Thousands of California school employees have received preliminary pink slips in recent weeks as districts scrabble to close budget gaps caused by falling enrollment and rising costs. Most went to school administrators and classified school staff, such as clerks, administrative assistants and paraeducators.

Districts were complying with a  them to send preliminary pink slips by March 15 to any employee who could potentially lose their job before the beginning of the next school year. Many of the notices are withdrawn by May 15 — the last day final layoff notices can be given — as districts make decisions about seniority.��

This year the layoffs have taken a dramatic turn as district leaders increasingly target classified and central office staff to balance budgets.

School districts have lost both average daily attendance funding, due to declining enrollment, and federal Covid dollars. At the same time, districts are paying more for pensions, health care, supplies and special education. 

“You have some large school districts and even some mid-sized and smaller school districts that are in complete financial crisis right now, and on the verge of insolvency or going into receivership,” said Troy Flint, chief information officer for the California School Boards Association. “When the deficit is so great you almost have to make hatchet-type cuts.”

District offices in the crosshairs

District staff are being targeted by some districts. In Sacramento City Unified, everyone working in the district office, including the interim superintendent, was issued a pink slip.  and are also planning to make major cuts to their central offices. 

“The board directive, ever since we declared the deficit, has been pretty clear: Whatever cuts we have to make, keep them as far away from the classroom as possible,” said Brian Heap, Sacramento City Unified’s chief communications officer. 

District officials can’t say how many employees at the Serna Center – Sacramento City Unified’s headquarters – will ultimately lose their jobs until they complete a plan to restructure the office, Heap said.

“We have to have somebody running payroll. We have to have somebody in the business office. We have to have somebody in our academic office,” Heap said. “But what does that look like? That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”

Sacramento City Unified officials have announced they will send layoff notices to 800 employees, most who are classified employees, to help reduce a $134 million budget deficit.

“I’m certainly nervous,” said Heap, who also received a pink slip. “I mean, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t.”

The Los Angeles Unified in February to issue 3,200 layoff notices, including 657 to central office staff and other centrally funded classified positions. The layoffs, expected to actually result in 650 lost jobs, are estimated to save the district about $250 million. The district is facing an $877 million deficit next school year and $443 million the following school year, according to board materials.

Oakland Unified could  of its central office staff along with counselors, case managers, attendance clerks, community school managers and other support staff to make up $21 million of an estimated $103 million deficit, according to media reports. The to issue a total of 421 preliminary layoff notices and reduce the hours of 144 employees, according to Oaklandside.

Nonteaching jobs often cut first

Classified staff are often targeted for layoffs for practical and political reasons, Flint said.

“They [districts] try to concentrate layoffs among classified staff and administrative personnel simply because teachers have the most direct impact on student experience and academic achievement, and because teachers — as the school employees who are most well known to parents and the community — generally are the most sympathetic profession in the education field,” Flint said.

The California School Employees Association, which represents about 240,000 of the state’s K-12 classified school support staff, reported that at least 2,700 pink slips had been issued to its members by the state’s March 15 deadline. An additional 519 members received notices that their hours would be reduced and another 254, with jobs funded by federal dollars, were given 60-day layoff notices, according to a union report issued on March 6. 

Districts should make sure they have cut every possible expense before they start removing staff from school campuses, said CSEA President Adam Weinberger, who works in the Perris Union High School District in Riverside County. 

“When classified employees are laid off, students lose more than services; they lose trusted adults in their lives — bus drivers, educators, custodians and office staff who build relationships with our students. And those connections are essential to a safe and supported learning environment,” Weinberger said.

California school boards also approved layoff notices for administrative staff and workers represented by other unions, including members of the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 50,000 classified school employees in California districts including Sacramento City Unified. SEIU officials could not be reached to provide information about the number of members who received layoff notices.

Teachers did not get off unscathed

Even with efforts to shield teachers from layoffs, more than 1,900 pink slips were sent to members of the California Teachers Association by March 13, according to the union. The union represents teachers, librarians, school healthcare workers and school counselors. Last year about  received notices.

The pink slips are being issued at the same time that many bargaining units of the CTA and other unions are negotiating with their school districts for new contracts, most asking for higher salaries and improved benefits.

San Diego Unified approved a contract with its teachers early this year that prohibits the district from laying off teachers or other certificated staff for the 2026-27 school year. Instead, the district sent layoff notices to 133 classified school support staff, according to the CSEA.

San Diego Unified board member Sabrina Bazzo said she is proud of the decision not to cut teachers, saying it’s not what is best for students.

There are still many districts laying off large numbers of teachers, as well as classified support staff.

According to the CSEA, Long Beach Unified officials planned to send pink slips to 515 teachers and other credentialed staff, 15 to managers and 54 to support staff. Santa Clara Unified planned to send pink slips to 113 credentialed staff and 49 to classified workers. Antioch Unified approved a resolution reducing its credentialed staff by 104 positions and its classified staff by at least 193 positions, according to a union report.

Pasadena Unified indicated it had also issued 161 pink slips to its credentialed employees and 240 to classified school support staff.

“The reductions are significant and affect every school and department in our district,” said Pasadena Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco in a statement. “We are living within our fiscal reality, as difficult as it is, to protect student learning, the district’s long-term ability to serve future generations, and local control.”

Annual ritual causes anxiety

Many have called the annual ritual disruptive to schools and demoralizing to the employees who receive them.

“Our members are working paycheck to paycheck, and they’re looking for stability,” Weinberger said. “I know we have many members that get one every year and, then they’re rescinded and that creates instability in their lives.”

Eventually, those employees begin to look for other, more stable, jobs to ensure they can provide for their families, he said.

EdSource reporter Mallika Seshadri contributed to this report.

In 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers set out a plan to create the largest universal preschool program in the country for 4-year-olds, through a massive ramp-up of an elementary grade known as transitional kindergarten, or TK.

At a , Newsom  “a commitment that all 4-year-olds will get high quality instructional education,” and said that the investment could close learning gaps. “People aren’t left behind, as often as they start behind,” he added.

The state set a deadline that every district offer transitional kindergarten to all eligible 4-year-olds by fall 2025, and in the intervening years, schools have enrolled more than 175,000 children in TK. They’ve also had  and  so that kids have enough space and quick access to .

LAist spoke to more than a half dozen early childhood researchers who say a key piece has been missing in the state’s implementation: California itself hasn’t evaluated the program as it’s expanded, nor does it have plans to going forward. This, despite studies showing how critical the early years are for a child’s learning, and research from another state’s public preschool program that found students tested lower on state assessments and had more behavioral problems compared to those who weren’t in that program..

“ It is a huge mistake to not evaluate the implementation of TK and whether or not the classrooms are providing developmentally appropriate practice,” said Jade Jenkins, associate professor of education at the University of California, Irvine.

The criticism comes as California has invested , and is paying about  to administer the new grade level.

“ We need to know whether this investment is actually lifting kids. We know it’s a huge economic windfall for parents, and that’s a great boost for families. But is it lifting kids without government research?” said Bruce Fuller, a professor emeritus of education and public policy at UC Berkeley.

A spokesperson for the California Department of Education said money for research has not been allocated in the state budget, and the department would “welcome a legislative appropriation” to “study the impacts of TK on students and families.”

“At this time, the Legislature and Governor have not appropriated funding for the CDE to conduct evaluations,” the agency said.

It’s not the first time the agency has brought up the need for a study — especially as the program was rolling out statewide. A state official told LAist in 2022 , but they opted not to suggest how it should be funded.

“You could launch a very high quality study at a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage of the total funding for that program, and that would help people figure out what we are actually offering our families and how to improve it — and that seems really important,” said Alix Gallagher,  director of  for the research organization Policy Analysis for California Education. “As a taxpayer, I don’t find it acceptable that billions of dollars are being spent with no attention to how our systems can learn to use that in ways that are most beneficial for kids.”

TK experiences can look different school to school

The state sets , which can have a max of 24 kids and need a 10:1 student to adult ratio. Teachers must be credentialed with early childhood educational experience or units. And while the state  should learn in TK, it has — meaning  to more academic.

Lyse Messmer, a parent of a TK child in northeast L.A., has seen even variation between two schools her son has attended in the same area. His first program relied more on screen time and worksheets; Messmer transferred him to another program with more outdoor play. And the teacher at the former school had not previously taught TK, she said, which made for a harder transition into school.

But she said the overall experience has been beneficial for her child, and a welcome financial relief. “I think the benefits of him getting used to a bigger classroom and like a bigger elementary school and navigating all that stuff for him has been really positive,” she said.

Adding a new grade is a massive endeavor for districts. As in Messmer’s case, it can be especially hard to find teachers with experience teaching kids this age, said Austin Land, a researcher at UC Berkeley’s Equity and Excellence in Early Childhood.

“ You can’t require that every kid that wants a TK spot gets a TK spot and then also require this workforce to exist that has all this preexisting training,” Land said.

Land, who has been studying TK before the expansion, said he would like to know basic characteristics of TK classrooms today.

“Do you have a sixth grade teacher that got reassigned leading your classroom or is it somebody who’s been working with little kids for a while?” Land said. “ Is the teacher having a one-on-one interaction with a child or a one-on-two interaction with some children? Or are they spending most of their time up at the front?”

Lack of data on quality

Without data, it’s hard to know what children are learning, said Allison Friedman-Krauss, an associate research professor at the  at Rutgers University.

“We want to make sure we’re investing in quality for kids. And one way to know that we’re doing it is to be able to monitor it… we want to make sure that the state can sort of have a pulse on what’s going on in the classroom,” she said.

The institute  across the country on a number of benchmarks of quality. According to the institute’s tracking, about two-thirds of public preschool programs in the country have a classroom observation system in place, she said. California’s TK program does not.

Researchers said it’s especially important to know what these youngest students are doing because early experiences can affect their learning later on.

“At the very least, we want to make sure it’s not doing harm,” Jenkins said.

Tennessee: A cautionary tale

Researchers point to  as an example of where good intentions were not enough to benefit kids. The state has similar standards to what California put in place: max class sizes, low ratios, specialized teachers.

Dale Farran, a professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University, found in her research that children who attended the pre-K program ended up faring worse academically and behaviorally than their peers who didn’t attend. Farran said standards don’t guarantee quality, much less equity between students from different social, economic and racial backgrounds.

“Those structural elements  are the easiest things for states to make rules about, but are they having the kind of interactions in the classrooms that will be positive for children? That’s much harder to put into place,” she said.

Farran has said that one possible reason for this was the overly academic nature of the program and structured settings: kids sitting at desks and listening to a teacher up front, when kids this age need to move around and play.

Katie Flynn, a mom of a TK student in Pasadena, said while she’s had an overall positive experience with her son in TK this year, it still feels more like elementary school than preschool.

At the beginning of the year, her son wouldn’t drink his water all day, or avoided going to the bathroom until he got home, because teachers didn’t remind or prompt him like they did in private preschool.

“ I know it’s also his responsibility, right? Like he needs to listen to his body. So it’s a mutual, collaborative enterprise, but it just shows how limited this age group is in ensuring that that happens,” she said.

What can the state do?

The California Department of Education said absent funding from the state Legislature for the department to evaluate the program, it convenes a regular group of early childhood researchers in the state to share their work into TK. But researchers LAist talked to from that group said that approach can only go so far.

Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, chair of the Assembly Education Committee, said he wasn’t familiar with the Tennessee study, but funding for evaluation is something he will look into.

“We definitely need to make sure that we’re again evaluating our most effective programs so that we can focus on best practices to continue to support those statewide,” he said.

When LAist asked how the state will assess the current program, Muratsuchi and a State Board of Education spokesperson pointed to one large-scale study of TK done by the , in 2017. (The governor’s office also directed LAist to the state board.)

That AIR study found that kids who went to TK when it first started in California had stronger literacy and math skills when entering kindergarten compared to similar-age peers who didn’t go to TK at the beginning of the year. (Those differences mostly faded by the end of the year).

Land, the UC Berkeley researcher, and Gallagher, of PACE, said the AIR study was done nearly a decade ago, and on a TK program that looks different from TK today.

That’s because when TK started in 2012, they said, it was intended for kids who were nearly 5 years old, but had just missed the cutoff for kindergarten. Today, kids as young as 3 are entering TK in California.

LAist also reached out to Karen Manship, principal researcher of the AIR study. She said they’re still investigating topics related to transitional kindergarten, “but we do not have any funding or current plans to evaluate the program overall now that it is fully rolled out.”

The state education board spokesperson also cited research by economist Rucker Johnson, who looked at TK between 2013 and 2019, which found low-income children had greater reading and math gains by third grade than students who did not attend TK.

“These points tell us that an early start has proven to be beneficial for California students,” said a spokesperson for the board, which sets state policy.

LAist reached out to Johnson, who said that while his study of TK in the early years is promising, it’s “not a sufficient condition.”

“For improvements to be sustained, meaning even if they were good in the past, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t continue to be monitoring the success as they’re expanded and expanded that scale to universal,” he said.

Kevin McCarty, Sacramento’s mayor and a former state assemblymember who championed the legislation to expand TK, told LAist funding is a challenge — given  — but that he welcomes evaluation.

“We want to make sure that it’s effective, that it works, and if there are any issues that we need to address and improve going forward,” he said. 

In the meantime, he said the program has given many parents a huge economic relief — and parents have a choice on whether to send their kids.

“This is free, this is — California paid for free universal pre-K,” he added, “which is a big deal because, we reminded people, paying for  than sending a kid to UCLA.”

This was originally published on .

The Los Angeles Unified School District is weighing layoffs that could reshape classrooms across the nation’s second-largest school district. 

The district’s board at next week’s meeting is expected to decide whether to cut jobs, as it faces a projected $191 million deficit in the 2027-28 school year if it keeps spending at its current pace. The deficits in LAUSD and other districts are driven largely by the loss of Covid relief funds, declining enrollment and rising costs.

Meanwhile, labor unions throughout the state are pushing many districts for pay raises and other changes, such as increased health care contributions in their next contracts.

“Where you need to cut then is the classroom,” he said. “Because you need fewer classrooms, you need fewer teachers, fewer aides, fewer of folks that are at the sites directly serving kids.”

Los Angeles Unified is not alone among California’s school districts facing financial pressures. The  must close a deficit or face state receivership.  plans to implement job cuts to address its budget shortfall. 

“Large and small districts, urban, suburban and rural alike, are experiencing similar constraints,” reads an open  from superintendents of eight California districts, demanding the state restructure the way it funds schools. “When nearly every school system in California is facing the same challenges, it is clear that the issue is not isolated decision-making, but the sustainability of the funding model itself.” 

The superintendents who sent the letter, including LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, cited ongoing challenges, such as enrollment declines.

LAUSD’s enrollment declined more than 3% to 389,000, down from roughly 402,500 between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years. That outpaced both the state and country, according to a at January’s Committee of the Whole meeting. 

About 90% of LAUSD’s budget is spent on personnel. Fine said that with so much of the money being spent on staffing, it would be nearly impossible to balance the budget on the remaining funds. 

