fellowship seats, valued at $2.07 million, for the Northern California consortium, ensuring comprehensive support for aspiring education leaders across California.
About Aspire Public Schools: Aspire Public Schools operates 36 schools across California dedicated to preparing students for college, careers, and life. Aspire focuses on providing high-quality education to underserved communities and fostering a diverse and inclusive environment for all students.
About Diversity and Leadership Institute (DLI): The Diversity and Leadership Institute is committed to promoting diversity and leadership in education. By providing fellowships and support for aspiring administrators, DLI aims to create a pipeline of diverse education leaders equipped to meet the challenges of today’s educational landscape.
About Loyola Marymount University
A top-ranked national university rooted in the Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount traditions, LMU is committed to fostering a diverse academic community rich in opportunities for intellectual engagement and real-world experience. Our three campuses are rooted in the heart of L.A. a global capital for arts and entertainment, innovation and technology, business and entrepreneurship.
In the realm of high school counseling, the traditional narrative has often centered around the four-year college experience as the sole path to success. However, as demands of the workforce change, it’s time to recognize that there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to post-secondary education. To ensure equitable support for all students, schools must adopt a multi-faceted approach to post-secondary success — to provide a range of options that mirror the diversity of the student body.
This holds particular significance in light of the recent FAFSA crisis and its ongoing and future repercussions on low-income students. By providing robust career exploration and planning resources, high schools can help students make informed decisions about their future pursuits, taking a proactive step towards mitigating the financial burden of student debt on future generations.
One of the key strategies we’re implementing at Aspire Public Schools, where I work, is building post-secondary and career exposure early on in a student’s high school journey. We’re not just waiting until senior year to discuss college options; instead, we’re integrating post-secondary education and career planning into the fabric of our students’ daily experiences.
Beginning freshman year, students are engaged in discussions about their future paths, and we’re celebrating alternative options such as vocational training and community college alongside the traditional college route. We’re also not relying on colleges to teach critical thinking skills and antiracist practices; instead, we’re implementing comprehensive programs within our curriculum to foster these essential skills and perspectives well before they set foot on a college campus.
Here’s how we’re doing this in practice:
Exposing students through dual enrollment programs. By partnering with institutions like LA Trade Technical College, we’re offering our students the opportunity to take college-level courses while still in high school. These courses not only earn them credits that are transferable to four-year universities but also expose them to career paths and industries they may not have considered otherwise. I’ve seen how early exposure is invaluable in helping students make informed decisions about their future.
Addressing the financial barriers that often accompany post-secondary education. Through dual enrollment programs, we’re not just providing students with a head start; we’re also streamlining the path to college completion and alleviating financial strains along the way. The state of California is also prioritizing this approach, through programs like Golden State Pathways Program, which provides high school students with seamless pathways to college by offering college-level courses that count for both high school and college credit.
Fostering holistic career development through early exposure and practical experience. One major objective is to broaden students’ exposure to diverse career paths. At the heart of this effort is rolling out programs that let students do career assessments, so they can figure out their strengths, interests, and what kind of careers might suit them best. Departing from the antiquated notion of leaving career decisions solely to the college years, our aim is for students to graduate equipped with a strong academic background and the technical skills needed to thrive.
To realize this vision, we are fostering avenues for internships and work-based learning experiences during high school. This empowers our students to graduate not only with a robust academic foundation but also with the practical skills essential for success in their chosen fields.
It’s important to emphasize that our goal isn’t to discourage students from pursuing four-year institutions. Rather, it’s about ensuring that they have all the information and resources they need to make the best decision for their future. We’re dispelling the myths and misconceptions surrounding community colleges, recognizing that they can offer rigorous academic programs and valuable opportunities for personal and professional growth.
As counselors, our role is not to impose our own aspirations onto students but to empower them to explore their options and make informed choices. Whether it’s a four-year university, a community college, or a vocational program, what matters most is that students find the path that aligns with their interests and goals and allows them to thrive to live a fulfilled life.
Cultivating curricula that fosters critical thinking and antiracist practices. In shaping our academic programming, our foremost aim is to equip scholars with critical thinking skills that foster deep understanding through an antiracist lens.
Through programs and courses spotlighting Black, Native, Latinx and LGBTQ experiences, our scholars emerge from our schools imbued with a profound sense of confidence, empowering them not only to excel in college but also in any other avenue of post-secondary education or vocation they choose to pursue.
