Following Local Education Dollars as Federal Funds Shrink

Описание: Public Schools Scramble To Fill Budget Gaps from Federal Policy Shift. Researchers Laura Anderson and Ash Dhammani of the Georgetown University Edunomics Lab helped journalists analyze how the dismantling of the Education Department will affect the bottom line for local school districts.
by Rachel Jones, National Press Foundation

Many journalists are told to “follow the money” – say, if they receive a tip about government corruption or corporate fraud. But in the wake of the Trump Administration’s move to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, journalists must investigate whether local school districts may be forced to tighten budgets, downsize staffs and winnow curriculum in response to shrinking federal support.

Properly contextualizing the impact of federal education policy in local communities is urgent, Laura Anderson and Ash Dhammani of the Georgetown University Edunomics Lab told NPF Widening the Pipeline fellows this month.

“The most consequential (education) finance issue for 2025? Districts are in the position of trying to figure out how are we going to go forward in this next budget cycle spending less,” said Anderson, associate director of Edunomics. Though it’s true that public schools across the country are primarily funded by state and local funds, it may be difficult to impossible for many districts to replace even minimal federal funding if it disappears.

Data analyst Dhammani showed that journalists can assess potential trends and stories that will emerge in the coming months with tools like the National Education Resources Database on Schools (NERD$), the first national data set of public K-12 spending by school.

“The (superintendents) are really stressed about their budgets,” Anderson said. “They’re acknowledging that this is going to be a tighter budget season. And so when your leaders start acknowledging that, then that kind of trickles down and sets the tone within the district. The end of ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds during COVID) left holes in budgets.”

Here are some key points and questions for journalists to consider when reporting on how the Trump executive order for the Education Department could play out in local communities:

Special education costs are a major driver of rising district expenses, and could be the most vulnerable. (Special education identification and staffing ratios are increasing rapidly in some states.)
Because many of the downsized initiatives in the Education Department produced the data that fuels curriculum decisions, much of the progress achieved in supporting children with disabilities could be eroded
Districts must make difficult budget decisions to reduce staffing and spending.
The impact of education savings accounts and vouchers on public school funding is debatable.
Enrollment declines are leading to revenue losses for districts, and many are confronting the prospect of multiple shuttered schools.
How are districts evaluating the effectiveness of their spending decisions and their impact on student outcomes?
What strategies could high-performing districts use to maintain or improve student outcomes despite budget constraints?
How are districts engaging with their communities to build support for difficult budget decisions and their potential impacts?

There are no easy answers, but Dhammani urged the journalists to remember an immutable bottom line:

“It’s the taxpayers of today that are funding the education of the future children coming after them. So it’s really a community effort. It takes the village and all of our investments, people on this conversation are all part of this endeavor, and their dollars are also going towards producing these future leaders. So really tying in the idea of today’s children’s outcomes are a predictor of how this country is going to shape up into the future, how they perform today, what they’re learning in classrooms.”

Speakers:
Laura Anderson, Associate Director, Edunomics Lab, Georgetown University
Ash Dhammani, Policy & Data Analyst, Edunomics Lab, Georgetown University

Summary, transcript and resources: https://nationalpress.org/topic/follo...

This video was produced within the Evelyn Y. Davis studios. This fellowship is funded by the Evelyn Y. Davis Foundation. NPF is solely responsible for the content.