District needs outside students

Recently a few writers to The Acorn have questioned whether the Oak Park Unified School District has been wise to accept students who transfer from other school districts.

Based on the wacky funding formula for school districts in California, there is a tremendous financial incentive to accept students from other districts during periods of declining enrollment.

In fact, in the most recent fiscal year, OPUSD's net funding after the expenses from transfer students was $3,560,162. This represents 12 percent of the total expenses of the district. Without transfer students, class sizes and programs for nontransfer students would be impacted by 12 percent.

It is no wonder that all local districts are engaging in the exact same approach. Also, OPUSD is losing about 100 students to other districts and would continue to do so even if it was the one local district that chose not to take advantage of this funding.

The Oak Park Schools Community Group was formed by over 70 community members in 2007 to investigate this and other school issues. After many months of investigation, including access to information and reports derived from the audited financial data of the OPUSD, a group subcommittee recommended that "the district continue its efforts to attract students from outside the district to attend Oak Park schools in order to lessen the financial burden on the district caused by declining enrollment."

It could be argued that, all things being equal, a smaller district would be best. But budget cuts and school funding formulas in California have forced districts to be creative in order to ensure that future students will have at least the level of programs and class sizes as those students that have attended in the past. Jay Kapitz Oak Park Kapitz is a member of the Oak Park Schools Community Group and the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council