The traditional dichotomy between four-year colleges and alternative pathways is outdated and limiting. Let’s embrace a more holistic approach to post-secondary education, one that recognizes the diverse talents and aspirations of our students. By expanding access to dual enrollment programs, prioritizing avenues for internships and work-based learning experiences during high school and providing an equity-centered curricula that fosters critical thinking, we’re empowering our scholars to chart their own paths to success. After all, in a world where the only constant is change, flexibility and adaptability are the true keys to success.
Ivonne Polanco is a Senior Regional Program Manager for Post-Secondary Success at Aspire Public Schools in Los Angeles, California. Prior to that she was a College Counselor and Dean of College Success at Alliance Technology Academy in Los Angeles. She holds a master’s degree in secondary school administration and principalship from Cal State University Dominguez Hills and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Southern California.
By funding based on enrollment instead of attendance, we can increase resources to schools with the most vulnerable kids
Original article here.
By Mala Batra | CEO, Aspire Public Schools
June 26, 2024
There is no doubt: Kids are missing a lot of school. Nationally, over a quarter of public school students were chronically absent last year — up from about 15% before the pandemic.
Kids in California are no exception. Recent reporting by the Bay Area News Group said the average California student missed 14.6 school days last year.
This is happening for many reasons, including transportation and mental health issues. Perhaps most daunting is the idea that the pandemic altered society’s relationship with schooling, shifting attendance to be viewed as “optional.” We are already seeing the consequences.
The absenteeism increase has also illuminated an inequity in how California funds public schools. Our state’s schools lose about $3.6 billion annually because of student absences, this paper reported. This is because, currently, California funds schools based on the average number of students who attend school each day. That’s different from the number of students enrolled — for whom the school is responsible for educating. We’re one of only six states that still fund schools this way.
Students from low-income families — about 60% of students — are more likely to miss school. Kids who miss a lot of school often need support. Yet when they’re absent, the state does not offer support. Instead, it withholds money for their education. This means schools serving low-income students often wind up with less funding than more affluent schools, hindering educators’ ability to tend to students’ needs and improve academic outcomes. This is inequitable — but we have an opportunity to address it.
Our experience at Aspire Public Schools has taught us that countering chronic absenteeism requires a thoughtful, resource-intensive approach. We serve over 15,000 students, the vast majority of whom are experiencing poverty. We offer attendance incentives, transportation supports, direct outreach to families and mental health supports, to name a few. Those efforts are meaningful — our schools had an average chronic absenteeism rate of about 26% this year (nearly the same as the state’s), down from about 40% two years ago.
We are relentless in our pursuit because we care about our students, we value their presence in our community, and we know that they have to be in school to learn. But it’s a crisis that a quarter of students at Aspire — and statewide — are chronically absent. While hardworking educators will surely continue working to solve this problem, that will not fix the funding inequity under the surface.
California lawmakers should change how schools are funded to provide resources for the number of students schools are charged with serving. We’ve launched a campaign to help make that happen.
By funding based on student enrollment, we can increase resources for schools serving the most vulnerable kids. One report estimates that about 90% of districts would receive more funding under an enrollment-based formula. The biggest boost would happen in districts with high percentages of low-income, English learner and foster youth students.
Sen. Anthony Portantino’s Senate Bill 98, co-sponsored by State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, would require that the Legislative Analyst’s Office study what this funding change would mean and share findings by 2026. (Whether this would require a change to Proposition 98, the voter-approved initiative that sets minimum funding levels for K-12 schools, would likely be addressed in this study, offering legislators a helpful path.)
This bill, which passed out of the Assembly Education Committee unanimously June 12, would be a strong step in the right direction.
There will be costs associated with changing school funding. We recognize the complex budget situation policymakers face and appreciate that they must juggle competing priorities. But it counters California values to maintain such an inequity. And the costs of our children missing out on their education are far greater.
Every student deserves our support — they all have skills and gifts that should be nurtured. By shifting how our funding formula counts students, we allow resources to be more equitably targeted to students’ needs, including the support needed to attend class. We also send our students a message: You are valued, and your place in our community matters.
Mala Batra is CEO of Aspire Public Schools, a network of charter schools serving over 15,000 TK-12 students across 36 schools in historically underserved communities throughout California.
Plenty of conversations in California have focused on recruiting teachers into the profession as a way to grapple with the state’s teacher shortage. This is important, and as a transitional kindergarten teacher, I am acutely aware of how quality teachers can impact our students and communities.
I pursued teaching largely because I want to be the representation I didn’t see growing up. I participated in a teacher residency program that built my confidence in the classroom and taught me to connect with my students by highlighting my own identity. It’s not only the way I was recruited to the profession, it’s also played a role in my retention.
To continue to tackle the teacher shortage, I believe California needs more strong teacher residency programs. Nearly 37% of U.S. public schools experienced at least one teacher vacancy, contributing to nearly half of public school students entering the 2023-24 school year behind grade level in at least one subject. Amid these shortages, California is still reeling from the repercussions of surpassing 10,000 vacancies during the 2021-22 school year. The effects are felt even more so in under-resourced, Latino or Black communities.
At Aspire Richmond Technology Academy, where I teach, I can see how we must prepare educators and then provide the tools for teachers to sustain themselves. It’s how we can prevent shortages and retain teachers down the road.
It was a winding road for me to realize that teaching was my calling. I never envisioned myself becoming an educator, largely because I rarely saw teachers who looked like me or who connected with me on a cultural level. While studies point to the importance of a demographic match between teachers and students, I experienced a real lack of Asian representation in education.
This changed when I went to college. With more exposure to Asian professors, I finally felt seen and represented. I felt empowered that education was a field I could pursue. And I put the puzzle pieces together — that all of my volunteer work and extracurricular activities centered around helping students. By the time I switched majors, I had some catching up to do.
When I learned about teacher residency programs in California, I jumped at the opportunity. I received a master’s degree and a California teaching credential in a single year. Even in my first year of teaching, I felt more prepared than other teacher friends.
While we can’t solve the teacher shortage overnight, here’s how we can ensure we’re training more young people to become highly effective educators and stay in the profession.
First, we need an intensive teacher residency program that builds confidence. ThroughAspire’s teacher residency program at Alder Graduate School of Education, I apprenticed four days a week and had a personal mentor in the classroom with me who provided me with critical one-on-one support. Toward the end of my time as an apprentice, one of the students in our classroom asked my mentor, “So, what’s your job?” This gave me the confidence to teach the following year on my own. I learn best through a hands-on approach, so four days a week in the classroom with one day for intensive seminars and subject-matter courses helped me gain more real life experience.
Second, this wouldn’t be possible without strategic financial supports. We know that systemic inequities, including the high cost of college, hold too many back from pursuing a career in education. Ensuring teacher residents receive a stipend while earning their degree and credential(s) can help. Through a partnership, the program I participated in is helping to support staff members in earning and paying for an undergraduate degree with teaching credentials. Given the importance of representation in the classroom, the partnership prioritizes aspiring teachers of color and those from the local communities.
Finally, we should expand teacher residency programs that are accessible for individuals of all backgrounds. While California has made big investments in teacher residency programs, we also need to focus on effective teacher training initiatives that reflect our school’s communities. When I participated, my teacher residency program focused on “head, heart and hands.” This meant that we integrated theory and research (head), with a culturally responsive equity lens (heart), and our coursework mirrored our field work (hands). Highlighting representation, multiculturalism and identity continues to be stressed throughout the program — and it’s something I hold dear to my heart.
Last week, I proudly watched a kindergarten promotion, which included many of my previous TK students from my student teaching year. Seeing their growth academically, and how much confidence they have gained in themselves and their identities, is another reason why I continue to pursue education. In many ways, their growth reflects my own. And knowing that I contributed a small part to my former and current scholars’ successes, as they flourish in their own ways, brings me a surge of pride.
The programs at Aspire are happening at scale, with more than 36 schools serving more than 15,400 students across California. Not only did my residency program get me into the classroom, it’s played a role in keeping me there. We need more effective residency programs, and this can serve as a model for retaining teachers in California.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
The effects of recent delays in college financial aid could be felt by a vast array of students for years. We spoke with students across the country about their experiences. Here are their stories.
Instead of attending college this fall, a Massachusetts teen plans to join the Marines.
A first-generation student from Illinois hopes her restaurant job will cover college costs.
A Floridian in her 30s says she might go back to exotic dancing to afford tuition.
May 1 has long been the deadline for many students to decide where to attend college. But for applicants across the country, 2024 has been the year the systems in place for decades fell apart. While picking a college is anxiety-inducing in a normal year, the government’s botched handling of financial aid upended that decision-making process, disrupting the lives of a broad swath of American students.
The stress stems from a form called the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which opens the door to government help with tuition and, many say, to a better quality of life. This year, glitches and holdups with the form kept many vulnerable people from getting across the finish line.
Historically, the application required students and their families to answer dozens of complicated questions using decades-old technology. Facing a mandate from Congress, Biden administration officials set out to fix it. But the new FAFSA was beset with issues and corrupted data, delaying aid offers for months and jeopardizing the prospects for some of the students the updates were supposed to help.
“FAFSA is the stepping stone to everything,” said Galawe Alcenet, 17, a student in South Saint Paul, Minnesota, who lost her chance at getting several private scholarships because of processing delays. Courtesy of Galawe Alcenet
Even employees in the Education Department’s Federal Student Aid office, which was charged with streamlining the form, expressed frustration with their bosses’ handling of the rollout, two agency officials not authorized to speak publicly told USA TODAY. Then, last week, seemingly capping off the fiasco, the top Biden administration official overseeing the revised process resigned from his post.
“FAFSA is the stepping stone to everything,” said Galawe Alcenet, a senior in Minnesota who lost her chance at getting several private scholarships because of the processing delays. “The biggest challenge has been the waiting.”
COMMENTARY | Black Student Success
By Chris Carr
Executive Director, Aspire Los Angeles
February 14, 2024
In the current era of education culture wars — banning books, monitoring curriculum, adjusting school policies — supporting students in a culturally sensitive, relationship-focused way is sometimes presented as being in conflict with maintaining academic rigor.
But balancing these approaches is more important than ever as our schools continue to rebound from pandemic-related learning loss coupled with the ongoing social-emotional needs of students. We should not have to prioritize one approach over the other: academic rigor, or supporting students’ social-emotional needs through culturally relevant teaching and experiences. Individually, each approach falls short in providing all students with the support they require for a successful future. By reframing them as mutually reinforcing rather than mutually exclusive, we have the potential to significantly transform education for every child.
Culturally relevant teaching is the conduit to academic success, and rigorous instruction is effective when grounded in culturally relevant teaching. To support our students, we must equip them with the tools for empowerment while also working to create inclusive educational environments that foster support.
In practice, this means everything from ensuring our teachers and staff reflect the demographic makeup of our students, to examining the resources and professional development we bring into our schools to make sure all our students’ needs are met. It means having data-driven conversations, grounded in equity, about how we are serving our most marginalized students.
As a school leader at Aspire Public Schools in Los Angeles, we knew some of our most vulnerable students were those who were chronically absent. Diving into the data, we discovered that many of our students missed school around three-day weekends and holidays. As a part of the implementation of our positive behavioral and intervention support (PBIS) framework, we focused on timing school celebrations and family engagement activities before and after three-day weekends and holidays so that students wouldn’t want to miss out on the fun. Additionally, teachers reach out to families of absent students to provide a more personal touch and communicate the positive impact their child has in their classroom community when they are at school. The early results of implementing this PBIS approach are showing promise in reducing absenteeism, with a year-over-year decrease in chronic absenteeism rates across our 11 Los Angeles schools.
A data-driven approach grounded in equity can also help serve special education students. For example, at one of our schools, students in special education demonstrated notable progress in math, surpassing the growth rates in math seen among their peers in general education, both in LAUSD and statewide. The schools took a different approach to intervention than they had in the past. Previously, students with individual education plans (IEPs), which are required for all students in special education, were not included in math interventions — an additional 20-minute small-group math instruction during the school day. Last year, students with IEPs participated in these math interventions along with general education students. This additional intervention, combined with regular “teach back” sessions during which teachers practice delivering content to their peers, gathering feedback and strengthening their practice, yielded positive results among our special education learners.
Developing partnerships to incorporate Afrocentric and LGBTQ+ curriculum and resources can also make an impact. This has included everything from the establishment of several Black student union chapters to a Black families advisory council, where families meet quarterly to discuss Black educational content and curricula. I can say firsthand that we’re seeing these partnerships show promising results: Participants in Black student union programs experienced an average reduction of eight days in absenteeism compared to the previous year. Plans are also underway to pilot an LGBTQ+ course that aligns with state A-G standards (courses required for admission in California public universities). Lastly, dedicating resources to cultivate a pipeline of Black educators is critical to establishing a more diverse teaching staff.
