Matthew Joseph is a Senior Policy Advisor at ExcelinEd.
ExcelinEd, in partnership with a diverse group of organizations—the Aspen Institute, the District Management Group, the Edunomics Lab and TNTP—has developed essential principles that states can use to guide and improve their budget-cutting decisions. Adherence to these principles will ensure that funding cuts, if unavoidable, are equitable, student-centered and strategic. Further, states can encourage their school districts to act similarly on behalf of students.
A web-based assessment tool, FundingEducationEquity.org, accompanies these principles, allowing state decision makers to carefully evaluate their budget-cutting options, minimize harm to students and maximize the ability of districts to make best use of available resources.
Because of the pandemic, many states will likely need to determine how they can best address shrinking revenues with the least harm to students, even as the needs of students have increased and the crisis has exposed gaping disparities. As such, states can consider the following principles so that any K-12 funding cuts are equitable for vulnerable students in high-need schools and districts, student-centered and strategic, while encouraging districts to act similarly.
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