Randi Weingarten Calls State Budget Crisis a Five Alarm Fire. Why Can’t Most of Us See It?
Last week I was out walking to get some exercise when I saw an old friend who is a retired school superintendent. Standing a careful six feet away, he greeted me this way: “So, where’s the money going to come from?” We talked for a minute or two, and as we parted, he asked again: “So where’s the money going to come from?”
If you read NY Times‘ reporter, Erica Green’s article about last Wednesday’s meeting of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, you will see that the topic of money and budgets threads quietly underneath the Senators’ conversation, but you’ll mostly read about a discussion of the logistics of opening school: “Across the country, school leaders are beginning to roll out plans to welcome more than 50 million students back, which include procuring 50 million masks; flooding schools with nurses, aides and counselors; and staggering schedules to minimize class size. But the high-dollar demands to meet public health guidelines and make up for setbacks that have disproportionately affected low-income students, students of color and those with disabilities could cripple their budgets.”
Green continues, citing data provided by the American Association of School Administrators: “The School Superintendents Association has estimated that districts would incur nearly $1.8 million in costs to meet federal health guidelines, from $640 for no-touch thermometers (one per school) to $448,000 for additional custodial staff; that is just for an average school district CONTINUE READING: Randi Weingarten Calls State Budget Crisis a Five Alarm Fire. Why Can’t Most of Us See It? | janresseger