“Our priority will be to protect students, protect programs, protect schools, and, to the extent possible, protect workforce,” Carvalho said at a Roundtable discussion with reporters in late January. “And within that priority, the protection of workforce begins with school sites. That is the balance that we want to establish, leading to the necessary fiscal solvency that we must continue to observe.” 

If LAUSD moves forward with job cuts, laid-off employees would be notified by March 15, per state law.

Weighing in the potential cuts, LAUSD is expecting a $191 million deficit for the 2027-28 academic year, though several factors are at play, including the final governor’s budget. The district also said it plans to move forward with roughly $150 million in reductions to its central office. 

The current fiscal challenges come after two years of diminishing reserves to help replenish a multi-billion-dollar deficit. While the district teacher’s union has pointed to $5 billion in reserves as of July, LAUSD is expecting to burn through it in three years. 

“The danger in just trimming 5% here, 10% there is it leaves you sometimes with incomplete programs,” Fine said. “It may leave you with the inability to actually turn things into practice.” 

The school board was originally expected to vote on the layoffs Tuesday, but postponed its regular meeting to Feb. 17 to allow for better preparation and engagement. The meeting’s comes after LAUSD unions issued a  asking that the vote be delayed and presented instead at a stand-alone meeting. 

Ongoing labor actions 

The discussion of layoffs comes as United Teachers Los Angeles, or UTLA, the union representing roughly 35,000 teachers,  a strike if a labor agreement isn’t reached. Meanwhile, SEIU Local 99, which represents roughly 30,000 workers, including special education assistants, cafeteria workers and custodians, is in the midst of a strike authorization vote. 

Before mediation began with UTLA in January, LAUSD said its bargaining proposals would cost $4 billion over a three-year contract, while SEIU Local 99’s would cost $3 billion through 2027-2028. 

LAUSD’s most recent  to SEIU Local 99 would increase wages by 13% over the next three years — starting with a 10% increase this year. Before mediation, the district offered UTLA a 4.5% raise and 1% bonus over two years. 

UTLA says that isn’t enough. With Los Angeles’ high cost of living, teachers are struggling financially, the union says. A showed that money is particularly important for Gen Z Black and Latino teachers in the district; a quarter of whom said they would leave their careers in education in search of a higher-paying job.

“I’m a third-year teacher. I have a master’s degree from UCLA, which is the premier education school in the country, and I’m still living paycheck to paycheck. And I’m still unable to even think about one day owning a home,” said Jon Paul Arciniega, a 29-year-old social studies teacher at Edward R. Roybal Learning Center in the Westlake area.  

“I still live at home,” Arciniega said. “And if I want to think about things like getting my own place, starting a family, buying a home, right now, all of that seems untenable.” 

Uncertainty ahead 

Sandy Meredith, a psychiatric social worker covering 42 district schools, said she hopes a strike won’t be necessary, both because of the financial strain it would place on colleagues like Arciniega and because schools play a critical role in students’ daily safety. 

But at the same time, she said they’re struggling to support students — 20% of whom require mental health services — without the district providing the support and wages they see as critical to their success. She expressed frustration with the size of the district’s reserves, particularly when teachers and staff like her pay out of pocket to provide basic resources, such as toilet paper, for students. 

“I feel like I’m on an airplane,” she said, “and I’ve been told ‘I’m sorry, but we can’t give you a mask to put on first. But go ahead and take care of the child.’ ” 

Strikes are nothing new in Los Angeles Unified. UTLA last went on strike in 2019, leading to a historic  with 6% pay raises, smaller class sizes and investments in community schools. Four years later, in 2023, SEIU Local 99 went on strike, which resulted in a 30% wage increase. 

But teachers and staff say this year comes with much higher stakes. 

Members of UTLA’s leadership say educators and school staff play a bigger role beyond the school walls.  

“We’re dealing with families’ anxieties. Are they not being able to come to school because of their housing insecurity? Is there trauma with this addition of the ICE raids? There’s concerns about safety,” said Margaret Wirth, a pupil services and attendance counselor who supports all of LAUSD’s Region South. “Is my child safe? For the child, is my parent safe? There’s a lot of different factors that make everything more heightened.”

Pupil service and attendance counselors like Wirth help reduce chronic absenteeism. She said layoffs will mean her caseloads will increase. 

But at the same time, Fine said if a district is going to move forward with layoffs, the earlier, the better.  

“The earlier you cut, the better off you are, and you’re also not dangling this black cloud over your staff and the community,” Fine said. “You get the discussion done, you forecast your gap right, and you make a decision on how to close that gap all at once, and everybody knows what the plan is.” 

This was originally published on .

LAUSD’s chief financial officer in an interview last week said declining enrollments and the end of pandemic relief funds have forced the district to take cost-cutting measures.  

Schools have already been notified of how much they will have to cut from their budgets. The cuts will go into effect starting in August. 

LAUSD officials in June had predicted a $1.6 billion deficit for the 2027-28 school year. But an updated version of the budget  last week eliminates the deficit by using reserve funds plus cost-cutting measures over the next two years. 

The planned cuts to school budgets will begin in the 2026-27 school year, with school consolidations and staffing reductions planned for the following school year, said LAUSD Chief Financial Officer Saman Bravo-Karimi. 

“We have fewer students each year, and in LAUSD that’s been the case for over two decades,” Bravo-Karimi said. “That has a profound impact on our funding levels. Also, we had the expiration of those one-time COVID relief funds that were very substantial.”  

The district recently contracted with the consulting firm Ernst and Young to create models for closing and consolidating schools. While school officials wouldn’t say which schools or how many would be closed, the district has clearly been shrinking. 

Enrollment last year fell to 408,083, from a peak of 746,831 in 2002. Nearly half of the district’s zoned elementary schools are half-full or less, and 56 have seen rosters fall by 70% or more. 

Bravo-Karimi said in the current school year the district will spend about $2 billion more than it took in from state, local and federal funding. The trend of overspending is expected to continue next year and the year after that, he said.

The district’s board in June approved a three-year budget plan that included a $18.8-billion budget for the current school year. The plan delayed layoffs until next year, and funded higher spending in part by reducing a fund for retirees’ health benefits. 

According to , the district will save:  

• $425 million by clawing back funds that went unused by schools each year 
• $300 million by reducing staffing and budgets at central offices 
• $299 million by cutting special funding for schools with high-needs students
• $120 million by cutting unfilled school staffing positions
• $30 million by consolidating schools  
• $16 million by cutting student transportation 

Bravo-Karimi said the district gets virtually all of its money through per-pupil funding from the state. Since enrollment in the district has fallen steadily for decades, and then sharply since the pandemic, funding is down significantly, he said.

Most zoned L.A. elementary schools are almost half empty, and many are operating at less than 25% capacity.��Thirty-four schools have fewer than 200 students enrolled; a dozen of those schools once had enrollment over 400.��    

The drops have prompted LAUSD leaders to talk about closing or combining schools, a controversial step that other big U.S. cities  or considering. 

Bravo-Karimi said the district would assess the needs of communities and the conditions at local schools before it makes any decisions about school closings or consolidations. 

“That process needs to play out before any decisions are made about potential consolidation of school facilities,” he said.

Bravo-Karimi said other factors, including ongoing negotiations with labor unions, and changes to state funding, will further impact the district’s budget in the coming months. 

Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab and Research Professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, said the cuts planned for LAUSD are “relatively mild” compared to overall size of the district’s budget and cuts being considered at other  and the rest of the country. 

“I don’t think the people in the schools are going to notice that there’s a shrinking of the central office or that they’re using reserves,” said Roza. “Unless you’re one of the people who loses their transportation or if you’re in one of the schools that gets closed.” 

But, Roza said, many of the cuts taken by LAUSD can only be made once, and the district still faces profound changes as enrollments continue to fall and downsizing becomes more and more necessary. 

“This really should be a signal to families,” said Roza of the planned cuts in the district’s latest budget. “After several years of really being flush with cash, this is not the financial position that LA Unified is going to be in moving forward.” 

LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz-Franklin, who represents LAUSD’s District Seven, which includes neighborhoods such as South L.A., Watts and San Pedro, said the district will work to shield kids from the impact of budget cuts. 

But, Ortiz-Franklin said, the district hired permanent staffers with one-time COVID funding, and now some of those staffers will have to be let go. 

Still, LA Unified has made strong gains since the pandemic, she said, and the district must work hard to preserve its upward trajectory despite financial headwinds.��

“We would love to share good news, especially this time of year,” said Ortiz-Franklin. “But the reality is, it is really tough.” 

School leaders across LAUSD received preliminary budgets for the next year over the last few weeks, said Ortiz-Franklin. Some schools in her district are facing cuts of up to 15%, forcing them to make tough decisions on which staffers to keep and who to let go. 

Several hundred additional layoffs will be announced in February, she said, when the district makes another assessment of staffing needs. 

“We don’t know the total number yet, and we don’t know which positions yet,” said Ortiz-Franklin.

When Congress takes up the fiscal year 2026 budget, leaders should maintain dedicated funding to support these vulnerable children.

Roughly in schools across the U.S. are homeless. These children currently have legal protections that remove barriers to enrollment and attendance. This has been the case since the signing of the federal McKinney-Vento Act by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1987. The law recognizes the challenges faced by children who lack a “fixed, stable, and adequate nighttime residence” and protects children’s right to enroll in and remain in school when their lack of stable housing might otherwise make this impossible. 

Along with legal protections, the law authorizes federal funding that helps schools identify and support children experiencing homelessness. These funds are used most frequently to provide transportation and school supplies to students and hire outreach staff who work with community agencies and train school personnel on how to connect children and families with needed services at their school and in the community. 

Since the enactment of the McKinney-Vento Act, a growing body of research has demonstrated why the protections are needed. shows children experiencing homelessness are more likely to be chronically absent from school and less likely to graduate high school, compared to the entire student body, as well as economically disadvantaged students. Teens experiencing homelessness also face significantly greater risks to their health and well-being, with a more than four times greater than their high school peers.  

While annual funding designated for helping schools serve students without stable housing makes up less than 1% of past years’ federal education budget at roughly $129 million annually, these funds have a substantial impact. In of American Rescue Plan funding targeted to improve identification and services for homeless students (ARP-HCY), school districts that received additional funding saw a 25% increase in the identification of students experiencing homelessness, as well as reduced rates of chronic absenteeism, improvements in reading, science and math, and increased graduation rates among homeless students. 

Additionally, in a of New York State schools that, school personnel reported that school districts that had previously had little awareness of the impact of homelessness on children in their schools were better able as a result of receiving dedicated funding. 

The president’s 2026 budget proposal will gut the McKinney-Vento Act and leave children who are homeless without the vital support of their schools. The proposal rolls 18 programs –- including McKinney-Vento funding for homeless students –- into a single flexible state block grant, and it cuts the collective funding for those programs .��

Proponents argue that the block grant approach does not eliminate funding for homeless students and simply provides states more flexibility in how they spend their education dollars. However, previous state block grants tell a different story. When funding for an established program is transferred to unrestricted block grants, grants often do not continue to be used for their original purpose. 

The best example of this is the replacement of federal cash assistance with the block grant for states known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Since the TANF block grant was put in place, the total amount of cash assistance provided to families in real value from 1993 to 2016. This decline did not coincide with a ; instead it was driven by fewer needy families receiving assistance. The most recent fiscal data available shows that as of FY 2023 nationally went to basic assistance, with some states . 

By cutting the overall budget for the 18 federal education programs covered in the proposed state block grant by 70%, states will be in a position of scarcity trying to cover program needs that cannot all be met. We saw this during the pandemic when only 18% of school homelessness liaisons said their districts spent federal coronavirus relief education funding on services for homeless students –- despite that being an allowable use of the funds. Without the backing of a federal requirement that homeless students be identified and served by schools and a corresponding budget allocation, funding for students who are homeless will be eaten away by other programs in many states, and legal protections will disappear.

There is still time to ensure that the final education budget does not strip away the educational rights of students experiencing homelessness. Congress should not include the McKinney-Vento program in any block grant, but rather keep it in its current form, as the budget proposal does for both Title I programs that serve students in high-poverty areas and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act programs. By preserving the McKinney-Vento program, we can ensure that being homeless as a child does not determine the course of that child’s education or future. 

The nation’s second-largest school district in June approved a $18.8 billion budget, avoiding layoffs by tapping into retirement money for teachers. School officials said it was necessary after the end of federal COVID relief money, and less state funding tied to falling enrollment. 

LAUSD’s school board passed the budget unanimously. But the influential union that represents 35,000 teachers and educators in LAUSD, , wasn’t happy. 

The union opposed the new financial plan because it doesn’t anticipate the UTLA is pushing.

“Stability means staffing that is experienced, familiar, and trusted,” said UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz at a board meeting in June. “We need a budget that raises salaries. We need to recruit and retain educators.”

UTLA has been fighting for increased salaries for years — and the union scored a , with a contract that raised teachers’ pay by 21% on average. However, that contract expires in 2025, setting up another round of tough negotiations. 

Carvalho said he sympathized with the teachers’ union, but LAUSD has never received the federal and state money it needs. “Those are the culprits,” Carvalho said. 

Carvalho said he would not allow any furloughs or layoffs this year. But he and the board will reconsider staffing cuts when they take up the budget again in December, he said. 

“No one is losing their job. But we do have a problem for FY27, and we will be revisiting this issue,” said Carvalho.

Meanwhile, Joseph Williams, Executive Director for the non-profit Students Deserve and a partner with the Police Free in LAUSD Coalition, said the groups opposed the district’s new budget because it contains funding for school police. 

“We are definitely of the opinion that absolutely no educational positions should be touched before every single police position is eliminated,” Williams said. 

Some demands from Williams’ groups and the teachers union were realized in the new budget.

For example, UTLA’s Myart-Cruz urged Carvalho to make funding cuts to district operations and off-campus consultants in order to preserve funding for teachers. 

Carvalho made moves to honor that wish, reducing central operations funding by $200 million. 

The district then redirected that money to projects supported by the union and community groups such as Williams’.

Myart-Cruz and others had asked the district to fund projects including the Black Student Achievement Plan, student centers, early education, LGBTQ+ support groups, and arts in schools. 

For over two hours, she fielded questions on a “skinny” 2026 budget that lacks details on how the administration would shrink $4 billion for K-12 programs into a $2 billion block grant for states. She drew sharp words from the ranking Democrat for canceling funding for school mental health professionals and grants to train teachers.

“By recklessly incapacitating the department you lead you are usurping Congress’s authority and infringing on Congress’s power of the purse,” said Connecticut Democrat Rosa DeLauro. The current budget, she said, “was passed in the House, was passed in the Senate — civics 101 — and the president signed it. It’s the law of the land.”

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At least one Republican also questioned McMahon about why the department is recommending a $1.6 billion cut to programs intended to help more poor and minority students get into college.

“It is one of the most effective programs in the federal government,” said Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, referring to TRIO, a package of eight programs that encourage connections between colleges and K-12 schools.

