There. I fixed their headline. The “free” covid bonanza allowed school districts across America to delay adjusting staffing for declining enrollment. With the money coming to an end, there is a glut of unfunded and unjustified positions that need to be reduced all at once instead of gradually. If the school districts had managed their staffing to need instead of to available funding, they would all be flush with surpluses and not have this problem.
Schools across the country are announcing teacher and staff layoffs as districts brace for the end of a pandemic aid package that delivered the largest one-time federal investment in K-12 education.
The funds must be used by the end of September, creating a sharp funding cliff as schools also struggle with widespread enrollment declines and inflation.
Many districts have warned of layoffs as the current school year comes to a close and next year’s budgets are planned. The local headlines about teachers likely won’t help Americans who remain stubbornly pessimistic about the economy feel any better, adding to the challenge President Joe Biden faces to show voters how things are better than they were four years ago.
This right-sizing depends entirely on politics rather than economics. When it comes to education spending Republicans are not significantly better than Democrats. Both are going to be more than willing to continue overfunding with the goal of reducing the government-induced, Covid lockdown learning deficit. A new save-the-children hysteria will be rolled out by the middle of summer. They’ll try to normalize K3 enrollment and float the idea of a public daycare benefit for working parents as a necessity for economic recovery. Dems will start it and Pubbies will dutifully chime in a heartbeat later.
They’ll milk these new angles for at least decade.