Jahana Hayes for Congress & cash prizes for charter school recruitment?
Yesterday my colleague Ryan Grim and I published a story about a little-noticed Democratic primary battle playing out in Connecticut. Running for Congress in Connecticut’s 5th District is Jahana Hayes—the 2016 National Teacher of the Year—and a first time political candidate. Hayes entered the race at the last minute, nobody expected her to win the party endorsement, but her candidacy inspired unexpected waves of excitement. At their local convention last week in Waterbury, where delegates came to vote on who should get the party’s official endorsement, Hayes emerged victorious.
Until… she didn’t.
At a time when Democrats are rallying around teachers and emphasizing the need to diversify their ranks of leadership—the story of Hayes losing the party endorsement in what local operatives described as an extremely bizarre example of convention chicanery, has fueled a host of troubling questions. But Hayes hasn’t dropped out of the race, and the real primary will be held in August. The candidate who gets the party endorsement typically wins, but not always, and this might be the year things turn out differently. Story is worth the read.
——
In other news, last week I published a story about the murky phenomenon of using cash-incentives, gift cards, and other prizes to boost charter school enrollment. A teacher from a KIPP school in San Diego shared with me a flyer that had circulated to parents last school year offering generous cash-stipends if they could help recruit other students to the school. ($500 per student that you help bring in, and $100 to the family that enrolls.) As the competition to attract students increases, these recruitment strategies add thorny new layers to debates around school choice, especially when it comes to attracting low-income families.
Here’s a screenshot of the 2016 KIPP flyer:
After the story came out several people sent me additional information over email and Twitter about this topic. I’ve since learned the practice has been banned in Indiana (as well as in Colorado) and that there have been several reported examples of this in New York. Some readers were surprised people were even surprised.
One school administrator based in L.A. emailed me to say: “As a current principal, we would never be able to give financial incentives to parents. My understanding is that this would be considered a gift of public funds to benefit one family, and not the entire school, which is a big no no. Auditors generally tell school districts to not use gift cards as prizes as a general practice. I just don't know if it's technically illegal, or just a bad fiscal practice. I know our auditors generally flagged any kind of payment to individuals - even to graduating high school seniors for scholarships with money that was donated…With charters, though, my understanding is they are exempt from much of the public education code, and are treated like businesses, and there is case law to support that I believe. So, the argument goes, they can do whatever they want with the money they receive.”
It seems like the laws vary a bit from state to state, but part of this story is that it’s not always about what’s illegal or not. Experts I spoke with told me that in general the practice is pretty hard to track, given that charters tend to be subject to different public reporting guidelines. If you have any further information on using financial incentives/prizes for school recruitment do please shoot me an email.
And lastly, I have an investigation I’ve spent much of 2018 working on coming out later this week, so stay tuned!