In The Prize, Dale Russakoff tells a story that should be required reading for anyone who writes a school budget: the story of two schools — one district-run, one charter — separated by just a few miles but divided by structure.
It’s not a story about charters being “better.” It’s a story about flexibility — and how systems designed around autonomy and accountability inevitably get more out of every dollar.
The Tale of Two Schools
At one end of Newark stood BRICK Avon, a traditional district school. At the other stood SPARK Academy, a KIPP charter school.
Both served similar student populations. Both had passionate teachers. But the way money flowed to them was completely different.
As Joe Nocera wrote in The New York Times:
“The KIPP charter network, which runs SPARK, gets $16,400 per SPARK pupil, of which $12,664 is devoted to the school. The district schools get $19,650 per pupil, but only $9,604 trickles down to the schools.”
So even though the district spent more, its schools had less. The money simply got lost between the taxpayer and the teacher’s desk.
Budgets Reveal Values
At SPARK, Principal Joanna Belcher said:
“We designed the school and the budget purposely based on what kids are going through and what they need.”
Russakoff writes:
“To support students who struggled, Belcher placed two certified teachers in each kindergarten, as well as in every math and English class in grades one through three. Students who fell behind got small-group instruction from one teacher while the other led the lesson for those on grade level. For children who still couldn’t keep up, a full-time learning specialist — one for each grade — provided tutoring and other interventions.”
By contrast, Avon and other district schools had one teacher per classroom. In kindergarten, there was a classroom aide — who wasn’t required to have graduated from college. Most district schools shared one or two specialists across all grades, if they had any at all.
At SPARK, when a boy began slugging teachers without warning, their lead social worker, Sarah Dewey, “created an ‘office’ for him — with his own child-sized desk and chair — in a corner of her workspace,” and she and another staff member supervised his work while his mother pursued psychiatric support.
At Avon, kindergarten teacher Princess Williams had a student with similarly violent tendencies. “In his fiercest rages,” Russakoff writes, “he threw chairs, terrifying classmates.” It took the district bureaucracy eight months to deliver the help she requested.
Williams had stayed in the district because she believed charters didn’t serve Newark’s neediest kids. But after a year of begging for help and trying to keep her classroom safe, she left for SPARK. Her reason says it all:
“Budgets tell you a lot about values. We need to change the values of our district.”
That’s the heart of the issue. Budgets aren’t just accounting tools. They’re moral documents. They show whether we value flexibility or control, trust or compliance, students or systems.
Structure Enables Mission
The magic of SPARK wasn’t its staff — it was its structure. The system itself delivered money, data, and decision-making power to the people closest to students.
That’s what real “accountability” looks like: not more reports, not more layers of approval, but a direct line between need and action.
At bookreport, we’ve seen this same principle play out across schools of every size. When leaders have clear data, flexible systems, and the power to act — they make better decisions, faster. When those decisions are trapped in the gears of a district, even the best intentions stall.
Reclaiming the Budget as a Moral Tool
SPARK’s story isn’t about being “innovative.” It’s about being intentional. When principals can move money to where it does the most good, they’re not just managing funds — they’re expressing values.
Imagine if every public school could operate that way. Imagine if dollars reached the classroom before the committee.
That’s the vision The Prize accidentally reveals: a world where funding schools directly isn’t just efficient — it’s how we make sure our spending reflects our values.
