School Choice - Part II of IV




School Choice Trends in Enrollment
Orange Elementary Schools
Orange, MA

 As you can see from the graph above, in 2010 -2011 the Orange Elementary Schools had 82 students from other towns. Their families chose Orange Elementary rather than their home school districts. Since Orange Elementary received $393,019.00 in Fiscal Year 2011, each choice student brought only $4,770.00 to the district. You will note that this is significantly less than the per pupil amount that was cited in my most recent blog post about school choice in the Petersham Elementary Schools.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a formula by which towns and school districts are financially punished for not meeting Net School Spending Requirements. The Net School Spending Requirement is the absolute minimum amount allowed to go to public education in each town. Unfortunately for the Town of Orange and the Orange Elementary Schools the absolute minimum was not met in Fiscal Year 2010.

It is safe to say that the state allocates more than $5,000.00 per school choice student. In some cases the state may allocate more for individual students based upon their need for special education services. It has been estimated that the Town of Orange missed out on around $50,000.00 in school choice revenue in Fiscal Year 2010 because Net School Spending was not met.

The graph above shows that the number of families who chose to send their children to Orange increased rapidly from 2004 to 2010. Last year the number fell slightly, and of course it is possible that it will fall yet again this year.