Journal of Education Finance Pub Date : 2021-04-01 Henry Tran, David Buckman, Tyrone Bynoe, Randall S. Vesely
- School Finance During the PandemicHow are States Responding?
- Henry Tran (bio), David Buckman (bio), Tyrone Bynoe (bio), and Randall S. Vesely (bio)
The COVID-19 pandemic has had far reaching economic impacts, with the aftershocks only beginning to manifest for school finance. Even prior to the crisis, the vast majority of US public school districts had yet to recover from the devastation to their funding resulting from the Great Recession occurring more than a decade ago, and the COVID-19 pandemic is predicted to exacerbate those fiscal conditions (Baker & Di Carlo, 2020).
As presented annually in the past, this special State of the States edition of the Journal of Education Finance will highlight the state of affairs in education finance for each state for the current year. The issue will also provide early insight on how states have been affected by the pandemic. Several broad trends are noteworthy:
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• While the full impact of COVID-19 on school funding is not yet clear; significant reductions have occurred and are continued to be expected. While some states originally had plans to re-invest in their school finance systems pre-pandemic, revenue loss from COVID-19's negative impact on the economy curtailed many of those efforts. Pre-COVID state budgets highlighted opportunities and funding priorities that included changes to state funding formulas, teacher raises, higher education scholarship increases, and additional funding for K-12 school programs. Although some states were able to maintin their commitments to the pre-COVID allocations, many states were forced to abandon their plans.
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• In addition to pandemic-realted revenue loss, there have been education funds that have been redirected to addressing COVID-related issues (e.g., money spent on personal protective equipment [PPE] and heavier investment in long distance technology/educational resources).
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• Federal government support in the form of the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act have temporarily assisted in maintaining educational stability across K-12 schools and universities. Most K-12 schools invested their CARES act funding heavily in e-learning programs, internet access, and technology for students. Higher education, on the other hand, heavily utilized their relief funds to address deficits that occurred as a result of student refunds associated with campus closures.
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• Addressing the needs of poverty-stricken students was a major concern for decision makers when determining CARES Act allocations. Specifically, many states highlighted how students in high poverty areas often had little access to computers and technology equipment let alone internet availability. As such, addressing this was a major priority for school districts. Additionally, in some [End Page 239] states, CARES Act allocations for public colleges and universities was determined by the total number of PELL Grant eligibility.
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• The average per-pupil expenditures amongst states ranged roughly from $6,000-$12,000. Even when accounting for regional cost differences, it is noteworthy that some states'average expenditures per-pupil were 50 percent higher than others.
conclusion
Education is often one of the largest allocations in a state's budget. This year's edition of State of the States heavily reflects the current condition of education finance during a time of financial uncertainty resulting from the fall out from COVID-19. However, the pandemic's full ramifications on school funding have yet to be determined, given states have only begun to enter the onset period at the beginning of its impact. Furthermore, states have been able to mitigate some of the damages through the support of CARES Act funds to provide resources and support at-risk students (especially with the provision of remote learning resources). Yet like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that temporarily mitigated the economic damage to schools resulting from the Great Recession, the support from CARES Act funding is not a permanent solution. State funding will likely experience a similar, but likely worse, catastrophic blow once that temporary funding relief runs out (as it did when ARRA funds were depleted). It seems clear that education will face truly challenging fiscal times ahead. [End Page 240]
Henry TranHenry Tran, University of South Carolina
David BuckmanDavid Buckman, Kennesaw State University
Tyrone BynoeTyrone Bynoe, University of Michigan Flint
Randall S. VeselyRandall Vesely, University of...
中文翻译：
大流行期间的学校财务：国家如何应对？
代替摘要，这里是内容的简要摘录：
- 大流行期间的学校财务国家如何应对？
- Henry Tran（生物），David Buckman（生物），Tyrone Bynoe（生物）和Randall S. Vesely（生物）
COVID-19大流行已经对经济产生了深远的影响，余震才刚刚开始体现在学校财务上。甚至在危机之前，美国绝大部分的公立学区都还没有从灾难中恢复到十多年前发生的大萧条所带来的资金，而且COVID-19大流行预计将加剧这些财政状况（ Baker＆Di Carlo，2020年）。
正如过去每年发表的那样，《教育财政杂志》特别版的《州状况》将重点介绍当年各州在教育财务方面的状况。该问题还将提供有关各州如何受到大流行影响的早期见解。有几个广泛的趋势值得注意：
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•COVID-19对学校资金的全部影响尚不清楚；已经出现了大幅度的减少，并且仍有望继续减少。虽然一些州最初有计划在大流行前对他们的学校财务系统进行再投资，但是COVID-19对经济的负面影响造成的收入损失减少了许多努力。COVID之前的州预算着重说明了机会和资金优先事项，包括更改州拨款方式，增加教师，增加高等教育奖学金以及为K-12学校计划提供额外资金。尽管某些州能够维持对COVID之前分配的承诺，但许多州被迫放弃其计划。
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•除了大流行导致的收入损失外，还有一些教育资金已被重新用于解决与COVID相关的问题（例如，花在个人防护设备[PPE]上的钱以及对长途技术/教育资源的大量投资）。
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•联邦政府以CARES（冠状病毒援助，救济和经济安全）法案的形式提供的临时支持在K-12学校和大学中保持了教育稳定。大多数K-12学校将其CARES行为投入了大量资金，用于电子学习计划，互联网访问和面向学生的技术。另一方面，高等教育大量利用其救济金来弥补因关闭校园而导致的学生退款所造成的赤字。
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•在确定CARES法案分配时，满足贫困学生的需求是决策者的主要关注点。具体而言，许多州强调了高贫困地区的学生如何经常很少使用计算机和技术设备，更不用说互联网的可用性了。因此，解决这一问题是学区的首要任务。此外，在某些[End Page 239]状态中，公立大学对CARES法案的分配由PELL Grant资格的总数决定。
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•各州的平均每人支出大约在6,000美元至12,000美元之间。即使考虑到地区成本差异，值得注意的是，某些州的人均平均支出比其他州高50％。
结论
教育通常是州预算中最大的拨款之一。今年的《国家状况》在很大程度上反映了由于COVID-19退役而导致的财政不确定性时期的教育财政状况。但是，鉴于各州在疫情开始之初才刚刚开始进入流行期，因此尚未确定该流行病对学校资金的全面影响。此外，各州已经能够通过《 CARES法案》基金的支持减轻某些损害，以提供资源和支持高危学生（尤其是提供远程学习资源）。然而，就像《美国复苏与再投资法案》（ARRA）暂时减轻了大萧条对学校造成的经济损失一样，CARES法案资金的支持不是永久性的解决方案。一旦临时资金救助用尽（如ARRA资金用尽时），国家资金可能会遭受类似但更严重的灾难性打击。显然，教育将在未来面临真正的挑战。[结束页240]
亨利·特兰（Henry Tran）亨利·特兰（Henry Tran），南卡罗来纳大学
大卫·巴克曼（David Buckman）肯尼索州立大学David Buckman
泰隆·拜诺（Tyrone Bynoe）Tyrone Bynoe，密歇根大学弗林特分校
兰德尔·维斯利（Randall S.Vesely）兰德尔·维斯利（Randall Vesely），美国...
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