Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls

[Anonymous]

What’s going to happen to D.C. schools if Congress doesn’t fix the budget by this summer? This is terrifying—how are schools supposed to function if the funding just disappears? Are we supposed to act as if business is usual? What’s your best hypothetical?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s going to happen to D.C. schools if Congress doesn’t fix the budget by this summer? This is terrifying—how are schools supposed to function if the funding just disappears? Are we supposed to act as if business is usual? What’s your best hypothetical?

Best hypothetical? they'll go to 4 days a week. It'll have to be before summer,

[Anonymous]

Cuts to PK next school year

[Anonymous]

Lose BASIS?

[Anonymous]

https://x.com/tomsherwood/status/1911800412937519452?s=46


Looks like there is some sort of fix. Increase spending by 600 million. Cut 450 ish million. Still a huge issue but may not be as bad? Still think there are cuts coming to schools.

[Anonymous]

The Washington Post has a good article on this. Now the amount that needs to be cut is $410 overall from the city budget. (Instead of $1 billion) due to a provision in a 2009 law that allows for up to 6% more spending that what is laid out in a current year's budget if the $ is available. Hence shrinking the $1 billion to $410 million. Still a lot though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lose BASIS?

No - Basis will take over the entire school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lose BASIS?

No - Basis will take over the entire school system.

No money for investors in educating kids who are not already high-achieving. Would ruin their stats and they're so over-leveraged already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cuts to PK next school year

This is unrelated to the funding issue.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure about cuts to pre-K specifically, but I’m sure DCPS and DCPCS will share some amount of burden.

[Anonymous]

Charters were told to do doomsday budgets by the charter board. This included assuming a cut of about $3500 per student for local per pupil revenue and to also assume that federal grants would be cut (this varies by school depending on how many economically disadvantaged and disabled students there are). You can do the math on the $3,500 per kid for your school but the average 400 kid school would have to cut 1.4 million.

If the Mayor's fix comes through, maybe schools just have to cut 1,500 per kid. Certainly an easier number but will still lead to some hardships for schools.

I do wish DC would do more to tell parents what these cuts could mean if budget authority isn't restored. But too many are wishing and hoping that this will just go away -- I'm not criticizing -- I work in a school and I'm one those people wishing and hoping.

[Anonymous]

My kid got into Duke Ellington and I'm seriously concerned about this. Anyone have insight on how their funding works? I was told by someone at the school that "DCPS doesn't prioritize their arts" but don't really know what that means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid got into Duke Ellington and I'm seriously concerned about this. Anyone have insight on how their funding works? I was told by someone at the school that "DCPS doesn't prioritize their arts" but don't really know what that means.

Ellington has their own fundraising arm.

[Anonymous]

The city already announced the plan for spending cuts yesterday. Schools themselves will not be affected, but pretty much everything else will be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The city already announced the plan for spending cuts yesterday. Schools themselves will not be affected, but pretty much everything else will be.

I’m not so sure schools won’t be affected. That’s the preliminary cuts until Bowser can get a supplemental budget to the council.