McMahon would also cut GEAR UP, a college readiness program that targets low-income students beginning in middle school. She cited an anecdotal report of TRIO funds covering the cost of a trip to Disney World.

“I’m not sure that all the expenses in TRIO should be there,” she said, but added that if colleges and universities aren’t reaching out to K-12 schools on their own, they should be.

‘Bare minimum’

While past secretaries have called for cuts in funding, none have presented a budget in the midst of such aggressive attempts to eliminate the department. The proposed cuts, she said, represent a desire to cut bureaucracy, end “federal overreach,” and give states and parents more control over education. Despite cutting over half the staff, she said employees who remain “haven’t missed a beat” in implementing the programs they’re charged with overseeing. She stressed that there are no plans to cut Title I grants to low-income schools or funding for students with disabilities.

“Democrats tried to tie proposed budget cuts to ending the department and, somehow, ending all public education,” said Neal McCluskey, director of the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom and a proponent of funding private school choice. “But the secretary handled that very well, making clear that the goal is to cut bureaucracy and federal controls in order to improve education and adhere to the Constitution.”

But others say the overhaul has created confusion and chaos. States and districts nationwide are still waiting on details of how much in Title I funds they can expect to receive this fall — a delay that complicates hiring and budgeting decisions.

“We have not received any guidance from our state department of education,” said Jeremy Vidito, chief financial officer for the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Regardless of any cuts at the federal level, his district has promised not to lay off staff. But a delay of six months or more,” he said, “would lead to cash flow issues that we would have to manage.”

Last week, Democrats in the House and Senate sent McMahon a letter, laying out the ways they believe her department is stumbling — from giving districts compressed timelines for grant applications to abruptly ending funding that schools depend on.

“We were told your department’s work would be efficient, particularly after the reduction in force,” they wrote. “But that does not appear to be the case here.”

The department has not responded to questions about when it will release the remainder of funds for the current federal fiscal year, which expires at the end of September. But McMahon repeatedly told the committee she would follow the law.

“That is the bare minimum of what the American people should expect from a federal agency tasked by Congress with serving our nation’s children,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, who sat just behind McMahon during the hearing.

What bothered Rodrigues most was McMahon’s admission that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency made the decision to cut roughly 1,300 staff members. She just carried it out after she was confirmed and said she has little knowledge about the backgrounds of the DOGE staff that Rodrigues said are “wielding extraordinary power within the agency,”

The department has since hired back 74 staff members who were fired, McMahon said.

Eric Duncan, director of P-12 policy at EdTrust, which advocates for programs that improve educational equity, noted that McMahon aims to cut programs that received support from both sides of the aisle.

“We were encouraged by the critical feedback on the department’s decision to cut school mental health grants,” he said. “Cutting these funds risks bipartisan priorities: improved mental health supports increase school safety and improve academic outcomes.”

In one tense exchange, Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, asked McMahon if she’s ever met with students who survived school shootings, like in Uvalde, Texas, or Parkland, Florida.. The secretary said she had only met with parents from Sandy Hook because she’s from Connecticut.

“Do you plan to do that?” Dean asked about meeting with students. “How soon can you do that?

“I’ve got a lot of responsibilities,” McMahon said.

‘Lost the fundamental basics’

Aside from Simpson’s concern about college readiness programs, most GOP members of the committee commended McMahon for her efforts to downsize the agency and elevate school choice.

“Thankfully some states have pursued choice options for students whose traditional public schools have not served them well,” said Republican Robert Aderholt of Alabama, who chairs the subcommittee on education.

Prioritizing choice and giving states more control are two of the three goals for any future grant programs she laid out in a Federal Register posting Tuesday. The third is improving literacy.

“We have seen such decreases or failing in our schools because we are not teaching our children to read,” she said. “We’ve lost the fundamental basics, and I want to see our schools return to the science of reading.”

DeLauro, however, listed a federal literacy grant program, which provides up to $14 million to states to improve reading skills, especially among low-income students and English learners, as one of the 18 “unspecified programs” potentially on the chopping block.

“A block grant is a cut. All of my colleagues here know that,” she said. “The states cannot afford to pick up the slack.”

Every school in Kentucky’s LaRue County provides free breakfast and lunch to any student who wants it.

It’s been that way for a decade, ever since the federal government launched a program allowing LaRue County Schools, and thousands of other districts nationwide, to skip the paperwork asking how much families earn.

In these communities, lots of kids already receive other kinds of assistance for low-income families. Federal officials saw a way to make the subsidized meals program more efficient: Cover meal costs based on how many children are in similar assistance programs, rather than verify every family’s income.

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But LaRue County Schools won’t be able to do that anymore if sweeping changes to social programs proposed by congressional Republicans become law. GOP lawmakers say they want to ensure only eligible families get help and that taxpayer dollars are reserved for the neediest students, so that federal subsidies for school meals remain sustainable. But by one estimate, the Republicans’ plan would affect nearly a quarter of the students in the nation’s public schools.

, increase test scores, and decrease suspensions, likely because it eliminates the stigma students often associate with the free meals. Taking them away from students on a large scale could also have downstream effects on everything from families’ household budgets to local unemployment.

Stephanie Utley, the LaRue County district’s director of child nutrition, said that inevitably, fewer kids would eat school meals, either because their families no longer qualify for free breakfast and lunch or because they cannot produce documents to verify their income.

When fewer kids eat school meals, it’s harder for districts to cover their costs. To save money, Utley would likely swap higher-quality foods for cheaper ones, she said.

Apples and beef from local farms would go. The high school would serve fewer salads — they’d be too labor-intensive to prep. And a popular chicken breast sandwich would become a ground chicken patty.

Utley may have to lay off staff, too, she said, which would hurt the rural community’s economy.

“We’re the biggest restaurant in town,” she said. “It would be a nightmare.”

GOP school meals proposals would impact states

Republican lawmakers are considering a trio of proposals to help offset tax cuts sought by President Donald Trump that would be “devastating” to children and schools, said Erin Hysom, the senior child nutrition policy analyst for the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center.

One proposal would dramatically increase the share of students who need to be enrolled in aid programs — such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families — for schools to be eligible to serve free meals to all kids through the .

Right now, schools need to show 25% of students are enrolled in those kinds of assistance programs to participate in community eligibility. The House Republican proposal would raise the share to 60% — higher than the threshold has ever been. That would kick more than 24,000 schools off of community eligibility, and some 12 million students would no longer automatically qualify for free meals, .

Essentially, only communities where nearly every child qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch could serve free meals to all kids.

“They’ve really moved the needle to the upper echelon of poverty,” Hysom said. “You couldn’t get any higher than that.”

Another proposal would require all families who don’t automatically qualify for free school meals through programs like SNAP to submit documents to verify their income with their application. That would burden families and schools with time-consuming added paperwork. Schools could end up cutting staff who serve food and work on school menus to hire more people to process applications.

Together, those changes would save $12 billion over 10 years, according to , the Republican chair of the House budget committee.

A third proposal would change how families qualify for SNAP and likely for free school meals. That would increase the paperwork burden even more.

All of that would make it more costly for to run their programs, because they rely heavily on federal reimbursement. whether they .

These three proposals are part of a process known as budget reconciliation that GOP lawmakers are using . As of Wednesday, that would keep funding essentially flat for the Agriculture Department, which pays for the school meal program, through the end of September.

School staff and child nutrition advocates are taking the House’s budget reconciliation proposals seriously. The Trump administration has already .

Free school meal cutbacks would have ripple effects

If fewer kids have access to free meals at school, more families would likely struggle to afford groceries at home. Many families who don’t qualify for free meals struggle to pay for food. This school year, a family of four qualified for free school meals if they made under $40,560 a year.

When schools eliminated free school meals for all following the pandemic, there was a , an issue school staff say will only intensify if these proposals go through.

Right now, schools typically have to verify the family’s income for 3% of their applications. If schools had to check income for every application, the burden would be enormous, school staff and child nutrition advocates said.

Many families who eke out a living working multiple jobs would have a hard time gathering up all the required documents to show how much they earn. Though children can participate in the school meals program regardless of their immigration status, undocumented parents may be afraid to hand over personal documents when Trump is threatening mass deportations.

“Eligible children are going to fall through the cracks,” Hysom said.

Many schools are already facing financial pressures from higher-than-usual food and labor costs, a . On top of that, schools are navigating new and stricter requirements for how much salt and sugar can be in food served by schools.

Schools have to buy most of their food from American sources, but if Trump puts certain tariffs in place for the long term, that could create new financial constraints.

“Cost is absolutely a concern,” said Diane Pratt-Heavner, a spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association, which represents school nutrition directors and conducted the survey. “When avocados or tomatoes from Mexico become much more expensive, that will cause an increase in demand for domestic produce, and an increase in price, as well.”

Shannon Gleave, the president of the School Nutrition Association, understands the need to make sure the school meal program runs as it should.

In Arizona’s Glendale Elementary School District, where Gleave is the director of food and nutrition, kids can speed through the lunch line because everyone qualifies for free meals. But staff scan student ID badges to make sure each kid only takes one meal, and that children with dietary restrictions get the right food.

Upping the verification requirements a little could work, she said. But verifying 100% of applications “is not an efficient use of time.”

“There is no way my existing staff could do that now,” she said. “You have to figure out a way to be good stewards of resources, but also look at the amount of administrative burden that it’s going to entail.”

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

OKLAHOMA CITY — As state officials in the next fiscal year, lawmakers on Tuesday appeared doubtful of requests to spend millions on Bibles for public schools and salary increases at the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

The agency’s leader, state Superintendent Ryan Walters, again asked for $3 million to purchase copies of the Bible, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution to place in every public school classroom. He also requested $2.3 million for a 6% cost-of-living salary bump for Education Department employees, who last saw a pay raise in 2019.

Although his total budget request would increase the agency’s funding by $113 million, Walters hinted at “potential staff cuts” to limit the Education Department’s operational expenses during a meeting Tuesday with the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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“I​​ do believe we can save $1.3 million in some of the costs that we’ve been able to absorb through rolling positions together, cutting positions that are duplicated in their services,” Walters said during the meeting.

Members of the influential appropriations committee heard Walters’ budget requests for the 2026 fiscal year. The state is required to pay some of the projected expenses, such as an extra $88.6 million for the rising cost of health insurance for public school employees.

Another $4 million would increase the teacher maternity leave fund, which Walters said is growing in popularity. He also asked for $500,000 to offer firearms training to teachers.

Senators of both parties questioned Walters’ request for $3 million to buy 55,000 copies of the King James Version Bible, which they suggested could be donated to schools or found for free online.

House lawmakers last week.

The state superintendent has advocated for more instruction on the Bible to help contextualize American history and the beliefs of the country’s founding fathers. He said he doesn’t intend for schools to preach Christianity to students.

Last year, he to incorporate the Bible into their lesson plans and that would mandate instruction on biblical stories. His agency already spent under $25,000 on 532 copies of Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA Bible, which is informally known as the Trump Bible because it has the president’s endorsement.

Walters’ Bible instruction mandate already on church-state separation grounds.

Sen. Brenda Stanley, R-Midwest City, said she never encountered a classroom that didn’t have a Bible available to students during her 43-year career in education.

Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa, encouraged Walters to exhaust all resources for Bible donations before having the Legislature consider spending $3 million.

“We could take the $3 million elsewhere, if somebody is willing to make those available to us at no cost,” Rader said during the hearing.

The Senate committee also appeared dubious of funding a COLA increase for over the past two years. Walters told the committee the Education Department employed 520 people when he took office in January 2023 and that it now counts 460 employees.

“If you have decreased your (full-time employees), it would appear to me that there are already dollars inside your operating budget to offer salary increases,” Sen. Kristen Thompson, R-Edmond, told Walters during the hearing.

Walters disagreed that staff departures would be enough to fund the increase. A complicating factor is the large number of federally funded salaries at the agency, he said.

The department has considered reducing its staff even further after the state Board of Equalization in the 2026 fiscal year, Walters said.

The projection is preliminary, and the Board of Equalization will meet again this month for updated numbers.

“After the last Board of Equalization meeting, we really went in and tried to do a deep dive into can we continue to see cuts, and we believe that we do need to be able to do that,” Walters said.

Legislative leaders are preparing to limit expenses in light of the budget projections, especially as Gov. Kevin Stitt , flat agency budgets and “eliminating wasteful government spending.”

The governor suggested no funding increases to public schools nor to the state Education Department in .

House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, said Monday that he shares many of the governor’s priorities “as we seek to tighten our belt fiscally this year.” Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, echoed Stitt’s tax-cut message when he endorsed “improving the lives of Oklahomans by allowing them to keep more of their hard-earned money.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper presented on Wednesday, calling for approximately an additional $1 billion to go toward public education — including an average 8.5% raise for teachers, a $1,500 retention bonus, and reinstatement of master’s pay.

His proposal includes a 5% raise for most state employees, which includes non-certified school employees, and most community college employees.

Cooper said his proposal presents lawmakers with a choice to invest in North Carolina’s public schools, instead of prioritizing further tax breaks and the expansion of private school vouchers.

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“That’s the billion dollar choice,” Cooper said during a press conference in Raleigh. “…We have the revenue to do this — it is about priorities.”

The governor’s proposal follows his declaration of  and proclamation of 2024 as

Cooper presented his budget proposal on during which lawmakers can adjust the . Most sessions, the governor’s proposal is released first, followed by the House and Senate. At that point, the two chambers work together to pass an updated compromise budget.

There is a Republican supermajority this session, meaning Republicans will drive fiscal and policy decisions.

This year, North Carolina has a projected one-time  through FY 2025, according to the . This essentially means there is $1.4 billion extra state dollars that lawmakers can choose to invest during the short session.

House Speaker Tim Moore, , has already  that he would like to put $300 million more toward . The program, which funds private school vouchers at eligible schools, was expanded during the long session to all families regardless of income.

Moore also said he would like to see funding for child care subsidies, additional raises to school and state employees, and an additional $400 million toward Medicaid.

On Wednesday, Cooper said his proposal includes “a moratorium” on further expansion of public school vouchers. His proposal freezes the investment in the Opportunity Scholarship program at 2023-24 levels — adding about $174 million toward his investments in public school pay raises.

“We are at a crossroads,” he said. “One path prioritizes giveaways to the wealthy over the well-being of our state. The other secures a future of success for everyone — let’s hope we make the right choice.”

Below, you can find an overview of the education investments included in Cooper’s proposal.

Educator pay, bonuses

Cooper’s proposal includes $322.7 million to raise salaries for educators by 8.5% on average. This includes the average 3% raise most educators are slotted to receive in FY 2024-25 under

Under the proposal, a $1,000 bonus would go to all state employees. An additional $500 bonus would go to employees making less than $75,000 per year. One half of the bonus would be paid in Oct. 2024; the second half in April 2025.

The budget “lifts starting teacher salaries to more than $47,500 — the highest in the Southeast,” the proposal packet says. This number seems to include the $1,500 retention bonus the governor is proposing for most teachers.

Take a look at Cooper’s proposed teacher salary schedule for FY 2024-25, in the rightmost column.

The proposal also includes $10 million to “restore 10% master’s pay supplements for over 1,000 teachers whose advanced degrees are in the subjects they teach.”

As mentioned above, the proposal includes a raise of at least 5% for all state employees, which includes non-certified school employees.

Most state employees would receive an additional 2% raise in FY 2024-25, on top of the raise approved in the 2023 budget. Employees paid on an experience-based salary schedule would receive an extra 3%.

Finally, the governor’s budget proposal includes a one-time 3% retiree supplement in FY 2024-25. The 2023 budget included a one-time 4% supplement.

Cooper’s proposal also includes:

• $25.4 million to improve recruitment and retention for school-based administrators through salary increases. The budget includes a 6% total increase for existing principals.
• $8.2 million to expand the North Carolina Principal Fellows Program “to prepare up to 300 new principals annually.”
• $1.8 million to expand the Advanced Teaching Roles program.
• $1.7 million to increase funding for district-level recruitment bonuses in small and low-wealth counties. With the allocation included in the 2023 budget, the net allocation for this item would be $6 million.
• $1.6 million in recurring funds to expand supports for pre-service and beginning teachers in becoming fully licensed.
• The proposal also increases supplemental funding for the state’s 69 eligible low-wealth counties by 13%, or $40 million.
• $900,000 to cover the cost of National Board certification fees for 470 teachers each year, with priority to educators in high-need and low-performing schools. Board certified teachers earn a 12% supplement to their annual salary.

The proposal would also invest in many initiatives to strengthen the state’s teacher pipeline. During the 2022-23 school year, — up from 7.8% of teachers who left teaching the year before.

There is $4.7 million to expand to up to 490 new candidates in FY 2024-25. The budget would extend eligibility for the program to all institutions with approved educator preparation programs (EPPs) and to students in any licensure area.

The proposal includes an additional $4 million to expand , which focuses on supports for beginning teachers at low-performing, high-poverty schools.

Another $5 million would establish a matching grant program for “high-quality teacher preparation residency programs in high-need rural and urban districts,” to be distributed by the State Board of Education.

There is $500,000 for statewide professional development from the N.C. Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT). Another $300,000 would expand “teacher candidate recruitment programs and fund a study to improve recruitment strategies” to reduce teacher vacancy rates. That study will “include research and recommendations for a statewide system or entity to coordinate teacher recruitment and support.”

Other funds for public schools, students

The governor’s proposal includes funding to hire 700 additional K-3 teacher assistants (TAs) — an increase of 11% from the current budget. The increase is funded by Education Lottery receipts.

Additionally, the proposal would fund about 575 new school health personnel, which includes school counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists.

The budget also proposes a $2.5 billion school construction bond, which would be voted on in November 2024. That bond could fund approximately 90 new elementary and middle schools, Cooper said during the press conference.

“Over the next five years almost 1,600 schools report needing renovation and 131 new schools need to be built,” the proposal says.

The proposal also addresses several of the

First, there is $35 million to expand Read to Achieve literacy programs to middle grade students.

There is also $19 million toward DPI’s . DPI asked the General Assembly for $4.5 million to continue that work after federal Covid relief dollars run out in September.

State Superintendent Catherine Truitt also advocated last long session for universal school meals for students.

Cooper’s proposal does not include funding for universal school meals, but does include an additional $900,000 to “offset the co-pays for students eligible for reduced-price lunches in schools participating in the National School Lunch Program.”

“Research shows that receiving free lunch improves school attendances and decreases food insecurity and suspensions,” the proposal says.

The 2023 budget included $3 million to permanently eliminate the reduced-price lunch copay for North Carolina students and eliminate penalties for unpaid student meal debt. The governor’s proposal makes that $3.9 million for FY 2024-25.

The proposal also includes required state matching funds for the federal Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer Program for Children (Summer EBT). The program, also known as , “will provide grocery-buying benefits to qualifying families to prevent child hunger during the summer months when school is out for children who rely on school meals for daily nutrition.” SUN Bucks will launch this summer.

Additionally, the proposal includes:

• $10 million to hire a Career and Postsecondary Planning Director at DPI and increase the number of school-based coordinators in sixth-12th grade.
• The elimination of the 13% funding cap for Exceptional Children (EC) students to “provide additional teachers and instructional support, instructional supplies and materials, and staff development.” The 2023 budget instructed DPI to to remove that cap and instead fund children “on the basis of the reported cost of services provided.”
• The proposal also removes the 10.6% funding gap for students with Limited English proficiency. Under the proposal, schools for whom English learners make up more than 10.6% of their ADM would receive additional funds for “classroom teachers, textbooks, staff development, and other supports needed to help these students thrive.”
• $70 million combined in the At-Risk and Disadvantaged Student Supplemental funds to “fund teachers and instructional support positions, provide intensive in-school and after school remediation, and provide professional development for teachers serving disadvantaged students.”
• $6 million to create a pilot program to give funds to high-poverty schools “that adopt a Community Schools or other evidence-based model to address out of school barriers to learning.”
• $12.8 million to the Uniform Education Reporting System (UERS) to increase statewide student reporting capacity. There is also nearly $5 million to support various cybersecurity initiatives across the state’s public schools.

The proposal also includes $400,000 to establish an equity office at DPI “to direct the recruitment and retention of a diverse educator workforce that is representative of the state’s student population.”

This comes after the UNC Board of Governor’s Committee on University Governance recently .

There is also $453,000 to fund positions to support DPI’s central financial infrastructure. Recent financial challenges and budget shortfalls among North Carolina school districts of chief financial officers and sound financial systems.

Early child care

Federal funds stabilizing child care run out at the end of June. In response, child care advocates  for a one-time $300 million allocation to avoid closures and price increases for parents.

Advocates  for the same amount last year .

The governor’s proposal includes $200 million for stabilization grants.

“Access to affordable child care for parents, businesses, and educators is one of the most immediate threats to sustaining our momentum,” the proposal’s introduction says. “Nearly one-third of North Carolina child care centers are at risk of closure and only 26% of parents can afford child care costs.”

There is also $129 million for child care subsidies to increase reimbursement rates for providers in rural and low-wealth communities, which the proposal says will “secure child care for approximately 50,000 children per year by creating a statewide rate floor starting in July 2024.”

“These funds will allow about 3,500 child care sites in over 75% of NC counties to see an increase in their subsidy rate,” the proposal says.

The proposal also includes $197 million to expand access to NC Pre-K, the state’s preschool program for eligible 4-year-olds. The program currently reaches about half of eligible 4-year-olds, or 30,000 children.

There is also $24 million to provide “wrap-around summer care and learning programs for students once they complete NC Pre-K and before they enter kindergarten.”

As EdNC has previously reported, child care teachers make some of the

The governor’s proposal would create a grant program to help child care teachers afford care for their own children. The $25 million program would provide “free or reduced cost care for the children of roughly 2,200 child care providers,” the proposal says.

There is also $26 million to provide educational attainment-based salary supplements, through expansion of the .

The budget also adds a fourth region to the . That model splits the cost of child care between participating businesses, eligible employees, and the state government.

The governor’s proposal also includes:

• $50 million toward start-up and capital grants for NC Pre-K and child care centers. There is also $10 million to expand Smart Start, which serves young children and families across the state.
• $24 million to create a pilot program “to incentivize the business community to contribute to employee dependent care flexible spending accounts.”
• $1.2 million to implement recruitment strategies and professional development for child care teachers.
• The provision of a refundable child and dependent care tax credit.

Finally, the budget allocates $100,000 to the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) to “evaluate the effectiveness of the Child Care Grant Program, which was appropriated $1.2 million in recurring funds” in the 2023 budget.

The program, which has been in place since 1993, provides grants to community college students to use for child care while they are in school. The program needs more funding and wider eligibility, local administrators of the grants

“The evaluation will assess the program’s effectiveness and propose adjustments that would support more North Carolina parents seeking community college education,” the governor’s proposal says.

Community colleges

During the press conference, Cooper said his proposal includes “significant funding for community colleges.”

There is about $28.5 million to give 5% across-the-board raises to most state-funded community college employees in FY 2024-25. Another $28.5 million goes toward the Enhanced Labor Market Adjustment Reserve, to give the system “flexibility to address specific challenges for hard-to-retain and fill roles.”

State-funded community college employees would receive the same retention bonus as state employees and educators, up to $1,500. Community college retirees would also receive the same one-time 3% supplement.

On top of the retention bonus, Cooper’s proposal includes $3.1 million to give “a 10% per course bonus for full-time and adjunct instructors who teach courses inside correctional facilities.”

“Community colleges play a key role in education for incarcerated individuals. Obtaining an associate’s degree significantly reduces recidivism rates,” the proposal says. “Currently, over 75 community college courses are offered in prisons across the state.”

This year, the NCCCS’ primary legislative request is funding for Propel NC, . The request includes a nearly $100 million price tag for FY 2024-25.

Propel NC would shift the current full-time equivalent (FTE) funding tiers to “workforce sectors,” with courses ranked and valued by statewide salary job demand data. The NCCCS says this will move the system toward a labor-market driven model of community college programs. The anticipated cost of this component of the model is approximately $68.6 million, .

The governor’s budget includes $34.3 million to implement Propel NC.

“This new funding model will help streamline degree attainment and prepare a well-trained workforce to meet the demands of the State’s growing economy,” the proposal says.

Propel NC also includes a request of $6 million to increase the enrollment increase reserve across the system. Per the system’s proposal, those nonrecurring funds would go toward a fixed per-FTE amount for any colleges that go over the enrollment threshold set by their FTE for the fiscal year.

Cooper’s proposal allocates $3 million to establish that reserve.

The governor’s proposal did not including funding for the last component of Propel NC with a price tag — $24.4 million to increase the base allocation for colleges.

The proposal did include a $25 million enrollment growth adjustment for FY 2024-25, “based on the increase in community college enrollment. Community college enrollment increased by 4.6%, or 10,435 full-time equivalent students.”

The governor’s proposal also includes a number of investments in the workforce, funding many projects through the NCCCS.

The budget proposal includes $40 million to complete construction of Central Carolina Community College’s Moore Center, which “will be used as a shared training center by Advance NC to train staff for new and expanding employers in the electric vehicle manufacturing supply chain, semiconductors, and life sciences.”

There is $4 million for the NCCCS to create a competitive grant fund for community colleges with electric vehicle workforce programs.

Finally, there is also $133,000 for ApprenticeshipNC to establish a “whole system model” of apprenticeships with the DPI and the Department of Commerce.

“We recognize (community colleges) as a core anchor to economic improvement,” Cooper said.

The budget also includes $3.25 million in nonrecurring funds to establish a rural youth apprenticeship program across five regions, to be distributed by the Department of Commerce. After two years, the funding of successful programs will depend on local funding sources.

The proposal packet says the program is modeled on “the successful Surry-Yadkin Works model developed by Surry and Yadkin counties.” That model created in 2021 to connect high school students in Surry and Yadkin counties with internship and pre-apprenticeship opportunities in local high-demand fields.

You can read the governor’s full proposal .

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

N.C. community college leaders have long called for an update to the state funding formula for community colleges, which was created in 2010 and last updated in 2013.

In August, the N.C. Community College System (NCCCS) officially started work to develop a modernized funding model ahead of the legislative short session with the goal of creating a more flexible, workforce-friendly system. On Nov. 16, the State Board of Community Colleges heard an update on that work from NCCCS Chief Financial Officer Dr. Phillip Price, President Dr. Dale McInnis, and President Dr. Rusty Hunt.

McInnis, who is part of a 16-person work group for the project with Price and Hunt, said the team will bring a more detailed plan to the Board in January after the N.C. Association of Community College Presidents votes on it in December. The full Board is set to vote on the modernization plan in February.

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“I couldn’t be more proud of where we’ve arrived at this point in time. I think this is a game changer for our system,” NCCCS President Dr. Jeff Cox said. “It answers the call that I think we’re hearing from our legislature and our governor about the community colleges’ critical role in meeting the workforce needs of the future of our state. …It aligns our system in a way we’ve just never been before.”

The vast majority of funding for the state’s 58 community colleges comes from state appropriations, with allocated each year of this biennium.

The system’s current funding model allocates resources to the colleges in proportion to the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) students they enroll in each of their programs.

The majority of state funding falls into the instructional category and is distributed using a formula based on FTE student enrollment. One FTE is equivalent to 512 hours of instruction. Colleges are funded in arrears, meaning they receive funding based on the higher of the current year’s FTE or .

Certain courses receive more state funds than others based on a .

The work group is proposing to change the current FTE tiers to “workforce sectors” to move toward a labor-market driven model of community college programs. Under this model, all curriculum and continuing education (CE) courses would reside in the same workforce sector. A nursing curriculum and nursing CE course would be funded the same way, for example.

The sectors largely focus on health care, technology, and trades. Courses not on this list would be held harmless, the work group said, and retain their same value, just not labeled as tiers. There would be another catch-all sector for transfer and general education courses.

In addition to instructional funding based on FTE, colleges receive a base allocation for institutional and academic support, which includes additional funding for multi-campus centers. They also receive a small amount of performance-based funding.

The NCCCS modernization plan also includes three other focus areas beyond the proposed workforce sectors, listed below.

• Institutional and academic support base funding. “The base model has good bones,” Hunt said, “but it did need some modernizing.” This base funding largely goes toward salaries and benefits but can also be used toward other instructional costs. The NCCCS would like to see the base amount for “other costs,” which was set decades ago, increased to account for inflation.
• Enrollment increase reserve. The current enrollment growth reserve was implemented in 2010 in response to the large number of students enrolling in community colleges after the Great Recession. The system wants to request non-recurring funds for a fixed per-FTE amount for any colleges that go over the enrollment threshold set by their FTE for the fiscal year. The system would then like to build replenishment of the fund into the recurring enrollment growth fund in the state budget.
• Excess tuition retention. Excess tuition receipts currently fund the enrollment increase reserve. The NCCCS work group would like to change that, allowing excess tuition receipts to return to the college which generated them but only on years when the system as a whole generates excess receipts.

“One of the great things about our system is our open door. We’re registering students up until the day classes start across the system in every college,” McInnis said. “One of the challenges with that is our enrollment can fluctuate, and it’s usually directly proportionate to changes in the labor market and the economy. …What we’re looking for is an alternative to deal with the next wave of surges in enrollment.”

The group considered including headcount data in the funding model, instead of FTE, to account for an increase of part-time students but decided college data did not support the change.

The NCCCS work group also discussed ways to incentivize partnerships and improve the multi-campus model, McInnis said, but those factors are not yet ready for implementation.

You can read more about the current funding model for community colleges

Implementation of budget, accreditation changes

Last month, the State Board items in the new state budget for community colleges.

At that meeting, the Board approved an initial budget allocation package that contained the 4% salary increase in 2023-24 and other employee benefit increases, funds for enrollment growth, and additional funds for basic skills and child care grants. In a separate item, the Board also approved allocations for up to $14.2 million to complete the rural broadband project.

On Nov. 17, the Board approved allocations for several additional budget items for 2023-24, listed below.

