Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cuts to PK next school year

This won’t be the case. More likely cuts to social workers, counselors, multi-lingual teachers, sped teachers, and then if needed cuts to grade level bands.

Pre-K brings in students, even if some parents switch schools in K+.
Also many NW schools already only have PK4, so it’s highly unlikely they will cut anything else.

It’s more likely to cut specialized teachers who are not homeroom teachers before grade level bands.

All of this is about the budget for *this* fiscal year. Cutting positions for *next* fiscal year will have close to zero effect on resolving the issue. People on this thread don't understand how budgeting works and are making up nonsense. Because we have the actual money, it's not a matter of cutting future expenditures to free up funds; it's that we've been ordered to spend $1 billion less *this* fiscal year... which now can be reduced to $400 million thanks to the 2009 5% law. There may well be a separate fight over positions, etc for next year... but that budget hasn't been passed yet and has nothing to do with the present shortfall.

Uhhh no, it’s about next year too, next school year (which starts this year).

The mayor already decided school’s budgets, they have been released. These cuts, whether this year or not IMPACT next school year.

Thus schools will have to change their budget for this coming school year and cut people I mentioned. 😒

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cuts to PK next school year

This won’t be the case. More likely cuts to social workers, counselors, multi-lingual teachers, sped teachers, and then if needed cuts to grade level bands.

Pre-K brings in students, even if some parents switch schools in K+.
Also many NW schools already only have PK4, so it’s highly unlikely they will cut anything else.

It’s more likely to cut specialized teachers who are not homeroom teachers before grade level bands.

All of this is about the budget for *this* fiscal year. Cutting positions for *next* fiscal year will have close to zero effect on resolving the issue. People on this thread don't understand how budgeting works and are making up nonsense. Because we have the actual money, it's not a matter of cutting future expenditures to free up funds; it's that we've been ordered to spend $1 billion less *this* fiscal year... which now can be reduced to $400 million thanks to the 2009 5% law. There may well be a separate fight over positions, etc for next year... but that budget hasn't been passed yet and has nothing to do with the present shortfall.

Uhhh no, it’s about next year too, next school year (which starts this year).

The mayor already decided school’s budgets, they have been released. These cuts, whether this year or not IMPACT next school year.

Thus schools will have to change their budget for this coming school year and cut people I mentioned. 😒

DC's fiscal year is Oct 1 to Sept 30. The current continuing resolution expires Sept 30.

The money that the CR forces to remain unspent is during this fiscal year, ending Sept. 30. There is little time to reduce spending enough, which is why DC is taking measures now, even though a fix may happen.

The situation only effects this school year, this summer, and September of next school year. Of course, you can't as a practical matter just suddenly hire a bunch of people on Oct 1. And who knows what BS Congress will pull going forward.

[Anonymous]

If Congress doesn’t do its job then DC has between now and September 30th to save (ie. Not spend money that’s already in the bank) to the tune of $410 million. To not spend that much money in such short time (relatively speaking) they will have to furlough most employees of the city government (they’ll exempt teachers, police, firefighters) which will come up with the largest amount of $. And of course that means DMV closures, pools, rec centers, libraries, etc etc. that’s at the very least

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cuts to PK next school year

This won’t be the case. More likely cuts to social workers, counselors, multi-lingual teachers, sped teachers, and then if needed cuts to grade level bands.

Pre-K brings in students, even if some parents switch schools in K+.
Also many NW schools already only have PK4, so it’s highly unlikely they will cut anything else.

It’s more likely to cut specialized teachers who are not homeroom teachers before grade level bands.

All of this is about the budget for *this* fiscal year. Cutting positions for *next* fiscal year will have close to zero effect on resolving the issue. People on this thread don't understand how budgeting works and are making up nonsense. Because we have the actual money, it's not a matter of cutting future expenditures to free up funds; it's that we've been ordered to spend $1 billion less *this* fiscal year... which now can be reduced to $400 million thanks to the 2009 5% law. There may well be a separate fight over positions, etc for next year... but that budget hasn't been passed yet and has nothing to do with the present shortfall.

