C6 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, APRIL 10 , 2022
cerated qualify for food stamps
and are already eligible for at-risk
funding. They believe adding
these students could cost any-
where from $1.9 million to $2.8
million.
“When we talk about at-risk,
most of what that is talking about
is kids that have a lot of tran-
sience in their lives,” said Maya
Martin Cadogan, executive direc-
tor of Parents Amplifying Voices
in Education, a parent advocacy
group that is part of the coalition.
“They are housing-unstable be-
cause of the economic issues that
are part of D.C. They are migrant
children. Their families are in
and out of jail systems, which
creates instability. Are we mak-
ing sure we are taking care of
them?”Director Yesim Sayin Taylor and
education analyst Chelsea Coffin
said the biggest new expense
would be tied to adult learners,
who do not currently receive any
at-risk funding. That would cost
about $10 million at the current
at-risk funding amount.
City data shows that around
1,700 children currently are in-
volved with the Child and Fami-
lies Services Agency, but live at
home.
The analysts extrapolated
from available national and local
data on incarceration and undoc-
umented immigrant rates to de-
termine how much more money
would be needed for these stu-
dents.
They assumed most students
who have a parent who is incar-additional $21 million to English-
language learners, which typical-
ly goes toward paying for bilin-
gual and specially trained staff.
“We are confident that the
current [per-student funding for-
mula] and its corresponding at-
risk weight, is an effective model
for getting dollars to students
who need it most and ensuring
that they not only stay in school,
but succeed in school,” Deputy
Mayor for Education Paul Kihn
wrote in a statement. “We have
continued to adjust the [formula]
over time and we are always open
to considerations of how to build
on the Mayor’s targeted invest-
ments and ensure even greater
equity in our system.”
In addition to expanding the
eligibility for at-risk funding, the
DC Students Coalition also asked
that the funding go up for each
student — from around 25 per-
cent of the base-level funding to
37 percent. The group also urged
the city to change the name of the
funding category from “at-risk”
to “equity,” saying at-risk is a
“pejorative, inaccurate, and inad-
equate” label.
The D.C. Policy Center, a local
research group, crunched the
numbers and determined that
expanding the eligibility for at-
risk funds could cost the city
anywhere between $20 million
and $33 million each year. Ana-
lysts figured that many children
who would fall under these new
categories already qualify for at-
risk funding because their fami-
lies qualify for food stamps.
D.C. Policy Center Executiveyears. Last year, the city in-
creased the at-risk funding
weight — a percentage of the base
funding per student that is used
to determine how much addi-
tional funding goes to at-risk
students. There’s a separate
weight for students who are re-
ceiving special education ser-
vices and are learning English as
a second language. While the
at-risk weight is not expected to
increase next year, a larger base-
line per-pupil funding means
that targeted funding will rise as
well.
The Bowser administration
said it has increased the funding
that goes toward students who
are considered over-aged in high
school and secondary English
language learners. Between 2021
and 2022, the city distributed anes, that’s because many schools
with high concentrations of at-
risk students are under-enrolled
and smaller schools are more
expensive to operate. These
schools’ budgets don’t stretch as
far as those in larger schools, so
principals end up spending the
money on basic staffing that oth-
er schools can cover with their
baseline budgets.
Hanrahan said there is great
need for this money in her adult
education school. One-third of
her students who have a high
school diploma are reading at an
elementary school level, she said.
She would use the money to hire
more reading specialists and
mental health workers.
The District says it has invest-
ed more resources in its most
vulnerable students in recentexecutive director of LAYC Ca-
reer Academy, an adult education
charter school. “This is a good
return of investment. This is good
policy.”
The District established the
“at-risk” funding law in 2013. The
extra money for these students is
supposed to alleviate the effects
of poverty, which can make learn-
ing more challenging. The funds
could be used to pay for extra
reading specialists, music teach-
ers or extended day programs.
