What’s next for school funding?
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One question that has come up since the election is: what will this mean for school funding? Should we brace for major cuts at the federal level? Edunomics Lab, a great source for learning more about school and district finance/budget issues, recently provided their analysis of what to expect. Below is a summary of their assessment.
Overall, they do NOT predict massive cuts in federal school funding due to the change in administration.
- Many of the federal funds (Title I, IDEA, etc.) have traditionally been popular with both parties in congress, and even if the Department of Education does get disbanded (which they believe is unlikely) these funds could still continue, administered through a different program.
- They predict there will likely be less financial oversight over federal funding, but the impact of this is not yet clear.
- They anticipate that there could be federal tax credits for private schools, which could have potential to open the door to more families transitioning to the private school setting, further contributing to enrollment declines in public schools.
- Overall, it’s important to keep in mind that the vast majority of school funding is not from the federal government, but from state and local sources (somewhere around 90%).
That said, many of our local districts are facing significant budget shortfalls, due to the already-planned expiration of COVID relief funds, enrollment declines, increasing costs and broader state-level budget shortfalls.
We will continue to follow these developments in our monthly newsletters. Keep an eye out for our next newsletter for reporting on the “first interim” district budget reports, which will give us insights into the current state of our local district budgets.