Follow the money in the first annual Allovue Education Finance Survey of teachers, school leaders, and district administrators. The survey assessed perceptions of key issues in K-12 education finance, such as ESSER funds, teacher salaries, and principals' level of budget control.
The study also introduces the Allovue Education Spending Confidence Index, a new measure that takes the pulse of educators' high-level views of their districts' financial status and future.
Conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in Nov.-Dec. of 2022, the Allovue Education Finance Survey gathered perspectives from 1,303 US-based educators. Participants included 337 school district leaders, 340 principals/vice principals, and 626 teachers. The purpose of the survey was to gain insight into educators' knowledge and perceptions related to K-12 education finance.
After reviewing submissions from 1,000+ participants, we identified critical gaps in information—and opportunities for greater knowledge sharing—related to school budget processes. Here’s what else we discovered:
Listen to an on-demand webinar for the study highlights and an engaging discussion with ed finance experts on the implications for K-12 districts. You'll hear from:
"The ESSER funding was a huge amount of money, and our district has struggled with spending it. We tried to hire more support teachers during a wake of teacher shortage. That led us to peel off classroom teachers to fill temporarily funded support roles—and then those teachers had to jump back in classrooms to fill the positions we couldn't hire for. Now those teachers are frustrated and leaving the profession and the teacher shortage continues to plague schools."
“The funding from the state this past
year was approximately a 3% increase. With the small number of students we have (425), the increase was not even enough to cover the district's portion of the increase in health care premiums. Which means any increase in expenditures due to inflation, any increases in wages, or any unplanned expenses all had to come from savings, which has been decreasing steadily due to lack of funding for the past several years.”
“Our demographic has changed over the last 10 years. This is primarily due to an influx of students from other countries whose first language is not English. I'm not sure if the per-pupil spending needs to be increased or reallocated, but the reality is they are expecting educators to yield the same results with little curriculum support. In that regard, I'd like to see funds directly impact the learning of our current student body and the educators responsible for them.”
“Our district has received a considerable drop in enrollment following the pandemic. With the uncertainty of enrollment numbers increasing, we decided to keep staff employed. This has cost our
district considerably...I am very concerned about our budgets and funding once ESSER ends. Hopefully, our district will have the proper funding and/or enrollment numbers in place to keep us stable. Otherwise, we will be forced to lay off a considerable number of staff.”
“To retain our classified staff, we had to increase hourly wages. This was funded by ESSER funds and our rainy-day account. That money will be gone in one year and we will be forced to rely on supplemental levies to maintain the status quo. AND, even though we raised wages significantly, people can still make much more at McDonald's.”
“We work with anger, frustration, and violence on varying levels on a daily basis. When we ask for a counselor, therapy dog, etc., we are turned down. Buildings do not have much say over their budget and administrators are not able to put money toward what they know their building needs.”
Explore media coverage of the 2023 Allovue Education Finance Survey.
The Allovue Education Finance Survey examined educators' perceptions of public schools' financial outlook, ESSER funds, teacher compensation, and principals' level of budget control.
Results indicate: