Andrea Gabor spells out what many educators and parents fear: the collapse of state revenues will endanger our most vulnerable children. After 20 years of pouring billions into testing and consultants, let’s see how many “reformers” demand smaller classes and insist on protecting school funding.
How many state leaders will have the will and the courage to protect the children?
She begins:
The New York State budget recently signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo delivered a one-two punch to public schools. It wiped out the benefits of $716.9 million in federal stimulus aid and hit poor school districts hardest.
New York’s double-whammy could be replayed in states nationwide as the coronavirus pandemic devastates state and local finances. In Massachusetts, business groups are recommending that the state delay meeting the obligations of last year’s ground-breaking school-funding law, which called for $1.5 billion in extra spending over seven years, much of it for poor districts. And this week, when California is expected to release a revised version of the state budget, schools could see as much as 15 percent, or $1,700 per student, slashed in 2020-2021 — more than the worst year of the Great Recession.
It might seem unreasonable to focus on school-financing inequities in the middle of the pandemic, which is crushing economic activity across the board and pulverizing government budgets. However, lessons from the 2008 recession suggest that unless states start planning soon both for extra education funding and a more equal distribution of the money, the damage to poor districts will be long-lasting.
That’s why states should resist the temptation to follow New York’s lead. Cuomo’s cuts shredded the part of the budget that provides extra funding to districts with comparatively low tax bases. Thus, poor New York districts will receive, on average, $230 less per student than they would have gotten under January’s budget proposal, compared to $30 less per student in affluent districts — even taking into account the federal stimulus — according to an analysis for Chalkbeat by Drew Atchison, an education economist.
Instead, states should lessen the damage to the poorest districts, which suffered the brunt of Great Recession cuts. In 2008, high-poverty districts lost more than three times the $500-per-pupil funding loss of affluent districts. Test scores and graduation rates suffered. Although school funding increased after recent nationwide teacher protests, at least a dozen states still fund schools well below pre-2008 levels.
With state and local tax revenues, which account for most education spending, expected to fall sharply, the federal government will have to play a much larger role in supplementing education budgets. That means that Education Secretary Betsy Devos should shelve her plan to finance pet programs of dubious value, like vouchers and virtual schools, with the $13.5 billion school-aid package passed by Congress in the wake of the pandemic.
Future federal aid should require states to protect funding for the poorest districts, which can make a huge difference to disadvantaged students.
I hope the rest of the article is not behind a pay wall. You should read it in full, along with the kinks to sources.
I think one of the reasons ed reform is so popular with politicians and wealthy people is because it doesn’t ask them to do anything.
All they have to do is sit back and let the flowers of “choice” bloom – it involves no sacrifices or hard choices of any kind on their part- they didn’t value public schools anyway so it’s no great loss to gut them.
In fact, it’s much easier for state politicians. They can wash their hands of the whole public education system completely and just hand everyone a low value voucher. They’ll be thrilled to have schools off their plate.
So-called reform allows states to abrogate responsibilty to poor and vulnerable students. It is also a way for some schools to off load low performing students.
I just don’t think children and young people should take the brunt of the budget hit again. They took it after the financial crash and all the losses shouldn’t be shifted to them again.
They have sacrificed ENOUGH for adult recklessness and stupidity. Find the money somewhere else.
For some older kids this will the second time in their K-12 progression where a crisis hit the US and public schools were the first sacrifice. Don’t do it to them twice. It isn’t fair to heap all the losses on the younger generations and all the gains go to the older.
They’re the ones who will have to fix this horrible mess we’ve left them. At least give them a fighting chance to be able to clean up after us.
While it is true that ed reform does no advocacy at all on behalf of children who attend public schools, they are more than willing to lobby for public dollars to go to private schools:
“Stabilizing Private Schools. Finally, governors could help to stabilize private schools, which are responsible for roughly 10 percent of America’s K–12 students. Private schools, especially faith-based schools, often operate on shoestring budgets, yet in many cases their students are more likely to graduate from high school and go to college. With the impacts of COVID-19, many of these schools are at a breaking point. Families may have less money to pay tuition, and financial aid will be stretched thin. It’s worth a reminder that these schools are part of our education system. They employ teachers, buy textbooks, and educate students who would otherwise fill desks in public schools. They provide alternatives to parents whose needs aren’t being met by the public schools. Helping cash-strapped parents who were paying out of their own pockets to send their child to a great school seems like a simple way to invest in education — and it would keep a vital and successful part of our education system going well into the future.”
Apparently funding doesn’t matter, unless we’re talking about the charter and private schools they prefer. In that case it’s an emergency.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/governors-use-the-cares-act-for-transformational-education-reform/
What a horrible editorial. The National Review hates government unless it is funding private schools and corporations
I would love to see DeVos have to table her worthless plan to hand states vouchers. It will not improve outcomes for vulnerable students. It will simply further undermine public schools and provide students with a ticket to a sub-standard school.
Vouchers supply low-quality schooling. DeVos wants that for other people’s children.
See also the following link on the $13.5 billion and the not yet determined powers of DeVos.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/2020/3/26/21196157/money-for-technology-cleaning-summer-learning-what-the-coronavirus-stimulus-bill-means-for-schools
We need to stop electing politicians who don’t send their children to public schools. The vast majority of us went to public schools, so why are we electing people who didn’t go to public schools and won’t send their children to them. They can’t be expected to value public schools.
Actually, they can. Citizens have every right to expect their elected public servants to act in the interests of their constituents regardless of their personal experience. It’s like saying unless a rep has experienced poverty, or suffered untreated ill health due to lack of insurance, they are unable to see it in their community and respond to it with legislative proposals. There are undoubtedly many who enter public service to help others, and are thwarted, even corrupted by our partisan lockstep, pay-to-play system.
Public-school example: 76% of the 115th Senate were pubsch grads (typical #). And 60% of current House members send (or sent) all their kids to public school. Guarantees nothing.
At this point we’re better off backing natl candidates who perceive the systemic issues and pledge to reform basics like campaign funding, corporate welfare, reasonable taxation of wealth.
I misspoke. Yes, we should expect our elected officials do do the right thing, but the reality is, they don’t. I live in NY, where our governor wants to ‘reimagine’ k12 schools. He sent his own daughters to out of state private schools. He has no clue about public schools. I have no dea whether he thinks he has the best interest of our children in mind or just wants to save money, but the end result is the same. Preserve me from well meaning do gooders who can’t be bothered to understand the issues.(e.g. Teach for America).
For the record, I do believe that the the problems of poverty are best understood by those who have experienced it. We should be asking those individuals to propose solutions.
YES.
Today, L.A. Superintendent Greedy Investment Banker went on TV and bemoaned L.A. not having an education task farce like Cuomo’s horrifying Gates Task Farce in New York. What a jerk. He’s not going to stop attacking public education. He needs to be stopped.
Re-Elect Scott Schmerelson and throw the bum out!
Yes!