The Urgent Need To Rethink How We Fund Our Schools

When COVID-19 shut schoolhouse doors in March, it illuminated how vital our nation’s schools are in providing not just academic learning but also services for our children’s growth and well-being. Yet, as schools work to reopen and the pandemic wreaks havoc on state revenues, K-12 education is at risk of facing some of the largest budget constraints in recent history.

Given this impending challenge, now is the time for the federal government to step in with funding support to safely reopen schools and address the educational gaps resulting from COVID-19. As Jay Nichols, the executive director of the Vermont Principals Association, put it to the state Senate Finance Committee, “How can we contemplate cutting staff when we know students will be coming back to school with educational gaps? Most alarming will most assuredly be increases in social, emotional and trauma-related concerns.”

Federal support, however, is not sustainable in the long term, so states and school districts must work to re-evaluate education spending, making creative but hard decisions to become more financially efficient…………………………………………………………….