The congressional stalemate over the next federal relief bill is hurting low-income districts鈥� spending and school morale in what鈥檚 already amounted to a chaotic and stressful year. Nobody knows that better than the teachers who are on the hook.
After surviving three rounds of layoffs this year alone, Abby Bardanis鈥� spirits were buoyed earlier this month when students she hadn鈥檛 seen since March walked through Enrico Fermi School No. 17 in Rochester, N.Y., to register for class.
But just a week into the school year, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, afraid Congress would not help repair the state鈥檚 $14 billion budget deficit, was threatening to cut another 20 percent out of Rochester鈥檚 budget this year, which would mean more than 800 Rochester teachers would be laid off.
As his threats grew, despite protests, Bardanis assumed she and several of her colleagues were likely to be canned this month.
Then, at the last minute, Cuomo, under immense political pressure, changed his mind and decided to wait until after the election to do budget cuts.
鈥淓very time they announce potential layoffs, it throws everyone into a tizzy,鈥� said Bardanis, a bilingual special education teacher. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e going to say you鈥檙e going to do something, stick to it. We鈥檙e freaking out and then not freaking out. It鈥檚 a constant up and down.鈥�
The congressional delay in passing new aid legislation is having real-life impact close to the ground. Any new congressional aid would be funneled to low-income districts across the country, which are heavily reliant on state sales and income tax revenue that has been wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.
States now estimate that they will lose close to $500 billion by 2022, and the $13 billion provided to school districts under the federal CARES Act has mostly been distributed and spent. The vast majority of state legislatures have decided to wait to repair this year鈥檚 budget hole until Congress decides on whether to provide districts with another relief bill. It remains likely that it won鈥檛 come until after this year鈥檚 pivotal elections.
Delay Deepens the Threat
As superintendents of low-income districts have explained to their school board members this month, the longer Congress and legislatures wait, the more severe the budget cuts will be and the more likely that they will result in teacher layoffs.
That鈥檚 because districts spend the bulk of their money at the beginning of the school year and enter yearlong contracts with vendors to provide a bevy of services.
When states cut their budgets halfway through the fiscal year, district chief financial officers have to cut proportionally more sizeable chunks of money out of their budgets, since they鈥檝e already spent so much of it. They also have to lay off more teachers since they can鈥檛 abruptly end contracts they鈥檝e entered.
In addition, school finance experts are worried that revenue forecasts could potentially worsen this winter since states had gambled that a COVID-19 vaccine would have been created by January at least and that the economy would have rebounded by then. It鈥檚 becoming more and more clear that neither will happen soon.
鈥淭he main thing we鈥檇 like for politicians to do right now is their jobs,鈥� said Heather DuBois Bourenane, the executive director of the Wisconsin Public Education Network, a school funding advocacy group, who spoke by phone while stacking more than 2,000 鈥渧ote public schools鈥� yard signs in her garage. 鈥淭heir failure to allow kids to have an equitable opportunity to learn right now, is criminally negligent.鈥�
Wisconsin鈥檚 legislature last met in March and has refused to reconvene to readjust its budget, which is now estimated to be $2 billion off projections. School administrators now worry that they will be doubly punished when the legislature finally does reconvene since so many districts lost thousands of students this summer due to the pandemic and won鈥檛 get the funding for those students.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of chaos, confusion, and frustration and fear here,鈥� Bourenane said. 鈥淓verything is madness, but nothing is cheaper.鈥�
New York Turmoil
New York鈥檚 budget office this year is giving districts the $70 billion it annually spends on schools in monthly payments, the largest of which is in September.
As it became more and more apparent that Congress could not agree on what the next federal bailout package should look like, the governor began withholding 20 percent payments from several state agencies across the state and then threatened to do the same with its education department, which makes up the biggest chunk of the state鈥檚 budget.
As Cuomo鈥檚 threats escalated, Jasmine Gripper, the executive director of New York鈥檚 Alliance for Quality Education, a school funding advocacy group, ramped up her protests.
She sent weekly e-mail blasts detailing for her thousands of members what a 20 percent budget cut would look like in schools. And, despite the pandemic, she and hundreds of parents rallied in front of the legislature in Albany and then in front of the governor鈥檚 mansion and paraded in yellow taxicabs down Manhattan streets.
Cuomo鈥檚 Sept. 16 announcement to hold off on the September budget cut was a 鈥渨in, but not a win,鈥� Gripper said. 鈥淲e live to fight another day.鈥�
For Schenectedy, a 9,000-student, low-income district 200 miles east of Rochester, the governor鈥檚 last-minute announcement was too late. The superintendent had already laid off 320 educators, almost half of whom were educators of color, recently recruited into the district as part of a diversity initiative. It鈥檇 be too expensive and not financially prudent, to hire them back, a district spokeswoman told the local press.
In Rochester, board chair Van Henri White said he didn鈥檛 want to cause a 鈥渞un on the banks鈥� and urged the board to not announce what a 20 percent budget cut would look like.
鈥淚 think we were telling people too quickly what this would mean. and we didn鈥檛 even know the depth of the hole we might be in,鈥� he said. 鈥淸Cuomo], I think, was using this threat as a way to bargain and pressure the feds to reach some compromise.鈥�
The district realized halfway through last year that it had overestimated its revenue by more than $45 million. That, combined with the state鈥檚 pandemic-related budget cuts earlier this year, resulted in more than 300 layoffs.
The community has already been in turmoil. In the last year alone, the district has had three CFOs and two superintendents. The city, one of the poorest in the nation, is reeling from the March death of Daniel Prude, a Black man who was in police custody at the time, and a mass shooting earlier this month which led to the death of two high school students.
鈥淥ur kids are experiencing major trauma right now,鈥� White said. The school board last week laid off several nonclassified staff since school buildings are closed. 鈥淲hat our kids need right now is social-emotional support to get through this. Laying off teachers after the school year has started is just cruel. You鈥檙e cutting off relationships.鈥�
Bardanis knows intimately how federal and state politicking over K-12 aid impacts the classroom. Three days before school started this year, the district abruptly decided to lay off another round of paraprofessionals and teachers, which resulted in her caseload doubling.
This year, she鈥檚 resolved to permanently turn off the news.
鈥淵ou just have to shut it out and not let it in,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 just don鈥檛 think politicians care about anything or anybody.鈥疍o they even listen?鈥�
