Costs, Concerns, & Calls for Clarity in K-12 Finance

“My job is funded with COVID dollars. I will not have this job at the end of the school year unless COVID money is renewed.”
-Middle school math teacher, South Dakota

“Once those one-time monies are gone and we’re in the middle of a recession and we don’t have increased core revenue, we’ll be right back where we were before the pandemic.”
-Principal, California

73% of school & district leaders said the end of COVID relief will have a somewhat, very, or extremely negative impact on their ability to meet students’ needs.

“The teachers were on a seven-year salary freeze prior to and following COVID. ... The neighboring districts are larger, and the teachers that leave our district hate working in the larger districts, but they offer better salaries and cheaper health insurance because of their large number of employees. Our students in our district are suffering.”
-Elementary school principal, Indiana

68% of teachers said their salary is unfair; 7 out of 10 in this group said the unfairness makes them want to leave their current jobs.

“The tenor of our new school board, which is now in place as of early December, is that they are a proponent of a 0 percent tax increase and kind of want us to continue to, I guess, do more with less, if you will. So, I would say it’s really not a good time to take on those types of major expenditures just because it’s likely we would not have the support to do so.”
-District-level director of secondary teaching & learning, Pennsylvania

“The mental health needs of kids since COVID not doubled, not tripled, quadrupled—or even more than that. I can’t even really put a number on that.”
-District-level safety/at-risk coordinator, Tennessee