If you thought that the federal government's stimulus package was going to ease our budget problems get ready for more disappointment. The print out from the Committee on Education and Labor (click on Washington) shows the potential revenue for school districts across the country from the House plan. Because both Title 1 and the construction are driven by free and reduced lunch counts our potential windfall for Title 1 is zero and for construction is $150,000. To put the construction amount in a context, our planning committee was looking at a potential bond measure in excess of $150,000,000 to meet our maintenance, renovation, and growth needs.
The one area slated for a potential increase is in IDEA (special education) funding. Year one would be about $625,ooo and year two about $720,000. This looks good, but the problem for us is that these dollar amounts would simply reduce the revenue we currently receive from Safety Net, a separate federal revenue source administered by OSPI. The result would be no net gain in special education funding.
Since it is highly unlikely that this same stimulus package would be included in future federal education budgets it may end up positive for us. Since we will not be receiving significant amounts we will be making budget adjustments next year that other districts might postpone because they are slated for much more. This could make it even more difficult for those districts in the future. There is obviously much debate and disagreement in Washington D.C. over this package so things could change. We will be monitoring closely and letting you know as well as any developments in Olympia that might influence our budget efforts.
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3 comments:
How have you managed to stay positive and hopeful despite year after year of levels of financial support for education that are woefully inadequate? I struggle sometimes. I have always thus far come around after my budget induced periods of melancholy. Will I always? It is always the same. I get frustrated that we are not given sufficient funding to do the job as well as it needs to be done. Then I think about how while we attempt to do the job as best we can we have to fight at the same time for the tools to do even that. And every time education funding is seriously talked about by some decision makers in Olympia or Washington D.C. they tell us that providing any additional funding would just be throwing money at the problem. That one drives me nuts. When they want to spend money on an initiative it is an essential investment they are making. When they don't, it is throwing money at the problem. How do you stand it? How do you remain hopeful and positive?
Ethan,
Working with people like you. Learning from those around me and knowing that I can have some influence in supporting teachers in our country's most important profession. Regardless of our revenue, the purpose remains clear and the need persists. What changes is our capacity to respond to the need. In the short term we are faced with adapting to reduced revenue, something we will do with thought and care. Our purpose remains the same, preparing young people to meet the learning and work challenges they will face following graduation. It is the purpose that keeps me going.
Mike
Ethan
I heard an excellent comeback from Dr. Rachel Maddow the other night on MSNBC. I too have heard the age-old whine RE: throwing money at education. Rachel's response may come in handy should you ever encounter that phrase in the future... "when you hear someone complain that you are just throwing money at the problem look them in the eye and say, Wasn't that what the government did to the auto industry? the Bank of America? Lehman Brothers? And aren't schools worth AT LEAST as much as those institutions?" I'd never thought about it that way. She's absolutely right.
LoomDog
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