x

Interested in learning how and why creating equitable and sustainable systems can create meaningful change? Sign up for our monthly newsletter here!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Afton Partners

Contact

Trends in the News

READ AFTON'S "TRENDS IN EDUCATION FINANCE"

All Posts

Ed Week, 7/1/18

The largest teachers’ union predicts a 14 percent membership loss over two years

The National Education Association is projecting a nearly 8 percent membership loss over the course of the next school year, along with a $28 million budget reduction, due to an adverse Supreme Court ruling. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled to prohibit public-sector unions in 22 states from collecting “agency” or “fair share” fees from nonmembers. Those fees were meant to cover the cost of collective bargaining. The decision is expected to lead to an exodus of members from the teachers’ unions since people can now be represented in collective bargaining without having to pay anything.

Pension Costs
Education Dive, 6/27/18

District leaders generally support California’s flexible school finance formula

California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) allows districts to better meet local needs and improve services for low-income students, children in foster care and English learners. But three-fourths of the superintendents responding to a new survey say the basic level of funding from the state is not adequate for them to make the improvements they say are needed, according to results released today. The findings also show that 90% of the 350 superintendents who responded wish they could have even more flexibility to use the funds to support programs targeting other groups of students not identified by LCFF, such as students of color.

WestEd, 4/1/18

Silent recession: Why California school districts are underwater despite increases in funding

Despite projected increases in state and local funding, California school districts face financial pressures that threaten to destabilize their budgets and force reductions in student services. A paper released by WestEd describes the fiscal pressures that districts face and outlines the implications in an effort to bring this issue, the silent recession, to light. Although California’s education funding formula provides revenues that grow incrementally each year, these increases are not based on the actual growth in the costs of operating a school. Consequently, some districts are experiencing cost increases that outpace revenue increases. This dynamic requires districts to find new strategies to prioritize their spending, and may lead to employee and program reductions as rising costs effectively “crowd out” other investments.

Local Education Funding Pension Costs State Education Funding
Education Week, 4/3/18

Making school spending data transparent and accessible is no easy lift

While most people understand K-12 education spending in terms of average district per-pupil amounts, how districts distribute federal, state and local dollars between schools has long been a mystery even to district superintendents. But many have theorized that seeing distribution levels by school can reveal to the public how (or whether) money boosts academic results and whether money is being spent as intended.

Federal Education Funding Local Education Funding School Money and Performance State Education Funding
Washington Post, 4/8/18

Opinion: The deeper cause behind the school strikes

To those paying attention, the recent strikes for higher teachers’ pay in West Virginia and Oklahoma are a harbinger of things to come. Youcan attribute the strikes to the stinginess of the states’ political leaders. After all, average annual teachers’ salaries in these states ranked, respectively, 49th-lowest (Oklahoma at $45,276) and 48th-lowest (West Virginia, $45,622) in 2016, reports the National Education Association. But that’s the superficial explanation. The deeper cause is that teachers — and schools — are competing with the elderly for scarce funds.

Pension Costs State Education Funding
Gainsville Times, 4/18/18

Georgia: Bus funding remains a challenge for schools even with more state money

A recent report from the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute outlined safety concerns related to aging school bus fleets. “Shrinking state funding for student transportation and rising costs are making it more difficult for school districts across Georgia to get children to and from school safely,” the report states. “The worsening financial pinch leaves districts with aging bus fleets on the road past their intended life, concerns about student safety and far fewer dollars to invest in the classroom.”

Local Education Funding State Education Funding
The Daily Iowan, 4/4/18

Will higher education remain accessible as funding becomes less public?

While funding sources have shifted over the years, the actual dollar amount of state appropriations has essentially remained flat with fiscal 1998 funding levels nearly equal to the amount appropriated to the universities in fiscal 2018. In that same time period, enrollment has spiked, meaning on a per-student basis, financial support for higher education has not kept pace with growth; the amount of available monetary resources hasn’t changed much, but that dollar amount has to be spread among more students. In the fall of 2000, the regents reported an enrollment of 68,930, and in fall 2017, that number rose to 80,066.

Higher Ed State Education Funding
Longview News Journal, 4/1/18

Texas schools scramble after state’s $118M pre-K funding cut

Texas pre-K programs are just scraping by after losing millions of dollars last year — and without sustainable funding, they could see greater problems down the line, school officials say…The money had gone to 573 districts and charter schools that pledged to meet measures such as setting a lower student-teacher ratio, avoiding Common Core curricula and reporting student progress to the state.

Pre-K State Education Funding