To deliver on the promise of excellent education for every child, it is time to chart a path that is both rigorous and culturally relevant. This is how we deliver on the promise of an education model that serves all students.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
In times of crisis, we should be looking for ways to help, not hinder. But in California, the inequities in public school education funding are only deepening the crisis for too many students.
On top of the devastating social-emotional and academic effects of the pandemic, our communities have been dealing with widespread staffing challenges, culture wars and frequent unfair attacks on educators. And in cities across California, projections suggest that public school enrollment will continue to drop — creating a crisis for practically all schools across the state.
Public charter schools face all of these challenges and more. At Aspire Public Schools, a charter school network serving more than 15,000 students in 36 schools across the state, our student population is more than 85% Black and Latino, and the vast majority of our students are experiencing poverty. Yet since the day we were founded, we’ve been forced to get creative with limited resources: Aspire students — like all public charter school students in California — receive less funding than their peers in traditional public schools.
According to new research from the University of Arkansas, the problem remains severe. In the 2019-20 school year, Los Angeles public charter school students received $5,226 less per-pupil funding than their counterparts in traditional public schools. In Oakland, the gap is even larger, at $7,103. This is driven by a lack of public funding. In both cities, public charter schools receive less local, state and federal funding than their counterparts in traditional public schools.
Why? While both public charters and traditional public schools receive the same amount of base funding under California’s Local Control Funding Formula, or LCFF, that doesn’t mean the total funding is equal. One reason for this is that schools receive additional funding for higher-need student categories and for higher concentrations of students in those categories, known as “concentration grants.” However, charter school concentration grant amounts are capped based on the average student demographics for the district in which they reside. This means that public charters are, in effect, penalized for serving a greater share of high-need students than their district. There are also a number of local, state and federal funding streams that are only accessible to traditional public schools —for instance, voter-approved local funding for operations or capital projects.
I’m not writing this to complain. We are honored to serve our school communities and our wonderful, talented scholars. It’s hard work, but unequal funding makes it harder. The more time we have to spend fighting tooth and nail for basic resources, the less we can spend educating California’s next generation. Our scholars are the same students whom politicians claim to want to support, especially in the wake of the pandemic, but they are consistently left out because they and their families made the choice to attend a public charter school. Elected officials frequently speak about the importance of equity, and we at Aspire couldn’t agree more. But equity means all students getting what they need — and Aspire schools (as well as many other public charter schools)serve large numbers of historically marginalized students.
This challenge is nothing new. If you talk to charter leaders across California, they’ll all tell you a similar story. Due to this systemic funding deficit, we have had no choice but to try to raise philanthropic dollars to fill critical funding gaps. But that is often turned into an attack against us, with critics saying that public charter schools are bankrolled by private investors. That is simply untrue. Trust me — I would love nothing more than to be able to operate our schools without fundraising. But it’s just not an option.
And new challenges often emerge. Just two years ago we made the choice to go to Sacramento to advocate for all public charter students to fight against legislation that would have penalized charter schools — and not traditional public schools — for following the state’s guidelines for quarantining students who were exposed to Covid-19. While we were able to win that fight, it is illustrative of the larger issue: Charter students are treated as less than others.
But here’s the thing: Despite these challenges, charter schools have been able to accomplish so much. According to new research from the CREDO Institute at Stanford University, California charter students have gained the equivalent of 11 days of reading and four days of math compared with similar students in traditional public schools. Black and Latino students and students experiencing poverty had even larger gains. At Aspire specifically, we were proud to have met CREDO’s “gap-busting” criteria in both reading and math, recognizing our ability to reduce opportunity gaps at scale.
So many of our students are carrying so much. They are talented and resilient, and they work hard to achieve their goals. We believe in them, and we tell them that every day.
But this funding gap tells them something different — that because they happen to attend a charter school, they matter less. It’s time that education leaders put childish politics aside and focus on giving all of our kids what they need. They’re all California students. They deserve to be treated as such.
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Mala Batra is the chief executive officer at Aspire Public Schools, a charter management organization serving 15,000 TK-12 students across 36 schools in historically underserved communities throughout California.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
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Students at Aspire Arts & Sciences Academy, a charter public school serving grades TK-5 in Oakland, CA. This pandemic has cost us all in countless ways — in physical and mental health, in community, in employment, in hours and minutes with loved ones and in education. Now that we’re facing yet another surge, our schools are worried about new ways this disease is robbing us.
