Anonymous
Post 05/07/2025 10:31     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
The piles of public money going to build Trump’s Nazi stadium would go a long way towards fixing DCPS budget situation.
Anonymous
Post 04/30/2025 11:54     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
Anonymous wrote:Basically anything anyone needs to buy in DCPS needs a very lengthy waiver process to be completed. That’s including despite the fact that it’s for budgeted items.


It's quite sad. I have a budget too but it's dependent upon receiving a paycheck. It's a miracle DC has been able to do as much as it has so far with the threat that the paycheck is not coming. Or maybe it's not a miracle. Maybe it's wishful thinking that Congress/the President will come through. Either way, as someone who works in a school, we are anxiously awaiting news of whether there will still be the same jobs or not for the upcoming school year.
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2025 19:34     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
Basically anything anyone needs to buy in DCPS needs a very lengthy waiver process to be completed. That’s including despite the fact that it’s for budgeted items.
Anonymous
Post 04/24/2025 23:00     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
Anonymous wrote:Apparently school business managers received an email from Bowser saying all hiring is frozen and no supplies can be bought for the rest of the school year (toilet paper, paper towels, copier paper, etc.)


Our school’s business manager emailed the LSAT today to confirm that hiring is proceeding as normal, admin premium *is not* frozen, and custodial overtime *is* frozen starting next week. Non-personnel spending (supplies) is currently frozen as it is for almost all of DC Gov, but DCPS is working on getting their p-cards turned back on. This is per Patrick Ashley, Deputy Chancellor for Finance.
Anonymous
Post 04/24/2025 22:15     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
Anonymous wrote:Actually, I’m not new to DCPS. I work for them. What you’re describing since it is apparently chronic at your school sounds like an issue with not spending the school based budget for those supplies appropriately.


np: Our school skimps on that stuff and begs parents for it because our budget for staff is horribly insufficient.
Anonymous
Post 04/24/2025 17:18     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
Actually, I’m not new to DCPS. I work for them. What you’re describing since it is apparently chronic at your school sounds like an issue with not spending the school based budget for those supplies appropriately.
Anonymous
Post 04/24/2025 06:35     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
Anonymous wrote:There is a spending freeze in place at DCPS and I believe all DC government agencies but you can apply for a waiver. Not sure those items you mentioned can’t be purchased….that wouldn’t really go over well. [/quote

Are you new to DCPS? I’ve been at schools that NEVER buy copy paper for staff or give a single ream to each teacher for the entire year.

I’ve also been at schools that run out of toilet paper and staff brings their own. It’s a common occurrence in MS and HS that bathrooms have no toilet paper or paper towels.

This has been going on for years and has nothing to do with the current budget.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 23:30     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
There is a spending freeze in place at DCPS and I believe all DC government agencies but you can apply for a waiver. Not sure those items you mentioned can’t be purchased….that wouldn’t really go over well.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 18:54     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
Apparently school business managers received an email from Bowser saying all hiring is frozen and no supplies can be bought for the rest of the school year (toilet paper, paper towels, copier paper, etc.)
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 15:20     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
Anonymous wrote:This would be the perfect time to start require entry tolls into the District for all drivers registered in other states.
Treat DC like central London or Paris. Congestion pricing baby!
MD and VA may not have to pay those camera tickets, but ain’t no escaping a toll!
Will it be expensive to implement? Yes. But it’ll pay for itself quickly.



No can do. Jurisdictions are prohibited from placing tolls on existing interstates--adding a toll to an untolled highway means either expanding capacity and tolling the new lanes only or building an entirely new interstate. Plus you can't only charge drivers from other states.

Besides, any attempt to implement NYC-style congestion pricing would be blocked by Congress. Until DC achieves budget and legislative autonomy, it's a total non-starter.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 14:47     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This would be the perfect time to start require entry tolls into the District for all drivers registered in other states.
Treat DC like central London or Paris. Congestion pricing baby!
MD and VA may not have to pay those camera tickets, but ain’t no escaping a toll!
Will it be expensive to implement? Yes. But it’ll pay for itself quickly.



I would be on board for this! And I even have to drive my kid to their school because we are OOB, it’d be worth it to contribute to the overall revenue. Plus maybe traffic would get better and it would save me some time.


oh great let's tax poor families trying to get their kids to SWS, Logan, half a dozen charters, or god forbid they get a scholarship to a private school. Taxing them to travel across their own city is exactly what they need. Gross. MD and VA, fine. DC, gtfooh.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 05:57     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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.


This is true… but also they have already given the schools the go-ahead to hire for new positions (essentially, they are treating the budget as final), so this is going to be quite the cluster if it doesn’t work out.



Not really it’s happened before. 2009. It was an absolute mess and 700 teachers were fired with essentially no notice in October.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2025 22:32     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
Anonymous wrote:
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.


This is true… but also they have already given the schools the go-ahead to hire for new positions (essentially, they are treating the budget as final), so this is going to be quite the cluster if it doesn’t work out.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2025 20:42     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
Anonymous wrote:This would be the perfect time to start require entry tolls into the District for all drivers registered in other states.
Treat DC like central London or Paris. Congestion pricing baby!
MD and VA may not have to pay those camera tickets, but ain’t no escaping a toll!
Will it be expensive to implement? Yes. But it’ll pay for itself quickly.



I would be on board for this! And I even have to drive my kid to their school because we are OOB, it’d be worth it to contribute to the overall revenue. Plus maybe traffic would get better and it would save me some time.
Anonymous
Post 04/22/2025 20:01     Subject: Hypotheticals— DC Budget shortfalls
This would be the perfect time to start require entry tolls into the District for all drivers registered in other states.
Treat DC like central London or Paris. Congestion pricing baby!
MD and VA may not have to pay those camera tickets, but ain’t no escaping a toll!
Will it be expensive to implement? Yes. But it’ll pay for itself quickly.