• $1.5 million allocation to support the Finish Line Grants program. Through this program, eligible students can receive up to $1,000 per semester for an unanticipated financial hardship. To be eligible, students must be in good academic standing as defined by the college and have completed at least 25% of their degree or credential program.
• $31.7 million in each year of the biennium for faculty recruitment and retention, which is limited to faculty “with a majority teaching load in Tier IA or IB courses.” You can view the allocations
• More than $7 million each year of the biennium to fund a nursing faculty salary adjustment. Starting pay for nursing faculty will be increased by 10%, and other nursing faculty may receive salary increases up to 15%.
• An initial allocation of $5.3 million to community colleges for the High-Cost Workforce Start-Up Fund Program to support the start-up of Tier 1A and Tier 1B health care workforce programs offered at N.C. community colleges. You can read the allocations for 11 new programs of the agenda.
• $200 million in State Capital Improvement Infrastructure Funds (SCIF) over the biennium. These funds will go to nearly two-thirds of the state’s community colleges, which marks an unprecedented number of individual allocations to community colleges. You can view the allocation list on . You can also view highlights from those allocations on community college items in the budget.

NCCCS Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Brian Merritt also gave the Board a brief update on accreditation provisions in a .

Those provisions require colleges and universities to change accreditors every accreditation cycle, which lasts 10 years. The new law does not allocate any funding toward the process, which Merritt said will involve a lot of expenses and time for colleges.

“This is going to be a big lift for our institutions, especially our rural institutions,” he said. “There is a lot of anxiety across our system about this.”

The state’s 58 colleges are at different stages in their accreditation cycles, Cox said. The law does allow colleges to stay with their current accreditor for consecutive cycles if they are “not granted candidacy status” from another accreditor three years before the current accreditation expires.

There are for higher education listed in the law.

The NCCCS is working to provide guidance to the colleges, Cox and Merritt said, and is working with the UNC System to provide aligned guidance. Then, the system will meet with the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to receive their guidance, as the DOE must approve any change in accreditors before a college can start that cycle.

EdNC will provide a more in-depth update on these accreditation changes and their impact soon.

Data on student supports

The Board received several annual reports on important initiatives to support students and programs.

First, the Board discussed the Year 2 report of the RISE Up Training and Credentialing Program. That program was funded and mandated by the General Assembly in 2021 and directs the NCCCS to collaborate with the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association (NCRMA) and Retail Consumer Alliance Foundation (RCA) to teach foundational skills to students attending Cooperative Innovative High Schools (CIHS).

Students who complete the mostly online program will earn industry credentials in the following areas: retail industry fundamentals, customer service/sales, inventory management/profitability, supply chain warehouse/inventory, and logistics.

Since February 2022, Lenoir Community College has served as the lead college for the program.

In June 2022, the NCRMA requested a technical budget correction which expanded the program to any student enrolled in a N.C. community college. The new state budget expands access further to any student who meets eligibility.

As of August 2023, 279 credentials were allocated across four courses.

“Program access is expected to expand which will allow additional credentials to be earned,” the report says.

You can read the RISE report starting of the meeting agenda.

The Board also discussed the Year 2 legislative report on the High-Cost Workforce Start-Up Fund Program. In 2021, the General Assembly allocated $5.2 million “to assist N.C. community colleges in starting new programs in high-demand career fields that require significant start-up funds,” the report says. The new budget also allocated funding to the project.

Per the report, 46 colleges submitted applications for the funds, and 14 successfully received the money. A final report on how the grant money was spent is due to the system office by July 16, 2024.

Most of the funding (65%) was used to purchase program equipment, the report says. You can view the other budget categories below.

Finally, the Board discussed the summary of the 2022-23 N.C. Child Care Grant Program for community college students.

Since 1993, the state has allocated money to the community college system to help students afford child care.

During the 2022-23 fiscal year, colleges self-reported $2.5 million in N.C. Child Care Grant aid to students. Per the report, this represents an increase of $641,640 from the nearly $1.9 million disbursed during the previous year.

The new budget also provides $1.2 million in annual recurring funding for the program.

Even more is needed to make a dent in the student need, community college leaders along with wider eligibility for students. A lack of affordable child care can also make it difficult for students to successfully spend the money, sometimes leaving colleges with unexpended grants.

In the 2022-23 fiscal year, the grant assisted 744 students, according to the report, an increase of 68 students from the year before.

However, colleges reported inability to serve 631 students who applied for the grant. Colleges attributed the inability to serve more students due to students not meeting the eligibility/enrollment requirements for the grant or running out of grant funds for the year.

You can view that report of the agenda packet.

New Davidson-Davie President and Board members

• The Board approved the final candidate for the president at on Nov.17, and the college soon after announced Jenny Varner as its new president. Varner has been serving as acting president since , who served as president since 2019, died from esophageal cancer in July.
• The system is looking for four other community college presidents at Alamance Community College, Martin Community College, McDowell Technical Community College, and Wilkes Community College. The personnel committee is set to meet again ahead of next month’s full Board meeting to discuss those searches.
• Three new Board members, appointed by lawmakers , were sworn in on Nov. 17. Those new members include Paula Benson, director of advocacy group Wilson Forward; Raleigh developer John Kane; and business leader Geoffrey Lang. Each of the new members has previous experience serving on education boards. Their terms expire June 30, 2025.
• The Board approved metrics for the performance evaluation of Cox’s first year as system president, which outlines requirements for an end-of-year bonus. You can view that document on The Board approved its Year 1 Goals for Cox at .
• The Board approved up to $1.52 million to provide service management software for five Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) modernization pilot colleges, from Dec. 1, 2023 to May 31, 2026. In September, the Board approved “significant reorganization” of system positions to support that modernization work.
• Tony Pile, the Board’s student member and president of the North Carolina Comprehensive College Student Government Association (N4CSGA), said N4CSGA is working with local SGA chapters to advocate for continued student voice on local boards of trustees. The new budget included at the state and local level for community colleges. While the State Board still has a standing student member, the budget made student representation on local boards optional for colleges.
• The N4CSGA will host a mental health campaign in January, Pile said. Many of the state’s community colleges are working 

The full Board will meet next on Dec. 15 for a virtual meeting.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The State Board of Education discussed the implications of several items from the at its meeting earlier this month, including , known as the “Parents’ Bill of Rights.”

SL 2023-106 became law on Aug. 16, after the General Assembly overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the bill. At the time, state Superintendent Catherine Truitt said school districts needed more time to meet requirements of the new law, asking lawmakers to bump the effective date from Sept. 15 to Jan. 1.

The new budget, passed on Sept. 22, granted that extension for much of the law. The budget also clarified that parents will not need to be notified or provide consent when school personnel act in a medical emergency.

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“From the beginning, I’ve supported the Parents’ Bill of Rights law, and I want it to be implemented successfully and enacted fully,” Truitt previously . “I am very pleased to see that the General Assembly addressed provisions in the conference budget to ensure a smoother process for parents to be fully protected under the Parents’ Bill of Rights.”

The law seeks to “enumerate the rights of parents to direct the upbringing, education, health care, and mental health of their minor children.”

While most Republicans and Democrats agree that the law outlines rights parents already have, Republican bill sponsors said the law safeguards the integral role of parents in their children’s lives. Opponents, including many educators, have said the law will damage the relationship between educators and students, while also threatening the safety of LGBTQ+ students.

The law bans curriculum on gender identity, sexual activity, or sexuality in kindergarten through fourth grade. It also requires schools to notify a parent about their child’s physical and mental health, including any school health care services they use, changes to their well-being, or requests to change a student’s pronouns.

The law also allows parents to review all curriculum and establishes remedies and timelines for parental concerns. Under that provision, the law mandates that school governing bodies adopt procedures for parents to notify principals regarding concerns about curriculum. A process to resolve concerns should take place within seven days of the date of notification by the parent.

After 30 days, “the public school unit shall provide a statement of the reasons for not resolving the concern.” At that point, parents can also request a “parental concerning hearing” with the State Board of Education.

Board leaders about the provision, saying the hearings “will likely be a frustrating exercise in futility for all involved” and a “significant expenditure of resources.”

On Thursday, the Board discussed a regarding such hearings.

Under the policy, parents can only request a hearing with the Board under limited circumstances. One set of circumstances include the failure of a child’s school to adopt and implement policies to notify parents about the following items:

• Health care services at the child’s school and how parents can provide consent for services.
• The procedures available to parents to remedy concerns.
• A copy of student well-being questionnaires or health screening forms for students in K-3, and how parents can consent to the form.
• Changes in services or monitoring related to “their child’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being and the school’s ability to provide a safe and supportive learning environment for that child.”
• Changes in the name or pronoun used for a student “in school records or by school personnel.”

Parents can also also seeks hearings with the Board about the existence of the following procedures or practices at their child’s school:

• Procedures that “do not include a requirement that school personnel either encourage a child to discuss issues related to the child’s well-being with his or her parents or facilitate a discussion of the issues with the child’s parents,” or that encourage a child “to withhold information from that child’s parents about his or her mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.”
• Procedures that prohibit parents from accessing their children’s school education and health records, except in investigations of abuse.
• Procedures that “result in instruction on gender identity, sexual activity, or sexuality” in K-4.

Notably, that list does not include book challenges, which must be handled at the local level.

Parents can request a hearing about the above items after notifying the principal of their child’s school, if the school has not resolved the concerns within 30 days.

Under the new policy, the Board will appoint a hearing officer for each case who is a member of the North Carolina State Bar and has experience in education and administrative law in the last five years. The public school must pay for the costs of that hearing officer, who would then hold a hearing and submit a recommended decision to the Board within 30 days after their appointment.

“At the next regularly scheduled State Board meeting, held more than seven days after receipt of the recommended decision, the State Board shall vote to either approve, reject, or amend the hearing officer’s recommended decision,” the draft policy says.

Graduation requirements

The new budget also requires the State Board of Education to create a three-year graduation track for high school students by Nov. 1. That track will consist of 22 credits, and must receive parental consent.

The budget currently states that “local boards of education shall offer a sequence of courses in accordance” with that minimum requirement. Many schools already allow early graduation pathways for some students, but most schools typically require 28 credits for graduation.

Many education leaders worried the budget’s provision would prevent them from requiring more than 22 credits for any students.

“That of course, caused a lot of outcry from our school districts,” said Sneha Shah-Coltrane, director of advanced learning and gifted education at the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). “As a result, we are very grateful that we are working with the General Assembly on some technical corrections, to be able to move forward with a reasonable, different approach.”

In anticipation of such technical corrections, the Board discussed . That policy will come to the Board for approval next month, pending the corrections.

The proposed amendment, “Authority for Local School Boards to Exceed Minimum Graduation Requirements,” outlines a process for students who wish to graduate after three years to “request that local board waive the additional local requirements.”

The student must complete and sign a waiver from the local board. That waiver must also be signed by the student’s parent or legal guardian, unless the student is 18 years or older, or has been emancipated. An administrator from the student’s high school must also then meet with the student and their parent “to discuss the implications of graduating in three years.”

Students who successfully opt to graduate early — and who also seek a degree, diploma, or certificate at an eligible postsecondary institution — will be eligible for “early graduate scholarships” based on financial need. Read more starting on 

“This is just another step toward recognizing that the nature of school and work is changing before our very eyes,” Truitt said. “I think it is a very small percentage of students for who it is right to stop at 22 (credits) — this may continue to grow as more and more options become available to students — but what I really like is that this policy requires parent buy-in for this happen.”

Teacher pay

Truitt also spoke about the budget’s raises for school employees — which included a 7% raise over two year for most school employees, and a 3.6-10.8% raise for teachers.

Earlier this long session, Truitt and the Board asked lawmakers for at least a 10% raise for employees.

“As a former educator, I’ve been vocal that North Carolina’s teachers deserve a raise, and I’m disappointed that we did not see the double digit pay increase for educators that we hoped for in this Conference budget,” she said in . “Salaries in other professions have kept pace with inflation, however that is not the case with education.”

Truitt highlighted her disappointment with the raises again during her report on Thursday. Board members also spoke about disappointment in the budget’s provisions for teacher raises.

Board Chair Alan Duncan said he hopes lawmakers will readdress teacher pay in the short session.

“I cannot help but express some disappointment that there was not a better response to the request,” he said. “And I’m sorry for the educators that there was not.”

You can view the updated salary schedules for 2023-24 . You can also read about the budget’s supplements outlined for educators at

Truitt said DPI’s requests for the short session will include funding for professional development for middle school teachers, with a focus on improving math proficiency.

Truitt also highlighted the budget’s provision of nearly $13 million into the Advanced Teaching Roles (ATR) initiative — the first directed state funding for the program.

Under that program, adult leadership teachers in participating districts will receive a $10,000 supplement. Classroom excellence teachers will receive a $3,000 supplement.

The Board heard a presentation on the Friday Institute’s The Board opted to send a partial version of the report, due Oct. 15, to the General Assembly, and will submit the full report in November after it is approved with additional information requested by Board members.

Truitt also highlighted the following items from the budget during her report:

Reports on students with disabilities and low-performing schools

The Board heard several important reports on Wednesday regarding student success.

First, the Board discussed a .

Per the report, a federal view found several things that “need assistance” within the state’s Exceptional Children (EC) department. The priority areas identified in the report include:

• Participation and performance on statewide assessments
• Suspension and expulsion
• Preschool outcomes
• Child Find/Early Childhood Transition
• Secondary Transition/Post-School Outcomes

The Board also received from the Council on Educational Services for Exceptional Children, which advises the State Board of Education “on unmet needs of children with special needs and the development and implementation of policies related to the coordination of services for students with disabilities.”

The council made the following recommendations in its 2022-23 report:

• “Hear from the ground.” Invite organizations which provide support to families navigating the education system to speak about best practices and challenges at least once a year.
• Do a survey of other organizations that also serve families with disabilities along with mental health concerns.
• Incorporate “A New Wave of Evidence,” showing that connections between school, family, and community lead to student success.

The Board also discussed its annual report to lawmakers

State law defines low-performing schools as those that receive a school performance grade of a D or F and a school growth score of “met expected growth” or “not met expected growth.” A low-performing school district is defined as a district in which the majority of the schools are low-performing.

Here is some data from that report.

On Thursday, the Board also approved two policies related to low-performing schools.

First, the Board approved a policy allowing the Board “to assign an assistance team to any school identified as low-performing or to any other school that requests an assistance team and that the State Board determines would benefit from an assistance team.”

Second, the Board approved a new policy that allows them to appoint an interim district superintendent when more than half the schools in that district are designated as low-performing and the assistance team assigned to a school “recommends the superintendent has failed to cooperate with the assistance team or has otherwise hindered that school’s ability to improve.”

Finally, the Board also saw a preview of its annual report to the General Assembly The Board will vote on that report next month.

Updates to parental leave policy

The State Board of Education gave final approval to its temporary , as mandated by . That section requires a paid parental leave policy for all state agency, public school, UNC, and community college employees.

