Denver Schools Get Bonuses for Student Population Growth

Allison Sherry:

Some of the Denver’s most popular public schools will get pots of cash this spring for attracting students from out of the district or from charter schools.
The move is designed to draw students back to Denver public schools, which have lost more than 8,000 students in the past six years.
Places like the Center for International Studies, the Denver School of the Arts, and East and Thomas Jefferson high schools will receive cash – from $20,000 to $156,000 – because they attracted “new” kids this year to their rolls, Denver Public Schools administrators said Thursday.
District leaders consider “new” students as those previously attending school out of the district or at a charter school.
Charter schools are public but are operated privately and get to keep the bulk of state per-pupil money. In Denver, that is about $6,500 per student.
For each “new” student, Denver schools will receive $1,395, but to receive the money, the school had to have a net gain of students.