Uhhh no, it’s about next year too, next school year (which starts this year).

The mayor already decided school’s budgets, they have been released. These cuts, whether this year or not IMPACT next school year.

Thus schools will have to change their budget for this coming school year and cut people I mentioned. 😒

No, no it isn’t. The CR only lasts until Sep 30. What they could do is leave the 6 week overlap completely unfunded and hope they can get backpay (it’s happened before, though the circumstances weren’t identical). The budget for next year hasn’t been decided on. Could it be affected by this Congress? Sure. Has anything that has happened so far have a direct effect? No.

[Anonymous]

Maybe start with not spending millions on this stuff?

https://dcpsequity.com/resources/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If Congress doesn’t do its job then DC has between now and September 30th to save (ie. Not spend money that’s already in the bank) to the tune of $410 million. To not spend that much money in such short time (relatively speaking) they will have to furlough most employees of the city government (they’ll exempt teachers, police, firefighters) which will come up with the largest amount of $. And of course that means DMV closures, pools, rec centers, libraries, etc etc. that’s at the very least

I’m no fan of how congress has handled this but don’t our own budget projections have us down a billion over the next three years? If I was managing that percentage of cut in my home budget I’d start by reducing expenses immediately regardless of the games congress is playing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If Congress doesn’t do its job then DC has between now and September 30th to save (ie. Not spend money that’s already in the bank) to the tune of $410 million. To not spend that much money in such short time (relatively speaking) they will have to furlough most employees of the city government (they’ll exempt teachers, police, firefighters) which will come up with the largest amount of $. And of course that means DMV closures, pools, rec centers, libraries, etc etc. that’s at the very least

I think it would be rolling furloughs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This might be a stupid question because I admittedly don't have an understanding of school budgeting, but do we foresee any vast difference in impact on charter schools v. DCPS with these shortfalls?

Schools across the board aren’t going to experience a shortfall this FY. The money will be taken from other agencies if necessary.

Charters were told at first to budget for a cut this year that might include not receiving the quarterly payment on April 15. That payment did come and it covers the last quarter for each charter school's current fiscal year which ends on June 30. That's different than the DC government and federal fiscal year which ends September 30.

The only guidance to charters so far came a month ago from the PCSB and it said that charters should use FY2024 funding levels for FY2026 and to plan for the loss of federal grants. I don't think it will come to that but that's the only guidance provided so far. Charter's FY2026 budget starts on July 1, 2025.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Congress doesn’t do its job then DC has between now and September 30th to save (ie. Not spend money that’s already in the bank) to the tune of $410 million. To not spend that much money in such short time (relatively speaking) they will have to furlough most employees of the city government (they’ll exempt teachers, police, firefighters) which will come up with the largest amount of $. And of course that means DMV closures, pools, rec centers, libraries, etc etc. that’s at the very least

I’m no fan of how congress has handled this but don’t our own budget projections have us down a billion over the next three years? If I was managing that percentage of cut in my home budget I’d start by reducing expenses immediately regardless of the games congress is playing.

They are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe start with not spending millions on this stuff?

https://dcpsequity.com/resources/

No sorry, I would have agreed if it was one of the many dumb programs DCPS uses but being anti-racist is important. If you don’t believe in such a practice you can move to one of the many states that like to pretend racism doesn’t exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cuts to PK next school year

This won’t be the case. More likely cuts to social workers, counselors, multi-lingual teachers, sped teachers, and then if needed cuts to grade level bands.

Pre-K brings in students, even if some parents switch schools in K+.
Also many NW schools already only have PK4, so it’s highly unlikely they will cut anything else.

It’s more likely to cut specialized teachers who are not homeroom teachers before grade level bands.