Originally, the policy — based on state law — said that employees must have been employed by the public school unit without a break in service “for at least 1,040 hours within the previous 12-month period” to be eligible for paid parental leave.

In other words, employees who moved school districts would not have been eligible for the benefits, even if they had worked in North Carolina public schools for 10 years.

Following pushback, lawmakers made technical corrections to the law. The Board’s new policy will now cover employees who recently switched districts, as long as they have an aggregate 1,040 hours without a break of service at a North Carolina school or state agency.

The policy provides up to eight weeks of paid parental leave after giving birth to a child on or after July 1, 2023, or up to four weeks after any other qualifying event, like adoption or legal guardianship.

The revisions to the rule will be effective on Nov. 7.

Other things to know

• The Board approved a report to the General Assembly on the The goal for 2022–23 was set at 89.5%. The statewide rate, 86.5%, did not meet this year’s target, though 31 individual school districts did.
• The Charter Schools Review Board (CSRB) presented in light of new state laws regarding charter schools in the budget. There are currently 15 applications for 2023.
• The Board also approved a new policy, . That policy is in response to a new state law that allows “an applicant for a charter school, a charter school, or the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (to) appeal to the State Board of Education from a final decision by the Charter Schools Review Board on whether to grant, renew, revoke, or amend a charter.”
• Thursday marked the last Board meeting for Dr. Maria Pitre-Martin, the director of Board operations and policy.
• The Board offered initial approval two additional community colleges to offer the Elementary Education Residency Licensure Certificate Program: Pitt Community College and Robeson Community College. Those colleges join many other community colleges to receive initial authorization for the program

The full State Board of Education meets next Oct. 31 through Nov. 2 at East Carolina University in Greenville for its planning and work session.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

State Republicans’ failure to reach agreement on the budget is “inexcusable” and “irresponsible” and will negatively impact North Carolina’s school children and educators, a group of Durham Democratic lawmakers said on Monday.

Durham’s legislative delegation took part in a series of statewide press conferences held to highlight the state of public schools as most students who attend traditional calendar schools prepare to return to classrooms. Thousands of year-round students are already in school.

The state budget is 45 days late and House Speaker Tim Moore has said lawmakers won’t likely have a budget in place until sometime after Labor Day, said Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham Democrat.

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“Week after week this summer, we [Democrats] have been ready to go in and to do the work and to vote, but the Republican leadership has decided that their far away vacations and conferences are more important,” Morey said “This has got to stop.”

Without a state budget, Morey said educators can’t budget personal finances. Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget proposal and House and Senate spending plans all contain teacher pay raises.

“How do educators plan their own finances when they don’t know what their salaries will be?” Morey said.

Durham’s legislative delegation was joined by several local school board members and educators during their morning press conference in downtown Durham. Similar events were scheduled throughout the state.

Rep. Zack Hawkins, a Duham Democrat, said that underfunded schools impact academic outcomes. Teachers must be paid well and given adequate resources to educate children, Hawkins said.

“They [teachers] can’t bring to life science and math and all the things that they’re [children] are expected to learn, they can’t bring those things to life if they don’t have what they need,” said Hawkins, a former teacher.

Sen. Mike Woodard, a Durham Democrat, said that the state’s Republican leadership continues to disinvest in public education.

“This General Assembly has continued now a dozen years of disinvestment in our public education system, whether it’s through vouchers, whether it’s through failing to invest in our capital needs or whether its failure to invest in our most important infrastructure in our schools, which is our people,” said Woodard, who recently announced plans to run for Durham mayor.

Woodard said that expanding the school voucher program to allow access to the state’s wealthiest families will take more funding from public schools to hand over to largely unregulated private schools.

“They [Republicans] forget to tell you when the talk about choice with their voucher program is how many tens of millions of dollars go unused,” Woodard said. “Families aren’t using these things because what they realize is that vouchers sound good until you qualify for it and take it to a private school and find out that it only pays a small portion of the school’s tuition.”

A family can receive up to nearly $7,000 to send a child to a private school under the income-based Opportunity Scholarship program.

Woodard criticized Republican leaders for their failure to adequately fund school capital needs, particularly in rural counties that lack the tax base to pay for building needs with local money.

“Children cannot learn when their rooms are hot, cold, leaky or dirty,” Woodard said.

The press conference comes two days before lawmakers return to Raleigh to take up several key pieces of controversial Republican-backed education legislation vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper.

Rep. Vernetta Alston, a Durham Democrat, said local teachers worry that they can’t afford to stay in the profession.

“They say they simply can’t afford to stay in the career that they love and that staying requires them to take on more work and administrative roles than they were hired or trained to do in order to get the raises that they have already more than earned,” Alston said.

Minnie Forte-Brown, a former Durham school board chairwoman, said that it’s clear that educating children is no longer a priority for North Carolina.

“We need to do something that shows people that if you don’t care about our children, we’re going to show you that you need to,” Forte-Brown said. “Teachers in North Carolina have been at the bottom for so long that it doesn’t make sense.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on and .

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s signature on Pennsylvania’s $45.5 billion budget brought relief Thursday across the commonwealth as the new school year approaches and quarterly payments come due.

But his administration’s decision to hold back hundreds of millions in funds for a handful of programs leaves uncertainty for some as school districts work to reconcile their budgets with the money they expect to receive from the state.

Shapiro touted the budget, which was delivered to his desk by the General Assembly 34 days after the June 30 deadline, as a commonsense spending plan that accomplishes many of the goals laid out in his campaign and budget address.

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Budget Secretary Uri Monson informed legislative leaders in a memo this week that he would not release money for seven programs including more than $200 million for public education because the General Assembly has not passed fiscal code bills to authorize the spending.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, nonetheless late on Wednesday called the chamber back to session on Thursday so that Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, acting as Senate president, could sign the general appropriations bill, the final administrative step before sending it to Shapiro’s desk.

Although Democratic leaders said they disagreed that some of the programs require authorizing legislation, they said negotiations on the fiscal code language is ongoing. House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, said the House would reconvene when talks are finalized.

The frozen money, totaling $338 million, includes $7.5 million to pay for public defenders for the first time, nearly $21 million to increase ambulance reimbursement rates, $50 million in relief for struggling hospitals, $50 million for grants to help low-income homeowners with maintenance, and $10 million for stipends to attract students to the teaching profession.

The programs for which funding is frozen include $100 million for Level Up supplementary payments to the state’s 100 poorest school districts and $100 million for school mental health grants.

Pennsylvania School Boards Association Senior Director of Government Affairs Andrew Christ said school districts have 30 days after the state budget is finalized to reopen and reconcile their budgets with the funding they expect to receive from the state.

But with significant sums in state subsidies in limbo, some districts that have received Level Up payments in the past could be uncertain about what they will receive.

While Christ said it is safe to assume that the Education Department will use the same formula this year as it has used in the past, districts that are on the cusp of eligibility may not have a full picture of their financial situation until the money is released.

A delay in releasing the mental health grant money could also force school districts to move money from other areas in order to pay contracted providers, he said.

“It does leave some question marks for some schools and their programs,” Christ said.

Human services make up the largest share of the state budget, and county human services agencies and providers are often the most seriously affected by budget delays.

Richard Edley of the Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association said the end of the impasse is a good thing because the strain on county human services would have been great and may have impacted Medicaid payments and federal matching funds if it had continued.

However, Edley said, the budget was disappointing for human services providers, who spoke out during budget negotiations about a $170 million cut in funding for intellectual and developmental disability care providers.

Advocates said money to pay the wages of direct support providers who care for individuals with severe autism and other disabilities was cut due to a drop in spending. But the drop in spending was a result of a workforce shortage driven by insufficient wages that has left thousands of people on a waiting list.

“The financial losses of providers are mounting. The administration and legislature believe providers will somehow ‘figure it out.’  Eventually they will not be able to,” Edley said.

Edley said he is hopeful that as lawmakers return to the negotiating table to work out the authorizing language for the frozen programs, they restore $100 million that had been earmarked to address mental health needs identified by the legislature’s Behavioral Health Commission.

That money, received as part of the state’s American Rescue Plan aid during the pandemic, was redirected in the Senate’s version of the budget to the school mental health program.

The House passed legislation in June with a bipartisan 173-30 vote to direct the aid money into three streams to train and retain behavioral health professionals, provide criminal justice agencies with mental health resources and award grants to county mental health agencies and providers.

State Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, and Sen. Maria Collett, D-Montgomery, held a rally at the Capitol last month on restoring the funding. Schlossberg said the Senate budget amendment redirecting the pandemic aid to school grants was improper and gave the appearance that it was an either-or proposition.

In past budgets, the fiscal code has included supplementary appropriations and it is still possible to restore the funding approved in the House.

“The money is absolutely still there to make that happen,” Schlossberg said.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John Micek for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on and .

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona last week said House Republicans’ debt limit proposal would cut vital education programs and harm vulnerable students across the U.S., such as those who are low income or have a disability.

“It would be taking us backwards,” Cardona said on a call with reporters.

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s would lift the nation’s borrowing capacity by $1.5 trillion or suspend it through March.

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It would also set discretionary spending levels during the upcoming fiscal year to last year’s levels, meaning at least $130 billion in spending reductions to federal agencies.

McCarthy, a California Republican, plans to put the on the House floor as soon as Wednesday for a vote, and the administration stepped up its criticism in advance.

The White House said in a Tuesday statement that President Joe Biden the proposal, calling it “a reckless attempt to extract extreme concessions as a condition for the United States simply paying the bills it has already incurred.” Biden has said debt limit legislation should not be tied to spending reductions.

Even if the bill is passed in the House, it’s highly unlikely to gain the 60 votes needed to move past the legislative filibuster in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority.

At least 26 million students who are low income would see Title I funding levels for their schools drop, and more than 7 million students with disabilities would be affected by cuts in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Cardona said.

He added that those cuts are equivalent to eliminating 60,000 teachers for low-income students and eliminating 48,000 teachers and related services providers from the classroom for students with disabilities.

The plan would also require states to return unspent pandemic funding, much of which went to helping schools reopen. Pandemic funding also provided mental health services for students.

“During the pandemic, students with disabilities were amongst the hardest impacted by the disruption of learning,” Cardona said.

State-by-state cuts

The Department of Education released a breakdown of cuts to education-related programs in the GOP plan.

Among the estimated effects in Iowa:

• Cut about $25 million in Title I funding for Iowa schools serving low-income children, affecting an estimated 110,000 students.
• Cut Title IV, Part A funding for Iowa schools by about $1.9 million, limiting educators’ abilities to address student mental health issues, including through violence, suicide, and drug abuse prevention.
• Cancel President ��������’s student debt relief plan, keeping emergency student loan relief of up to $20,000 from 169,000 approved applicants across Iowa.

Potentially eliminate Pell Grants for 700 students in Iowa and also reduce the maximum award by nearly $1,000 for the remaining 169,000 students who receive Pell Grants.

A senior Department of Education official said the cuts in the debt relief plan also would make it harder for students to afford higher education.

Across the nation, it would mean an elimination of Pell Grants for about 80,000 students and more than 6 million Pell Grant recipients would have cuts of about $1,000 each annually, the administration said. Grants are tied to family income.

The Republican proposal would also nullify the executive order Biden issued last year to cancel federal student loan debt.

The bill would also prevent the agency from finalizing its , which sets a monthly repayment plan based on the borrowers’ income.

��������’s on student loans would cancel up to $10,000 in federal student debt for borrowers earning up to $125,000 annually, or up to $250,000 for married couples, with the boost to $20,000 in forgiveness for Pell Grant recipients.

The program only applies to current borrowers, not future ones, and income levels for the 2020 and 2021 tax years would be considered. Those who have private student loans are not eligible.

But the policy is from taking effect due to two lawsuits, one from six Republican attorneys general and another by two student loan borrowers who do not qualify for the program.

The Department of Education has collected more than 24 million applications for the relief program,

The Supreme Court will make a decision on the policy in the coming months.

Regardless of the outcome, the Department of Education announced that the pandemic-era pause on federal student loan repayments will , and those borrowers will be required to begin repayments either after the Supreme Court’s decision or 60 days after the June deadline.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on and .

If Speaker Kevin McCarthy agrees to their demands, that would wipe out most of the administration’s budget request for education, including a $2.2 billion increase for schools serving poor students and almost half a billion dollars to address student mental health needs.

With the slogan, “shrink Washington and grow America,” leaders of the said Friday they want to avoid hitting the — the limit on how much the federal government can borrow to pay its bills. They also propose to rescind COVID relief funds not yet scheduled to be spent. ��������’s budget, meanwhile, includes $90 billion for education, a 13.6% increase over fiscal year 2023.

“We are clearly a long way away from the finish line and middle ground,” said Lindsay Fryer, president of Lodestone D.C., a Washington lobbying and consulting firm. “Talks of addressing the debt limit and overall budget levels are sure to add interesting dynamics to appropriations conversations that could prolong this [budget] process for quite a while.”

Even with Democrats controlling Congress during the first two years of his presidency, Biden wasn’t able to deliver on some of his major education proposals and negotiations stretched until December. But now he has to contend with a Republican majority that wants to scale back government spending — the question is how much. Republicans have just a five-vote advantage in the House, meaning that McCarthy — who didn’t become speaker until he bowed to concessions from the Freedom Caucus — will need their support to pass a budget through the chamber.

The administration, on the other hand, wants to raise the $31.4 trillion debt limit to avoid what most economists say would be a . In his budget last week, he pledged to reduce the national debt by $3 trillion with taxes on those earning over $400,000 million a year.

Despite the likely standoff later this year, advocates for schools and early learning programs were still generally pleased with ��������’s proposals.

“I’m celebrating,” Julie Kashen, director and senior fellow at The Century Foundation, said about the proposal for the to spend $600 billion over 10 years for child care and preschool. She called it “a significant commitment to meeting the needs of children, families and communities.”

The Department of Education’s budget also includes a new $500 million program to help school districts expand universal preschool for students eligible to attend Title I schools. 

Aaron Loewenberg, a senior policy analyst at New America, a left-leaning think tank, said he was encouraged by the proposal. But he’s also realistic about its prospects.

“With a prolonged fight over the debt ceiling looming and House Republicans demanding billions of dollars in funding cuts,” he said, “the administration’s new pre-K proposal will have a hard time passing Congress.” 

Biden wants to restore the expanded that was part of the American Rescue Plan — $3,000 for those 6 and older and $3,600 for younger children. U.S. Census data shows the monthly payments nearly in half in 2021, and that it helped them afford rent, groceries and school supplies.

Proposals for other major programs include: 

• $20.5 billion for Title I, a $2.2 billion increase over 2023
• $18.2 billion for special education, including grants for preschoolers, infants and toddlers
• $428 million to increase the number of counselors, school psychologists and social workers
• $368 million for community schools — more than double the $150 million in the 2023 budget
• $1.2 billion for English learners, including $90 million to increase teacher diversity by recruiting and training more multilingual educators 
• $178 million for the Office for Civil Rights, which last year saw a record number of

But the administration proposes to keep funding for grants to support new and expanding charter schools at $440 million — the same level since 2019.