Our state leaders are seeking to address some of the ramifications of Covid-19. Recently, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a $2.7 billion Covid response plan, which would help schools receive the rapid test kits we need to keep school doors open, communities safe and kids in school.
But what happens when kids can’t be in school? What happens when thousands of students test positive or have a risk of exposure and need to quarantine?
That’s when educators are backed into a corner: By following the state-mandated student quarantine requirements, California’s public schools are losing millions of dollars — money needed for the critical work of supporting our students, keeping our staff safe and rebuilding our school communities.
In California, when a student quarantines to protect the health and safety of their school community, that same student loses money for their education. Current state law requires schools to mark quarantined students absent, unless students sign up for independent study for the time off, and the district keeps track of their work. The Legislature agreed to hold school districts harmless for Covid absences this year, but that allowance was not extended to charter schools. Unless the law is changed, all public schools will be affected in the coming year.
When students are absent, the school doesn’t receive money for the student that day. At one of our schools, that means for a 10-day quarantine for an entire classroom, a school loses about $14,000 based on the school’s average daily attendance funding. While schools have the option of enrolling quarantined students in independent study, the process to do so is difficult — if not impossible — for families to navigate during a two-week period. Furthermore, students who receive special education services need to have an updated individualized education plan — a process that can take weeks to months — to participate in independent study. These complexities have led most public schools to mark quarantined students absent, resulting in millions of lost dollars for California students’ education.
This problem is reinforcing an issue that predated the pandemic and has been exacerbated by it: It’s disproportionately impacting students of color and those in low-income communities. Since our communities have higher infection rates than white and more affluent communities, they are more likely to need to quarantine and therefore have money taken away from their education.
At Aspire Public Schools, a charter school network with 36 schools serving over 15,000 students across the state of California, we’ve known from very early on in this pandemic that our students and their families were among the most likely to bear the brunt of this disease and its devastating impacts. More than 85% of Aspire’s scholars are Black or Latino and live in communities that are among the hardest hit across our state.
At face value, the financial implications of this law may seem like a small, even logical consequence. But it adds up. In the first few months of this school year, the delta variant wreaked havoc on our communities despite our best efforts to institute policies that would protect our students and teammates. As a result, during this time period, Aspire saw the compounding impacts of this law cost our schools $1.2 million dollars. With omicron now surging in our communities, our schools — and consequently our students — are losing even more.
Reductions in funding force schools to make devastating decisions like eliminating much-needed programming or staff — both of which would have devastating impacts on students and teachers. Educators are going above and beyond every day to support students, all while holding their own feelings of exhaustion and anxiety. We cannot keep expecting them to do more with less.
California schools are steadfastly committed to both prioritizing student learning and protecting student health. As part of protecting our community from Covid-19, we enforce quarantine and isolation protocols as necessary. As rapid tests hopefully become more readily available, we are eager to pilot “test-to-stay” programs as a means to keep more students in our classrooms. But should that enforcement really be costing our students so dearly?
With unpredictable variables, such as the omicron variant, being introduced to our landscape daily, we must ensure there aren’t financial consequences that force schools to make impossible choices between safety and learning.
There should be zero cost — to schools, and most importantly to our students — for a medically responsible and necessary quarantine. Our state leaders can and must develop a solution that allows schools to follow state-mandated quarantine requirements without losing critical funding. This pandemic has already cost our students far too much. It is our collective responsibility to lighten that burden and clear a path for healing.
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Mala Batra is CEO of Aspire Public Schools, California’s largest charter school network serving more than 15,000 students in the Bay Area, Central Valley and Los Angeles.
Read more at EdSource.org. The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
In the realm of high school counseling, the traditional narrative has often centered around the four-year college experience as the sole path to success. However, as demands of the workforce change, it’s time to recognize that there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to post-secondary education. To ensure equitable support for all students, schools must adopt a multi-faceted approach to post-secondary success — to provide a range of options that mirror the diversity of the student body.
Plenty of conversations in California have focused on 
In the current era of education culture wars — banning books, monitoring curriculum, adjusting school policies — supporting students in a culturally sensitive, relationship-focused way is sometimes presented as being in conflict with maintaining academic rigor.