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Month: January 2024

Fiscal Cliff Pressures – the Impact of ‘the Six Es’ on District Budgets

Written by Afton Group on . Posted in Effective Governance, Financial Sustainability.

At Afton, we’ve referred to these interrelated challenges in a framework called ‘the Six Es’:

  1. Economy: States, localities, and districts are facing overall rising costs, and those costs are frequently outpacing revenue growth.
  2. ESSER: Many states and districts used one-time pandemic relief funds to cover recurring, increasing costs, but these funds are slated to end this year while the costs remain.
  3. Employees: Educator talent is more difficult than ever to find and competitively compensate, which can be especially challenging for roles and locations that have seen long-standing shortages.
  4. Enrollment: States and districts are experiencing uneven enrollment changes, complicating district revenue in the short-term, and enrollment is likely to continue to decline overall in the long-term.
  5. Exceptional Needs: Although overall enrollment trends are down, the share of students with greater special education needs, language learner needs, mental health needs, and learning loss needs is rising.
  6. Expectations: Increased needs have led to changing community expectations of the role of schools, and a desire for a higher level of baseline services at all schools.

States and districts will need to rely on one another to address these challenges:

  • States need strong districts to provide the best possible experience for all their students.
  • Districts need states to support their work by providing clear expectations and equitable, adequate, and sustainable funding and systemic solutions.

As both plan for the near- and long-term, neither can do it without the other. Understanding your unique state and district “6E context” is foundational to creating strong policies and programs as we move forward in 2024.

Interested in discussing the 6 Es in your context? Please contact Afton Senior Directors Heather Wendell and Kevin Wenzel to learn more about the work we do. We look forward to being in touch!

2023 Year in Review and Looking Ahead

Written by Afton Group on . Posted in Noteworthy News.

Every initiative we have supported has offered an opportunity to strengthen social systems with a focus on justice. We’ve expanded our skill sets to offer a comprehensive set of solutions to drive change in the public sector, including:

  • Community and family engagement
  • Financial planning, budgeting, and cost modeling
  • Funding policy design and implementation
  • Research and analysis
  • Strategic planning and implementation

Whether in early care and education, K-12 systems, workforce and economic development, or higher education, we put people first and drive changes that create a future where we all can thrive. Here are some highlights from 2023 that helped us learn and grow into who we are today: a team of committed collaborators prepared to walk beside you and take on the complex issues facing us in 2024 and beyond.

2023 Highlights

Look at our amazing team! We added close to 20 full time staff members in the last year who bring decades of diverse experience and skillsets to make Afton even stronger than before!

We conducted over 70 different initiatives last year in 22 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico—some big, some small, all of which are in line with our core values. We would love to tell you about each one but will instead zoom in on a few headlines that stand out as special:

  • We guided Boston Public Schools’ Reimagine School Funding project and grew tremendously through equity-focused, inclusive community engagement that allowed for deep reflection on the evolving role of the school.
  • We partnered with the DC Deputy Mayor for Education to develop a new approach to district/school funding adequacy studies, in collaboration with Augenblick, Palaich and Associates and Metropolitan Strategies and Solutions. We are excited to share the final report in the coming weeks—connect with us on LinkedIn to be the first to know.
  • We continued our support for Illinois’ historic efforts in early childhood through design and development of proposed Smart Start Workforce Grants, cost modeling and data analysis for state-funded preschool, cost modeling and payment reform strategies for Early Intervention, and facilitation of a stakeholder advisory body for a new early childhood state agency.
  • We supported dozens of charter networks in 15 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico on growth planning, facility affordability analyses, financial sustainability, and strategic resource allocation.
  • We developed ‘the Six Es’ Framework to acknowledge the unique context that K-12 public schools, including charters, are operating within. We approach our work with careful consideration of each of these factors, which have potential to destabilize systems if we don’t get ahead of them.
  • We promoted fair early care and education staff compensation and benefits through two separate projects in Colorado.
  • We have begun measuring the impact our work has on the field and use that data to be more strategic, reflective, and effective in the future. If you get a survey from us, please know that we deeply appreciate your comments and insights!

On that final note, we are so pleased when we hear that our service hits the mark, as some of you have graciously shared with us. Here are some quotes shared by our inspirational partners in 2023.

From all of us at Afton, thanks for joining us on the journey! Even in the face of systemic shortcomings, social and racial barriers, and shrinking budgets, when we work together, we can create a future where we all thrive.