Since we last wrote about the nation’s fiscal crisis and its impact on schools, the situation seems to have worsened. And with the Big 3 automakers back in Washington this week (forgoing their private jets this go-round), asking for more than $30 billion from the Feds, at least one school district thinks it has a case to make for federal assistance. “If those with golden parachute deals can get bailout money, I would hope there is some money left over for school children in the United States,” Dr. Todd Hoadley, superintendent of the Olmsted Falls City School District in Ohio said. The district has requested $100 million, including $50 million for school construction, from the $700 billion-plus bailout plan Congress passed this fall.
Last month, NSBA provided members of President-elect Barack Obama‘s transition team, and key Congressional offices, with a series of recommendations for federal fiscal assistance to school districts to mitigate the short-term and long-term pain of the recession on students and schools. These include immediate funding for school construction, which will also stimulate job creation in communities; a guarantee on outstanding bonds; and, advance refunding of bonds.
Ed Week continues some of the best ongoing coverage of how the financial crisis is impacting schools and states. State departments of education already faced questions of capacity in providing technical assistance and other support to schools and districts, particularly with No Child Left Behind’s flaws unresolved, and now, many departments are looking even more beleaguered, given the economy. South Carolina temporarily furloughed department employees to save jobs, while other state departments are shrinking through attrition and early retirements, Ed Week reports. Meanwhile, the state of Alabama came up short, temporarily anyway, in providing districts with funds to meet payroll for the second consecutive month.