That “amounts to a cut” when factoring in inflation, said John Bailey, an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation. 

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools wants to see funding bumped to $500 million. Enrollment in charters climbed 7% during the pandemic — “evidence that parents were looking for something more and better for their children during a time of crisis,” Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said in  

The president’s budget was also a “real disappointment” to afterschool providers, Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, said in a statement. The budget keeps funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program at $1.3 billion, the same as last year. 

While the budget McCarthy ultimately proposes might not include cuts that are as deep as those proposed by the hardline Freedom Caucus, it’s unlikely to include a lot of increases for education either. 

As negotiations move forward, Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director for advocacy and governance at AASA, the School Superintendents Association, said she’d like to see Democrats prioritize the increase for special education. 

Others want to see the expanded child tax credit make it into the final budget.

“It prevented a lot of children and families from falling below the poverty line,” said Cary Lou, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute. 

But with McCarthy already saying cuts to are “off the table,” that means everything else, including funding for schools and children, is vulnerable, he said. McCarthy has signaled that he might not have ready for at least another month, adding to uncertainty over appropriations for next year, Lou said. “Multiple unknowns make it a bit more of a high-wire act.”

But with even Biden concerned that Republicans could of the House — and Congress increasingly unable to pass an annual budget on time — the chances that K-12 schools can count on next year’s budget for a reprieve appear slim.

“I am hopeful that this is a down payment for what’s to come,” said José Muñoz, director of the Coalition for Community Schools. Congress appropriated $75 million for schools that work with outside providers to address hunger, mental health, housing and other non-academic issues for families — an increase of $45 million. But Biden proposed a $413 million increase. Muñoz said he was disappointed by the “extreme shift.” 

“Now, we all have to go back to work to correct what just happened,” he said.

The White House has already indicated that Biden will request at least $400 million for community schools when he releases his fiscal year 2023 budget proposal, expected later this month. Advocates also expect to see him once again request big increases for Title I and special education. But based on this year’s process, some are highly skeptical that Congress will be able to pass a budget before the midterm elections or break out of its cycle of passing multiple short-term budget extensions to keep the government operating.

“We’ll welcome the commitment to education … but we saw how that shook out this year,” said Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director for advocacy and governance at AASA, the School Superintendents Association. She added that she could see another series of continuing resolutions that stretch into the new year. “That brings up all the questions of who’s in leadership come January and how that shapes overall numbers and program allocations.”

The organization’s top priority will once again be full funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,or IDEA — meaning that the federal government would pick up 40 percent of the costs of services for students with disabilities. Biden pledged that he would meet that requirement of the law. He proposed a $2.7 billion increase for fiscal 2022, but the budget includes far less — a $448 million increase — bringing the total to $14.5 billion.

AASA was hoping Congress would at least maintain the higher level of funding special education received under the American Rescue Plan, which provided an additional $2.5 billion for students with disabilities.

Congress is missing “a true opportunity to redirect itself forward on the IDEA glidepath,” Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA, said in a statement. “We applaud them for the small increases included in [the] bill, while also holding them accountable for once again leaving IDEA severely underfunded.”

No more free meals for all

Domenech summed up educators’ less-than-enthusiastic reaction to the budget by calling it a “mixed bag.” The bill, for example, includes new funding to address students’ mental health and $30 million more for afterschool programs, but not a major increase for high-poverty schools.

The budget provides a $1.77 billion increase over fiscal 2021 for school nutrition, but leaves out waivers that would have allowed such programs to continue serving free meals to all students and have flexibility in meal planning to cope with food and supply shortages. 

That means after more than two school years of free meals for all students, regardless of income, families in poverty will need to apply for the National School Lunch Program for the 2022-23 school year in order for their children to receive free or reduced-price meals.

And “given the , schools will likely need to raise prices on those families that do pay” said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association. With the end of pandemic meal programs, schools will also “have to significantly curtail summer meal services,” she said.

Biden also campaigned on tripling Title I funding for high-poverty schools. He proposed a $20 billion “equity” grant program to help close funding gaps between rich and poor districts and between those serving primarily white students and those that enroll more Black and Hispanic students.

The budget instead raises Title I funding by $1 billion, bringing the total to $17.5 billion. That’s the highest increase in more than a decade, but doesn’t include the new funding to reduce disparities.

“The Title I equity grants would have given the neediest districts greater assurance that they could continue effective academic interventions beyond the pandemic,” said Robert Tagorda, who led equity initiatives in California’s Long Beach Unified School District and now consults with districts on their recovery efforts. “Districts are coming to terms with the one-time nature of COVID relief funds. They’re wondering how they can sustain the tutorials, summer programs and other student services once the funds expire, knowing that it will take a long time to get kids back on track.”

Advocates for young children had a similar response after being hopeful last year that Biden would be able to push through his $400 billion plan to pay for child care and universal pre-K as part of Build Back Better. That legislation is now stalled and it’s unclear whether universal pre-K will resurface in a of the bill. 

For fiscal 2022, Biden originally proposed almost $20 billion for early-childhood programs, including Head Start and child care. The budget bill instead provides about $17.5 billion for programs serving preschoolers.

“Without more significant funding increases, these programs will continue to serve only a small portion of the children and families that are eligible to participate in them,” said Aaron Loewenberg, a senior policy analyst at New America, a center-left think tank.

Other advocacy groups say their recent lobbying efforts made a difference in the final numbers. The National Association of Secondary School Principals, for example, sent 350 members to Capitol Hill two weeks ago to press for increases in principal preparation programs and mental health services for students — a topic Biden addressed in his State of the Union address. 

The budget includes a $27 million increase for state grants that fund teacher and principal training and $111 million —  a $95 million increase over fiscal 2021 — that can be used to train more school counselors, social workers and psychologists. Beth Lehr, assistant principal at Sahuarita High School, south of Tucson, Arizona, was among the administrators advocating for those increases to address the aftermath of the pandemic. There are some teachers, she said, “who dread coming to work and parents who are struggling because they feel they can’t keep their kids safe.”

The Senate on Thursday passed a short-term, $480 billion increase in the debt ceiling that lasts through Dec. 3 — a move that prevents the U.S. government from failing to pay its financial obligations. 

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, after vowing not to help Democrats with the issue, rallied 11 Republicans to end debate and allow the measure to move to a floor vote. Then  passed 50-48, with only Democrats voting in favor. The bill now moves to the House.

“Tonight’s votes are welcome steps forward in averting a default that would have been devastating for our economy and for working families. President Biden looks forward to signing this bill as soon as it passes the House and reaches his desk,” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. “As we move forward, there must be no question of whether America will pay its bills; Congress must address the debt limit in December and beyond – just as we’ve done almost 80 times over the last 60 years.” 

Dec. 3 is the same day Congress must pass the fiscal year 2022 budget or another continuing resolution to keep the government open, setting up another possibility that the government will once again come close to default and a government shutdown.
 

Federal funds that states depend on for low-income students, special education and school nutrition programs could be at risk if Congress doesn’t lift the government’s debt limit, the White House warned states last month.

The U.S. could be in default by Oct. 18, which could disrupt global financial markets and trigger what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer last week called a “parade of horribles.” Democrats have been trying to get bipartisan support to raise the limit — the total amount the Treasury Department can borrow to meet its financial obligations. But Republicans have balked, leaving Democrats to deal with the politically unpopular issue.

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“Raising the debt limit comes down to paying what we already owe,” President Joe Biden said Monday, stressing that the matter has nothing to do with his agenda for infrastructure or social programs.

While most education funds — about 90 percent — come from state and local revenues, some programs rely more on federal sources, such as Title I, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Head Start and child care. A from the White House to state and local governments estimated that up to $50 billion in K-12 education funding could be affected. The standoff over the debt limit adds to the list of major budget challenges currently facing Congress. Members still need to pass the fiscal year 2022 budget and Democrats disagree over a major social spending package that includes funding for schools and early-childhood programs.

Default “would have reverberating effects for states and school districts, whose own finances would be thrown into uncertainty,” said Whitney Tucker, the deputy director of research at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. “Title I will have to stand in line with all the other federal obligations due.”

Tucker wrote about the last week, saying that if the issue isn’t resolved, states would have to turn to reserve funds to cover costs.

The potential loss of funds creates headaches for district finance officials.

“On top of everything else they’re managing right now, the last thing district leaders need is another layer of contingency planning,” said Jonathan Travers, a partner with Education Resource Strategies, a nonprofit that advises districts on financial matters. “As a field, we don’t have the extra bandwidth available right now to respond to debt ceiling brinkmanship in any sort of proactive, planful way.”

A default would impact the National School Lunch and National School Breakfast programs as well as other federally funded nutrition efforts totaling $30 billion, according to the White House memo.

School meal programs are “incurring costs and they rely on the federal government for reimbursement after the meals are served,” said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association.

Because of supply chain delays and shortages of typical menu items, school nutrition programs are already spending higher prices on food. The U.S. Department of Agriculture last week announced in assistance to help them cover those costs.

that benefit children, such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, would be affected as well. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen noted that parents receiving monthly child tax credit payments, part of the American Rescue Plan, could .

But Marguerite Roza, director of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab, cautioned that while a default would certainly impact the stock market, states shouldn’t be worrying about their account balances running low.

“States are sitting on a lot of cash right now,” she said, referring to the American Rescue Plan, which included $122 billion for K-12. But most of those funds, she added, are still at the state level and haven’t reached districts.

Tucker agreed that the relief funds could provide a cushion, but some states haven’t yet received all of the funds and others have already allocated them.

from Politico and Morning Consult shows that voters would hold both parties responsible if the government goes into default, but they’re more likely to blame Democrats than Republicans.

In 2011, during the Obama-Biden administration, the U.S. came close to the , with Tea Party Republicans ultimately winning budget cuts in exchange for an increase in the limit. The debt limit became an issue again in 2014, but at that point, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voted to allow the measure to to a vote. Democrats also helped Republicans increase while President Donald Trump was in office.

This time, Democrats wanted to lift the debt limit by adding language to a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government running through Dec. 3. The Republicans didn’t go for that and President Joe Biden ended up signing a resolution Thursday night without the debt limit increase.

The Democratic majority in the House on Wednesday passed a separate , but the Senate is not expected to pass it. Republicans want Democrats to lift the debt ceiling as part of ��������’s proposed social and education package. But that plan is on shaky ground, with Democrats divided on how much to spend and Biden already conceding that it will probably amount to much less than the $3.5 trillion he proposed.

Democrats could also move just to lift the debt ceiling using the budget reconciliation process, meaning they would only need a simple majority to pass. Biden asked Republicans to allow Democrats to do that.

“Republicans just have to let us do our job. Just get out of the way,” he said. “Let us vote to end the mess.”

The House will resume consideration of the $1.2 infrastructure bill Friday morning after Thursday night slipped away without a vote. 

Negotiations that would secure moderate Democrats’ support of President Joe ��������’s separate social spending bill — the deal that progressives are waiting for in order to vote for the infrastructure package — are continuing.

 “A great deal of progress has been made this week, and we are closer to an agreement than ever,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. “But we are not there yet, and so, we will need some additional time to finish the work, starting tomorrow morning first thing.” 

Meanwhile Biden signed a continuing resolution Thursday night, avoiding a government shutdown and giving the Senate until Dec. 3 to work on the fiscal year 2022 budget. The president’s proposed budget includes significant increases for Title I, special education and community schools.

“There’s so much more to do,” the president said in a statement. “But the passage of this bill reminds us that bipartisan work is possible and it gives us time to pass longer-term funding to keep our government running and delivering for the American people.”

Democrats, however, wanted to include language that would lift the debt ceiling, which the government will hit Oct. 18. Republicans voted against that plan.

With Congress tackling overlapping budget issues this week, advocates are most focused on saving President Joe ��������’s bold agenda for schools and families.

The proposed $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” plan, which would lower costs that are “squeezing families month after month and year after year,” includes major increases for early-childhood education, teacher and principal preparation, school construction and community college. But Democrats don’t have enough support to pass it, even though they’re using a process known as reconciliation, which doesn’t require a single Republican vote.

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Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who along with fellow Democrat Krysten Sinema of Arizona to such sweeping legislation, made it clear in a statement Wednesday night that he can’t be convinced otherwise.

“Since the beginning of this reconciliation debate, I have been consistent in my belief that any expansion of social programs must be targeted to those in need, not expanded beyond what is fiscally possible,” Manchin . “While I am hopeful that common ground can be found that would result in another historic investment in our nation, I cannot — and will not — support trillions in spending or an all or nothing approach that ignores the brutal fiscal reality our nation faces.”

The debate over the president’s agenda has revealed sharp divides among Democrats, while Republicans have held a united front against compromise proposals. Disagreement among Democrats is most obvious over the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was weighing whether to bring to a vote Thursday. Moderates have demanded a vote on the funding for roads, bridges and broadband, while progressives have said they won’t support the infrastructure bill unless they first get a vote on the larger reconciliation bill.

It’s not the infrastructure bill THEN maybe the Build Back Better package down the road. That wasn’t the deal.

Progressives won’t back down. We’re fighting the people’s fight and we’re going to deliver the entire Build Back Better agenda.

— Pramila Jayapal (@PramilaJayapal)

Adding to the tension, Congress will try to avert a government shutdown Thursday by passing a continuing resolution that keeps the government open past the end of the fiscal year. Democrats are also faced with meeting an Oct. 18 deadline to keep the U.S. from defaulting on its loans.

The House on Wednesday passed, along party lines, a bill to raise the government’s $28 trillion debt limit — the total amount the government can borrow to cover its obligations. But the bill is not expected to pass in the Senate. Defaulting can lead to , hinder and make it much harder to cover the costs of the reconciliation bill if it passes.

Democrats argue that the Trump administration was partially responsible for the increase in spending, so Republicans should bear some of the responsibility for raising the limit. But Republicans have said as long as Democrats control Congress and the White House, they can add it to their reconciliation bill.

The ongoing stalemate has some wondering whether the bill will survive.

“You’ve got to figure there’s now a chance, very small but real, that the bill stalls out,” Rick Hess, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said about the proposed $3.5 trillion package.

Dropping the total price tag, perhaps as low as , could “set off some brutal intramural battles among the [Democrats],” Hess said, and would “certainly offer a stress test of various Democratic priorities.”

Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund, which advocates for modernizing schools, is among those lobbying to keep their priorities in the final package. She’s been meeting with Senate staff members about the $82 billion slated for school construction and repairs.

“They seem pretty subdued, like they don’t really know what is going on,” she said, adding that they “support the issue, but it doesn’t seem to be a must have.”

Cutting school construction funding, she said, could impact another key priority in the package — universal preschool. While ��������’s $200 billion plan would put some classrooms in community-based centers, schools would also need to accommodate more pre-K students.

‘Could still be effective’ 

Some observers suggested there’s room to negotiate amounts over the big-ticket provisions, such as pre-K, child care and free community college.

“All of these could still be effective even if the top line numbers go down,” said Julia Martin, legislative director at Brustein and Manasevit, a law firm specializing in education.

