Connecting the Dots On Octoberquest and the Lost Students

Connecting the Dots on Octoberquest and the Lost Students: New Legislative Initiative to Create Accountability
In my blog Octoberquest and the Lost Students I wrote about what is described by Colorado State Representative Micheal Merrifield in “Life takes Visa”
Rep. Mike Merrifield wants to remove incentives from the ‘school-count game’
"This is a glaring loophole that needs to be closed," he says. "This law is going to apply evenly across the whole

“Educational Octoberquest and the Lost Students by Delia Armstrong Busby July 29, 2008
Is your local school district coming to you with the empty pocket pleas?

Assuring you that they have no money or that educational poverty requires that they close all the schools in the district.

No way can they hire the teachers to teach the students. No way can they continue to warm the schools or even open the cafeteria with the federally subsidized lunches.

If you are faced with the scenario identified so far

do this, look into the Educational Octoberquest.

This is when the schools are busy reaching out to the community looking for students.

This is the student count time. This is when school districts get the money that pays everyone.

Incentives are offered to get those student bodies into seats to fund the district.
Delia B Armstrong Busby
Deliabusby.blogger.com

From Adrian Stanley writer at the Colorado Springs Independent Newspaper (December 11, 2008):

Now if these school districts are asking you for this money. If the latest Colorado Student Assessment Program test results are to be believed, not all the kids in the popular Pueblo-based Cesar Chavez Academy School Network know their math. But, clearly, the administrators do.
In a Pueblo promotion, the Academy Network — a collection of charter schools in Pueblo and Colorado Springs — offered parents $100 Visa gift certificates and a chance to win a car or thousands in gift cards if they enrolled their kids in a Cesar Chavez school by Oct. 1. That just so happens to be the date of the head count that determines per-pupil state funding for schools.
Rep. Mike Merrifield wants to remove incentives from the ‘school-count game’
"This is a glaring loophole that needs to be closed," he says. "This law is going to apply evenly across the whole
This is positive leadership


More state legislators need to take the Merrifield initiative to heart and lower the dropout rate through such leadership

Educational Octoberquest and the Lost Students

Is your local school district coming to you with the empty pocket pleas? Is your local school district assuring you that they have no money or that educational poverty requires that they close all the schools in the school district? Stating to you "no way can [they] hire the teachers to teach the students. No way can they continue to warm the schools or even open the cafeteria with the federally subsidized lunches."

If you are faced with the scenario identified so, do this, look into the Educational Octoberquest. This is when the schools are busy reaching out to the community looking for students. This is the student count time. This is when school districts get the money that pays everyone. Incentives are offered to get those student bodies into seats to fund the district.

Now if these school districts are asking you for this money. ask them how many secondary students are lost from the high schools each month after Octoberquest student body hunt. Each student lost was worth money to the school district in October, but lose value after the moneyquest is fulfilled.

Aren't the school district responsible for educating the students for whom they are funded? What is the ultimate loss in money and human capital when as many as 1500 to 2000 students will leave a mid sized school district in the first semester?

And this number will increase incrementally by the end of the first semester. Don't fall victim to the we are poor scenario while not holding school districts accountable for the loss of the student body after the count. Ultimately the loss of the student body after the count is worth millions of dollars both short term and long term.