But numerous investigations
and reports have determined that
the city often spends this money
incorrectly, using it to pay for
routine costs instead of on pro-
grams to supplement basic
school offerings. In some instanc-
AT RISK FROM C1
THE DISTRICT
Groups urge city to expand funding for learners at risk of academic failure
CALLA KESSLER/THE WASHINGTON POST
Students show their parents their counting skills in a classroom at
the City Arts and Prep charter school in D .C. on Jan. 23, 2019.Brown faces former judge Ka-
tie Curran O’Malley, the wife of
former Maryland governor Mar-
tin O’Malley. Brown was Martin
O’Malley’s lieutenant governor
for eight years.
Curran O’Malley picked up the
endorsement of former U.S. sena-
tor Barbara A. Mikulski this week,
which followed Brown’s collec-
tion of the coveted endorsement
of the 76,000-member state
teachers union, the Maryland
State Education Association.
The pair are locked in the
state’s first competitive attorney
general primary since a brutal
contest in 2006, when one candi-
date successfully threw the an-
other off the ballot in court.
Brown has also locked up sup-
port from members of the state’s
Democratic congressional delega-
tion, including House Majority
Leader Steny H. Hoyer and Reps.
Kweisi Mfume and David Trone.BY ERIN COXFormer presidential candidate
and current U.S. senator Eliza-
beth Warren (D-Mass.) weighed
in on Maryland’s attorney general
race Friday, throwing her support
behind Rep. Anthony G. Brown
(D-Md.).
The open contest is the most
competitive for attorney general
in years, pitting former allies
against each other and dividing
big names in Democratic politics
into two camps. Deep-blue Mary-
land hasn’t elected a Republican
attorney general since 1952.Warren said in a statement she
supports Brown in the July pri-
mary because she thinks Brown
will not back down and will stand
up for residents who need him.
The Brown campaign noted he
worked with Warren on renaming
military bases that honor Confed-
erate leaders and lowering the
cost of medical supplies during
the pandemic.
“I know Anthony is a fighter,”
Warren said in a statement. She
said she expected Brown to “ad-
vance the big, bold, structural
change that Marylanders de-
serve.”MARYLANDElizabeth Warren backs
Rep. Brown in AG’s race
$31,000 of the $42,000 goal had
been raised.
Creel said she hopes the
students see that money, which
has come from people who live
on the reservation and off it, not
as charity for them, but as an
investment in them.
“What I want the children to
take away is that they are worth
supporting, that their minds are
worth supporting, that there are
people who care about them,” she
said.
A total of 15 students and five
adults are signed up to go on the
trip. The money will cover their
airfare, hotel costs and tours. If
funds are raised beyond the goal,
Creel said, that money will go
toward buying suitcases for
students who don’t have any and
fixing a broken window at the
school.
Ferguson said recent weeks
have seen the students speaking
excitedly about the trip and hotel
stay, which will be a first for some
of them. Their itinerary is still
being formed but will include the
war memorials because so many
families on the reservation have
relatives who served. Native
Americans have traditionally
served in the military at a
disproportionate rate.
Pecos is one of the students
who has requested a window
seat. He said he is “kind of
scared” and “kind of excited” to
fly.
He said he is looking forward
to seeing national monuments
up close and hopes when people
see him and his classmates, it
breaks down stereotypes. “We’re
not lazy Native Americans like
people think we are,” he said. “We
want to learn.”
When I asked what he wants to
be when he grows up, he didn’t
give one answer.
“A lot of things,” he said. “I
want to be a chef. I want to be a
bartender. I want to be a welder. I
want to travel the world.”
He has not yet flown in a
plane, and already he’s planning
future flights.students, she said, “is they will be
encouraged to go out and do
other things, that they won’t be
intimidated by the outside world
and will realize they can fit in.”
In September, she came up
with the idea for the trip. By
December, about four students
had signed up. There are about
20 middle school students and
she hoped that at least a dozen
would go.
Her sister Barbara Creel, who
is a law professor, got involved at
the beginning of this year. As
Creel tells it, she wanted to show
the students they wouldn’t have
to wait “a million years” to travel.
“I wanted them to experience
things other kids get to
experience,” she said. “Travel is
transformative and makes you
appreciate the value of home.”
“Help Native American Indian
Children Go to D.C.” reads the
title of the GoFundMe she
created.
