by Bob Berkman
July 18, 2024
Most states on track to increase size of “rainy day” fund balances
Rockville MD, July 18, 2024 –The $190 billion in pandemic-era ESSER funding is ending, but according to a just-published report by SIMBA Information, federal appropriations and state budgets for PreK-12 education have remained strong during Fiscal Year 2024.
Despite the drawing down of ESSER and school concerns over rising costs due to inflation, ongoing stimulus funding aimed at addressing the ongoing learning losses from the pandemic lockdowns, alongside robust local and state budgets budgeting is providing financial stability. In addition, 33 states are on track to up their savings funds which will help prepare for this transition. Simba’s just published PreK-12 Policy & Budget Outlook 2024-2025 breaks down the specific federal funding allocations to each state and examines each state’s own budget.
This new Simba report also identifies the major priorities and initiatives taken by policy makers in terms of what programs and curriculum focus areas are being prioritized and funded. The most significant of these are the efforts and new programs created to fund the workforce and Career and Technical Education (CTE), which continue to gain momentum. Other areas getting attention and investment include PreK-12 education, especially for early literacy programs, and teacher professional development, with a recent emphasis on providing educators with AI-literacy skills.
States are also passing new legislation and providing new funding to require or encourage programs in financial literacy, media literacy, STEM/STEAM programs, and computer science. There is also an increasing trend by states to identify and outline what qualifies as High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) and provide guidance and/or approved listings on what materials qualify. Other classroom trends analyzed in this report are the ongoing efforts by Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana and other politically conservative states to prohibit or restrict the use of certain books that are targeted as teaching what are called “divisive topics” -these typically revolve around how race, gender and sexuality are taught, but may cover other topics as well.
In addition to these topics, the report also covers total K-12 spending, distribution and utilization of ESSER funds; state funding trends; social and emotional learning; legislation regarding AI in the classroom; the growth of the science of reading teaching methods, and how classrooms continue to grapple with challenging social issues such as gun violence, homeless students, and mental health. Also covered are trends in connectivity and data privacy as well as staffing and teacher pay.
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Simba Information, part of The Freedonia Group, is the leading authority for market intelligence for educational materials publishers and for the professional publishing industries, encompassing legal, business and scientific, technical, and medical (STM) publishing. The company specializes in providing the hard-to-find, granular market data that is critical to your business decisions and turning that data into actionable insights. Find off-the-shelf studies at Simba Information or contact us for custom research: +1 440.842.2400.
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