NYT Article on Fiscal Cliff Faced by School Districts Nationwide

[Anonymous]

Offers some perspective on MCPS struggles. Article references MCPS.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/26/us/schools-budget-cuts-pandemic-aid.html

[Anonymous]

Nothing surprising there. Many school districts used a temporary revenue stream to fund permanent/ongoing services/staff, rather than funding short-term, pandemic-related expenses as intended.

Adding to that, telling working families that it is unreasonable to expect public schools to stay open caused some to permanently switch to private school.

[Anonymous]

Cut administration, both school-based and central office. Place employees with teaching degrees back into the classroom.

There are far too many positions that have little to no impact on the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing surprising there. Many school districts used a temporary revenue stream to fund permanent/ongoing services/staff, rather than funding short-term, pandemic-related expenses as intended.

Adding to that, telling working families that it is unreasonable to expect public schools to stay open caused some to permanently switch to private school.

But that should actually make things easier for places like MCPS. Those parents still pay the same property taxes but it's a few less kids for the school to spend $ on. We don't have vouchers etc here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing surprising there. Many school districts used a temporary revenue stream to fund permanent/ongoing services/staff, rather than funding short-term, pandemic-related expenses as intended.

Adding to that, telling working families that it is unreasonable to expect public schools to stay open caused some to permanently switch to private school.

But that should actually make things easier for places like MCPS. Those parents still pay the same property taxes but it's a few less kids for the school to spend $ on. We don't have vouchers etc here.

We know MCPS wastes boatloads of $$$ on pointless programs. There is so much fat in their budget that they need to cut. I'd personally rather they stopped with all the discretionary spending on comms firms, RJ or SEL programs or maybe don't hire 30 more staff for dubious DEI initiatives that push honors for all to dumb everything down.

[Anonymous]

Anyone have a gift link to the story?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing surprising there. Many school districts used a temporary revenue stream to fund permanent/ongoing services/staff, rather than funding short-term, pandemic-related expenses as intended.

Adding to that, telling working families that it is unreasonable to expect public schools to stay open caused some to permanently switch to private school.

But that should actually make things easier for places like MCPS. Those parents still pay the same property taxes but it's a few less kids for the school to spend $ on. We don't have vouchers etc here.

The problem is that school expenses are inelastic. There are a lot of fixed, or nearly fixed, costs tied up in staffing and facilities. As we saw this year, it is very controversial to cut teachers even when enrollment decreases. Closing schools would be even more controversial. So kids going private decreases revenue without really decreasing costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing surprising there. Many school districts used a temporary revenue stream to fund permanent/ongoing services/staff, rather than funding short-term, pandemic-related expenses as intended.

Adding to that, telling working families that it is unreasonable to expect public schools to stay open caused some to permanently switch to private school.

But that should actually make things easier for places like MCPS. Those parents still pay the same property taxes but it's a few less kids for the school to spend $ on. We don't have vouchers etc here.

We know MCPS wastes boatloads of $$$ on pointless programs. There is so much fat in their budget that they need to cut. I'd personally rather they stopped with all the discretionary spending on comms firms, RJ or SEL programs or maybe don't hire 30 more staff for dubious DEI initiatives that push honors for all to dumb everything down.

Yes to all of this. MCPS wastes too much money on useless initiatives that don’t even help students.

Cut the nonsense. Focus on smaller class sizes and a strong curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing surprising there. Many school districts used a temporary revenue stream to fund permanent/ongoing services/staff, rather than funding short-term, pandemic-related expenses as intended.

Adding to that, telling working families that it is unreasonable to expect public schools to stay open caused some to permanently switch to private school.

But that should actually make things easier for places like MCPS. Those parents still pay the same property taxes but it's a few less kids for the school to spend $ on. We don't have vouchers etc here.

We know MCPS wastes boatloads of $$$ on pointless programs. There is so much fat in their budget that they need to cut. I'd personally rather they stopped with all the discretionary spending on comms firms, RJ or SEL programs or maybe don't hire 30 more staff for dubious DEI initiatives that push honors for all to dumb everything down.

Yes to all of this. MCPS wastes too much money on useless initiatives that don’t even help students.

Cut the nonsense. Focus on smaller class sizes and a strong curriculum.

Addressing class sizes is the most expensive thing MCPs can do. I don't think people realize just how much of the budget goes to teachers and facilities rather than the programs that are often criticized here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing surprising there. Many school districts used a temporary revenue stream to fund permanent/ongoing services/staff, rather than funding short-term, pandemic-related expenses as intended.

Adding to that, telling working families that it is unreasonable to expect public schools to stay open caused some to permanently switch to private school.

But that should actually make things easier for places like MCPS. Those parents still pay the same property taxes but it's a few less kids for the school to spend $ on. We don't have vouchers etc here.

We probably should have vouchers, though. MCPS needs to feel consequences from putting MCEA requests above student needs. If doing that would lead to more students going private, and thus MCPs losing funding, then the BoE would have to think twice about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have a gift link to the story?

Why U.S. Schools Are Facing Their Biggest Budget Crunch in Years - Full Article Share

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing surprising there. Many school districts used a temporary revenue stream to fund permanent/ongoing services/staff, rather than funding short-term, pandemic-related expenses as intended.

Adding to that, telling working families that it is unreasonable to expect public schools to stay open caused some to permanently switch to private school.

But that should actually make things easier for places like MCPS. Those parents still pay the same property taxes but it's a few less kids for the school to spend $ on. We don't have vouchers etc here.

The problem is that school expenses are inelastic. There are a lot of fixed, or nearly fixed, costs tied up in staffing and facilities. As we saw this year, it is very controversial to cut teachers even when enrollment decreases. Closing schools would be even more controversial. So kids going private decreases revenue without really decreasing costs.

People don’t understand how many kids need to leave in order to reduce expenses for a school district. For example, let’s say the school district loss 100 students this year. While that seems like a lot it’s really not because those 100 students likely represent a wide range of schools and grades.

As PP indicates vouchers would be a loss of funds for a school district while their expenses remained the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing surprising there. Many school districts used a temporary revenue stream to fund permanent/ongoing services/staff, rather than funding short-term, pandemic-related expenses as intended.

Adding to that, telling working families that it is unreasonable to expect public schools to stay open caused some to permanently switch to private school.

But that should actually make things easier for places like MCPS. Those parents still pay the same property taxes but it's a few less kids for the school to spend $ on. We don't have vouchers etc here.

The problem is that school expenses are inelastic. There are a lot of fixed, or nearly fixed, costs tied up in staffing and facilities. As we saw this year, it is very controversial to cut teachers even when enrollment decreases. Closing schools would be even more controversial. So kids going private decreases revenue without really decreasing costs.

People don’t understand how many kids need to leave in order to reduce expenses for a school district. For example, let’s say the school district loss 100 students this year. While that seems like a lot it’s really not because those 100 students likely represent a wide range of schools and grades.

As PP indicates vouchers would be a loss of funds for a school district while their expenses remained the same.

Exactly. This is also why cutting MVA provided cost savings even though it was theoretically cheaper on a per-pupil basis than in-person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing surprising there. Many school districts used a temporary revenue stream to fund permanent/ongoing services/staff, rather than funding short-term, pandemic-related expenses as intended.

Adding to that, telling working families that it is unreasonable to expect public schools to stay open caused some to permanently switch to private school.

But that should actually make things easier for places like MCPS. Those parents still pay the same property taxes but it's a few less kids for the school to spend $ on. We don't have vouchers etc here.

We know MCPS wastes boatloads of $$$ on pointless programs. There is so much fat in their budget that they need to cut. I'd personally rather they stopped with all the discretionary spending on comms firms, RJ or SEL programs or maybe don't hire 30 more staff for dubious DEI initiatives that push honors for all to dumb everything down.

Yes to all of this. MCPS wastes too much money on useless initiatives that don’t even help students.

Cut the nonsense. Focus on smaller class sizes and a strong curriculum.

Addressing class sizes is the most expensive thing MCPs can do. I don't think people realize just how much of the budget goes to teachers and facilities rather than the programs that are often criticized here.

+1 I actually think smaller class sizes would be great, but these "why don't they just....." folks have not done the math. Most schools are at or above capacity right now, even with portables. Reducing class sizes in a meaningful way would require tens of millions of dollars in new construction, and then staffing those new buildings would be a permanent investment. We may want to make that investment as a county, but it's not an easy answer by any stretch of the imagination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing surprising there. Many school districts used a temporary revenue stream to fund permanent/ongoing services/staff, rather than funding short-term, pandemic-related expenses as intended.

Adding to that, telling working families that it is unreasonable to expect public schools to stay open caused some to permanently switch to private school.

But that should actually make things easier for places like MCPS. Those parents still pay the same property taxes but it's a few less kids for the school to spend $ on. We don't have vouchers etc here.

We know MCPS wastes boatloads of $$$ on pointless programs. There is so much fat in their budget that they need to cut. I'd personally rather they stopped with all the discretionary spending on comms firms, RJ or SEL programs or maybe don't hire 30 more staff for dubious DEI initiatives that push honors for all to dumb everything down.

Yes to all of this. MCPS wastes too much money on useless initiatives that don’t even help students.

Cut the nonsense. Focus on smaller class sizes and a strong curriculum.

Addressing class sizes is the most expensive thing MCPs can do. I don't think people realize just how much of the budget goes to teachers and facilities rather than the programs that are often criticized here.

+1 I actually think smaller class sizes would be great, but these "why don't they just....." folks have not done the math. Most schools are at or above capacity right now, even with portables. Reducing class sizes in a meaningful way would require tens of millions of dollars in new construction, and then staffing those new buildings would be a permanent investment. We may want to make that investment as a county, but it's not an easy answer by any stretch of the imagination.

+100. Suggestions are great but people need to then be willing to think through these ideas and match them with their expectations. Everybody wants meaningful use of funds but few people want their boundaries changed. People want smaller class sizes but don’t say what would be the ideal class size at each level and then do the math to figure out how many additional classes and teach staff would be needed. Folks want less money spent on comms yet are constantly complaining about needing more communication. Etc etc.

I do think it be good to get more staff in the building as paraeducators of varying levels, to help support teachers and students.