“I am asking for your support
to help the children on the
Reservation who have a dream to
go on a middle school trip to
Washington, D.C.!” it reads. It
describes how the reservation
went into lockdown because of
the pandemic. “There are many
challenges, but the children have
been hard hit, with the isolation,
illnesses, death, unemployment,
impacts on family, the lack of
ability for the village to gather in
traditional ceremonies, AND
learning gaps.”
The trip, it says, is the one
thing that has sparked some
excitement for them.
“The light in their eyes was
inspiring when they attended the
informational meeting with the
tour group, EF Tours — They
were BEAMING!” it reads. “The
light went out when they learned
the price per student!”
What has happened since
Creel created that page has left
the students checking it daily and
talking about what they will
pack, what they hope to see, and
who will get a window seat.
As of Friday, more thanlot of anger.”
Ferguson said her students,
who are considered English
language learners because they
speak Towa at home, are aware of
the stereotypes some people have
of Native Americans. One day at
school, as they talked about the
trip, the conversation turned
from what they might see to how
they might be seen.
“When we go there, people
might look at us. What if they call
us names?” Ferguson said one
boy asked.
She assured him that it likely
wouldn’t happen and that if it
did, they would deal with it. She
also told the class that in
Washington, there are people of
many backgrounds who look and
dress in all different ways.
“My long-term hope,” for theFerguson said. She described it as
sending the message, “We’ll take
what you have, but we’re not
going to help you out.”
Last month, a hotel in South
Dakota set off a social media
firestorm and spurred a federal
class-action lawsuit after the
owner reportedly posted on
Facebook that the hotel would no
longer “allow any Native
American on property.” That post
came after a young Native
American man was shot at the
hotel.
“Some of our people were
shocked and upset after seeing
that,” Harold Frazier, chairman of
the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe,
told The Washington Post. “Some
of our people were like, ‘We
always go through this,’ but to
really see it in writing, it caused aour world,” he said. “We want
them to know about Congress.
We want them to know about our
state senators, our
representatives that are out there
and why they are there. We want
them to know the importance of
your personal self, that you have
the right to speak your want and
to be heard.”
Ferguson, whose mother
attended the school where she
now teaches, said it can feel
intimidating to leave the
reservation. She grew up hearing
what happened when her
grandparents once headed to a
nearby city to sell wool. A woman
at one shop bought the wool but
refused to let her grandmother
use the restroom.
“I remember hearing that
story and being really hurt by it,”loved ones, more than a year of
in-person learning and the
chance to participate in
traditional ceremonies. For a
while, they were even cut off
from the rest of the world.
Concrete barriers were placed
along roads leading to the
reservation to keep strangers
who might be carrying covid- 19
from entering unchecked.
Ferguson called different
school-travel companies to ask
about summer trips to D.C. and
decided the best deal was one
that offered a four-day trip in
June for $2,200 per student. On
the day she told the students the
price, she watched their
excitement about the trip
dissolve into doubt. Pecos wasn’t
the only one who viewed the trip
as beyond reach.
“We will never be able to raise
that much in a million years,” one
student said.
He described his mother as
making $100 a day selling
burritos. Other students told
Ferguson their families didn’t
have credit cards to pay even the
$95 deposit fee.
Countless school trips have
taken place in the District over
the years. This is the story of one
that almost didn’t happen. The
trip would have never become a
possibility if it weren’t for a
teacher who cared, a community
that rallied and strangers who
helped.
Joseph Brophy Toledo is a
spiritual leader with the federally
recognized Jemez de Pueblo
tribe. He can tell you in detail
about the historic ties between
D.C. and the reservation,
including the legend of a member
whose spirit settled in a place
near the Washington Monument
and continues to guide leaders.
But he speaks just as passionately
about the future benefits of
having the children take the trip.
He described it as holding the
potential to change their outlook.
“We don’t want them lost in
VARGAS FROM C1
VARGAS
A dream t rip becomes reality for Native American teens
PATRICIA FERGUSON
Students at the entrance of the San Diego Riverside Charter School on the Pueblo of Jemez reservation.
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