All of this is about the budget for *this* fiscal year. Cutting positions for *next* fiscal year will have close to zero effect on resolving the issue. People on this thread don't understand how budgeting works and are making up nonsense. Because we have the actual money, it's not a matter of cutting future expenditures to free up funds; it's that we've been ordered to spend $1 billion less *this* fiscal year... which now can be reduced to $400 million thanks to the 2009 5% law. There may well be a separate fight over positions, etc for next year... but that budget hasn't been passed yet and has nothing to do with the present shortfall.

Uhhh no, it’s about next year too, next school year (which starts this year).

The mayor already decided school’s budgets, they have been released. These cuts, whether this year or not IMPACT next school year.

Thus schools will have to change their budget for this coming school year and cut people I mentioned. 😒

No, no it isn’t. The CR only lasts until Sep 30. What they could do is leave the 6 week overlap completely unfunded and hope they can get backpay (it’s happened before, though the circumstances weren’t identical). The budget for next year hasn’t been decided on. Could it be affected by this Congress? Sure. Has anything that has happened so far have a direct effect? No.

The budget for SY 25-26 has been decided on. Schools have submitted their budgets. They have not released them publicly.

[Anonymous]

It seems everyone here is new or has forgotten October 2009 when hundreds of teachers were fired because there wasn’t enough money for the fiscal year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe start with not spending millions on this stuff?

https://dcpsequity.com/resources/

No sorry, I would have agreed if it was one of the many dumb programs DCPS uses but being anti-racist is important. If you don’t believe in such a practice you can move to one of the many states that like to pretend racism doesn’t exist.

Here's the thing: These programs would be really valuable if DC could buy them to be presented in one of those other states. But educating people within DCPS about racism is of limited value.

[Anonymous]

I think it's out of vogue now anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cuts to PK next school year

This won’t be the case. More likely cuts to social workers, counselors, multi-lingual teachers, sped teachers, and then if needed cuts to grade level bands.

Pre-K brings in students, even if some parents switch schools in K+.
Also many NW schools already only have PK4, so it’s highly unlikely they will cut anything else.

It’s more likely to cut specialized teachers who are not homeroom teachers before grade level bands.

All of this is about the budget for *this* fiscal year. Cutting positions for *next* fiscal year will have close to zero effect on resolving the issue. People on this thread don't understand how budgeting works and are making up nonsense. Because we have the actual money, it's not a matter of cutting future expenditures to free up funds; it's that we've been ordered to spend $1 billion less *this* fiscal year... which now can be reduced to $400 million thanks to the 2009 5% law. There may well be a separate fight over positions, etc for next year... but that budget hasn't been passed yet and has nothing to do with the present shortfall.

Uhhh no, it’s about next year too, next school year (which starts this year).

The mayor already decided school’s budgets, they have been released. These cuts, whether this year or not IMPACT next school year.

Thus schools will have to change their budget for this coming school year and cut people I mentioned. 😒

No, no it isn’t. The CR only lasts until Sep 30. What they could do is leave the 6 week overlap completely unfunded and hope they can get backpay (it’s happened before, though the circumstances weren’t identical). The budget for next year hasn’t been decided on. Could it be affected by this Congress? Sure. Has anything that has happened so far have a direct effect? No.

The budget for SY 25-26 has been decided on. Schools have submitted their budgets. They have not released them publicly.

The budget has been proposed. It is not decided on. The process described below is from the DCPS school budgets website. Typically, the budgets proposed are upheld and even improved by Council but these are unprecedented times. No one really knows what will happen if Congress makes changes to DC's ability to use its own money or if federal/Title grants are reduced or eliminated.

Budget Review and Approval by DC Council
DCPS principals submit their school budgets in the QuickBase budget application. School budgets are part of the proposed agency budget, which is sent to the Mayor. The Mayor submits the DCPS budget with other agency budgets to the DC Council for approval. The DC Council reviews the budget, holds a hearing, and can make changes or additions to the proposed budget. The U.S. Congress ultimately approves the budget.