But Shantel Meek, a professor at Arizona State University and director of the Children’s Equity Project, said she hopes lawmakers don’t trim the preschool proposal by “pitting access and quality against one another. In order for [universal pre-K] to meet the promise we know it can, we need access to quality — that means supporting the whole child, whole family.”

Others are concerned whether some of the smaller provisions would get cut from the package, such as the $4 billion to continue the Emergency Connectivity Fund, which addresses the digital divide for students learning at home.

“We want to make sure the connectivity [and] devices provided … aren’t in a position to go dark and disconnect students,” said Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director for advocacy and governance at AASA, The School Superintendents Association.

Originally part of the American Rescue Plan, the $7 billion program allows school districts to purchase devices for students and cover the cost of at-home internet service. According to the , more than $1.2 billion in funds have been awarded so far to 3,040 schools, 260 libraries and 24 organizations that include both. A second application window runs through Oct. 13.

Even if all of the education-related proposals stay in the package, Martin warned that one way negotiators could lower the final figure is to increase states’ share of the cost. The for example, currently calls for the federal government to pick up 100 percent of the cost of serving all 3- and 4-year-olds for the first two years, with states contributing increasing percentages of the cost over time.

“My concern would be if the state matches were to go up,” Martin said. “I think that would result in a patchwork implementation at best, and may make it more difficult for states to access funds.”

Linda Smith, director of the Bipartisan Policy Institute’s Early Childhood Development Initiative, said another option would be to limit the number of years covered by the legislation or to limit the program to children with greater needs. But she said that would be hard to do after the president pledged it would be universal.

Nonetheless, she remains hopeful that the early-childhood proposals would remain a centerpiece of the final plan.

“It always gets a little crazy when the sausage-making gets into high gear,” she said. “I still think something will come out of this.”

Funding for federal programs expires on Sept. 30, but that’s just one budgetary challenge facing Democrats in the coming weeks as they seek to pass President Joe ��������’s massive agenda for schools and families.

The House has already , known as a continuing resolution, to keep funding programs at the same level through early December. That would give lawmakers more time to work on the fiscal year 2022 budget.

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On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared open to removing a provision to increase the debt limit, which Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, has threatened to block. The standoff was leading to a potential . To pass in the Senate, the bill would need 60 votes — or 10 Republicans in addition to the 50 Democrats.

“We will keep government open by Sept. 30 …and continue the conversation about the debt ceiling,” she said.

Democrats will need to find compromise as well in order to pass ��������’s “Build Back Better” plan to lead the nation out of the pandemic — even though they control both houses of Congress and the White House. Majority leaders in the House and Senate are trying to balance competing priorities among progressive and more fiscally conservative wings of their parties. Those differences could impact two major pieces of the president’s agenda apart from the fiscal year 2022 budget — a $1 trillion infrastructure package that is scheduled for a House vote on Thursday and a much larger $3.5 trillion proposal that includes universal preschool, school construction and free school lunches for more children.

Democrats are using what is known as a budget reconciliation process for the $3.5 trillion plan, which means they can pass the package without a single Republican vote in the House or the Senate. But experts say they still may have to scale back the size of the package in order to secure enough Democratic votes.

Biden met with leading Democrats Wednesday in an effort to to bridge some of their differences, but according to the White House, “there is more work ahead in the coming days.”

‘Game of chicken’

While federal law dictates timing for the annual budget, Democrats are also treating ��������’s legislative agenda with a sense of urgency. Sean Worley, a senior policy associate at EducationCounsel, a consulting firm advising districts on policy and legal issues, suggested that it would get harder, politically, to pass either package if they drag into next year because of mid-term elections.

First up is the infrastructure package. That plan includes $200 million over five years to replace lead pipes in school, $5 billion for electric school buses and an increase in funding to $1 billion a year to improve safety for students biking and walking to school. Another $65 billion would go toward improving the nation’s broadband access and making the internet more affordable.

Pelosi originally scheduled the vote for Monday as part of a deal with moderate Democrats who said they would withhold their support for the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill unless the infrastructure bill made it to the president’s desk first. But  have issued their own ultimatum, arguing they won’t support the infrastructure legislation unless they simultaneously vote on the larger reconciliation package.��Now a floor debate is expected Monday.

Worley predicted this “game of chicken” could lead to the infrastructure bill’s failure.

“I would expect progressives to vote against the bill and an insufficient number of Republicans will vote in favor,” he said. “This could deepen rifts within the party and will make intraparty negotiations on the [$3.5 trillion] bill that much more difficult.”

The infrastructure deal with Republicans does not include facility improvements for the nation’s schools. But the current version of the reconciliation bill — what Biden calls a “human infrastructure” proposal — would provide $82 billion for school construction and renovation projects. The plan’s $3.5 trillion price tag, however, looks shaky with Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona breaking with their fellow Democrats over the cost.

Manchin, earlier this month, called for a on the plan, saying it’s not smart policy to pass such a large package amid rising inflation. In addition to funding for school construction, the package proposes almost $200 million each for teacher residencies and , more than $100 billion for two free years of community college, $35 billion to provide free meals to more children and $450 billion for child care and preschool.

So far, early-childhood education advocates aren’t ready to settle for less.

“It’s sizable, but it’s sizable for a reason, because there is that much need,” said Sarah Rittling, executive director of the First Five Years Fund, which focuses on federal early-childhood policy.

��������’s plan seeks to limit the cost of child care to no more than 7 percent of a family’s income, increase wages for child care providers, and work with states to make universally available to 3- and 4-year-olds.

Rittling said she doesn’t expect the early-childhood provisions in the package, which have broad support among Democrats, to get cut. “It is so incredibly popular on top of being so incredibly necessary,” she said.

The reconciliation bill includes much of ��������’s agenda for social and education programs.The also features major increases for programs such as Title I, special education and Head Start.

The House passed the 2022 appropriations bills at the end of July, but Worley suggested that even without the debt limit debate, those increases “were going to be difficult to see across the finish line.”

But now, with chicken and beef prices up, a worldwide shortage of packaging materials and a dearth of long-haul truckers, she’s not as sure what she’ll be serving the district’s 18,000 students this fall. And she won’t be surprised if distributors start adding transportation surcharges “to stop the bleeding on their end” — something she hasn’t seen since the Great Recession.

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“It’s a domino effect,” she said. “We’re at the point now where we don’t even know what’s going to come in the back door.”

Food services are just one aspect of school operations affected by inflation, which is experiencing a 13-year high. Wages are climbing because districts can’t find enough employees to drive buses or provide students additional academic support. Price hikes on materials are causing some districts to hit pause on construction projects and districts are for teachers to help students catch up.

At a time when the American Rescue Plan is flooding school districts with more federal money than they’ve ever had, educators are slowly awakening to the reality that those funds might not go as far as expected and that inflation may have a lasting impact on their regular budgets as well .

“School districts are like little cities. You’ve got food service. You’ve got transportation. You’ve got maintenance. Inflation across the sectors will impact all those areas,” said Charles Carpenter, chief financial officer for the Denver Public Schools.

The economic indicators are clear. This summer, the Consumer Price Index — which measures changes in what people typically pay for goods and services — saw its largest one-month and 12-month increases since 2008, according to the government’s .

Experts attribute in inflation in part to the rollback of pandemic restrictions: Consumers are traveling, eating out and shopping more, which is driving up prices. But there’s not enough supply to meet the demand.

The debate is over how much to worry about it. Some that President Joe ��������’s policies — the partisan relief bill that passed in March and his big-ticket infrastructure packages — will hurt the economy, while others argue this period of inflation and won’t spiral out of control.

Either way, Carpenter is closely monitoring costs of raw materials like lumber and copper as the district moves forward with building new schools and adding air-conditioning to 24 sites over the next three years.

Contractors “are bidding on our projects knowing that they’ll see price increases,” he said. “Do you try and push forward now and lock in a price or wait and it could be worse?”

Some districts are discussing whether to to lower prices and others have decided to pause projects because contractors can’t provide solid cost estimates. The St. Clair R-III School District, southwest of St. Louis, decided in June to delay construction on a performing arts center and a bus facility until costs stabilize. “It has become much more difficult to obtain competitive, cost-effective bids for construction projects,” Superintendent Kyle Kruse said in his report to the board.

‘Can’t find the people’

While districts might be able to defer construction or renovation, they can’t put off addressing students’ academic needs — especially given the extreme learning loss that often accompanied more than a year of remote learning.

“We’ve got this short-term demand for services to mitigate instructional loss and a shortage of labor willing to put in that time,” said Jonathan Travers, who leads consulting services for Education Resource Strategies, a nonprofit that helps districts leverage resources to improve student learning.

That’s why in addition to price hikes on materials, districts are seeing higher labor costs. Some have offered bonuses and even to attract summer school teachers. The danger for districts, he said, is that unions might expect to maintain those higher wages when they return to the bargaining table to negotiate future contracts.

In Plymouth-Canton, Hennessey still has 20 positions to fill before fall. She said entry-level school nutrition employees earn about $11 per hour, but that doesn’t come close to the $15 they can earn at McDonald’s. And districts nationally are struggling to find even with higher pay.

“It’s great to have all this money,” said Uri Monson, chief financial officer with the Philadelphia schools. “But if you can’t find the people to do the work — even if you’re going to pay them — that’s a problem.”

Districts aren’t the only ones feeling the pinch. from the accounting firm KPMGshowed parents estimate they’ll spend an average of $20 more on school supplies this fall. Parents of young children, many of whom delayed enrollment last year, anticipate spending $156 per child — a 32 percent increase over last school year.

What’s eating up much of their back-to-school spending? — a necessity some may have skipped last fall when many districts opened remotely.

One relief for families is that the increased costs come at the same time the majority of households with school-age children are receiving monthly of $250 to $300, approved as part of the relief bill.

‘Calm the markets’

Some districts plan budgets to allow them to ride out periods like this. The Philadelphia district signs fixed contracts for expenses such as fuel, food services — and, of course, labor.

“We occasionally get criticized when we do long-term guaranteed pricing contracts,” Monson said. “No one is going to complain right now. This is exactly why we do it.”

But he acknowledged that the soaring prices are hitting contractors hard as well as those waiting for supplies. “The cost of wood and basic materials has been out of control,” Monson said. And with shipping delays, he’s urging departments to allow longer lead times for deliveries. “It’s really hard to order something on Friday and expect it to be there on Monday.”

That’s because the most Americans experienced at the beginning of the pandemic haven’t really gone away.

“There are shipments from Asia that have been stuck at the Los Angeles port since October” — mostly because of labor shortages, said Charlie Andrews, a senior cost manager with Rider Levett Bucknall, which advises school districts on construction costs and provides project management services.

When contractors face unforeseen costs, such as tariffs, they often pass those on to school systems.

Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund — which advocates for modernizing school facilities — said cost fluctuations help make the case for ��������’s $100 school construction plan, a combination of direct grants and bonds. The proposal didn’t make it in the with Republicans, but is expected to re-emerge in the details of a Democrats have proposed.

“Districts need long money,” Filardo said. “It will calm the markets somewhat and give them more leverage as they plan and implement projects.”

The House Appropriations Committee in a touted $2.3 billion in increases for school safety, with funds coming through programs at the Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services departments.

Overall, the Education Department would get $70.9 billion under the bill, a $3.9 billion, or 5.5 percent, increase — the largest boost the department has seen in recent years. Charter school programs would receive $58 million, or about 17 percent more, although 2018 Trump administration budget proposals to fund private school vouchers or promote public school choice via Title I funds were nixed.

School safety has been top of agenda in D.C. since the February 14 shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people. The momentum has been  fueled in no small part by the students’ own advocacy, including a massive anti-gun-violence march on the capital set to take place Saturday.

Though the students, and their peers who also walked out of class last week, have called for more gun control, most of the bipartisan agreement has come in providing additional funding for school safety and mental health programs.

Lawmakers released the bill Wednesday evening and are in a time crunch to pass it before government funding expires at midnight Friday, when they’re also supposed to leave for a two-week recess.

Most of the school safety money in the Education Department was added through Title IV of the Every Student Succeeds Act, a catchall grant that schools can use for broad purposes under the umbrella of providing “safe, healthy learning environments for students.”

The bill would give $1.1 billion to the program, nearly triple the $400 million it has gotten in past years.

A filed with the bill notes that the funds can have a “wide range of uses, including to expand access to or coordinate resources for school-based mental health services and supports, which may include trauma-informed practices and school counseling; bullying prevention; and professional development for personnel in crisis management and school-based violence prevention strategies.”

The Trump Administration, in its budget released before the Parkland shooting, proposed axing the same program, something for which Education Secretary Betsy DeVos got flack during congressional testimony Tuesday. She told a House Appropriations subcommittee that schools should have the funds they need to provide counseling, violence prevention programs, and safe school infrastructures.

Appropriations committees also proposed increasing funding for the safe schools and citizenship program to $90 million, with the funds used for expanding evidence-based programs to improve school climate, prevent violence, and “respond to serious incidents.”

Five million dollars of that funding is dedicated to Project SERV, federal grants that go directly to schools that have experienced trauma, including shootings and .

Early education was also a big winner.

Lawmakers proposed nearly doubling funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grants, which help low-income families pay for day care, awarding $5.2 billion. The Head Start program, which provides preschool to low-income and homeless children, would get a $610 million increase, to $9.9 billion. The preschool development grants that help states create or start preschool programs would stay funded at $250 million, as they have for the past several years.

Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, touted the early-childhood investments in a press release.

“As a former preschool teacher, I know that investing in our youngest learners isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smartest thing we can do, so I hope we can keep working together until high-quality, affordable early learning and care is a reality for all,” she said.

Other key K-12 programs also saw increases:

• Title I, which aids the education of low-income children, would get $15.8 billion, an increase of $300 million.
  
• The federal charter school program would get $400 million, an increase of $58 million, including $7.5 million set aside to establish or expand charters in “underserved, high-poverty, rural areas.”
• Special education grants under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act would be funded at $12.3 billion, an increase of $275 million.
• Impact Aid would receive $1.4 billion, an increase of $86 million. The program funds the education of “federally connected” children, such as those whose parents are in the military, and helps districts pay for lost tax revenues due to the presence of federal property like military bases or tribal lands.
  
• Career and technical education grants would get $1.2 billion, an increase of $75 million.
• After-school programs, funded through the 21st Century Learning Centers programs, would get $1.2 billion, an increase of $20 million. The Trump administration has twice proposed eliminating the program.
• Teacher training grants known as Title II would get $2.1 billion, about equal to last year. The Trump administration has also proposed eliminating that program, and House Republicans axed it in a bill they passed earlier this year.
  
• The Office for Civil Rights would get $117 million, an $8.5 million bump. The report filed with the bill directs the office to increase its staff “in order to effectively and timely investigate complaints; execute and report on the civil rights data collection; thoroughly monitor corrective actions of institutions and meet other critical workloads.” The Office for Civil Rights’s role in overseeing campus sex assault investigations and issuing directives on school discipline has been a focus for DeVos.