Westchester Words: Education, EdTech, and Publishing
Informed and informative conversations with experts about the topics that are impacting the Educational Publishing and Ed-Tech sectors, as well as the broader publishing industry. Covering a range of issues including operations, production, product development, content distribution, and more. Hosted by Westchester Education Services and Westchester Publishing Services.
Westchester Words: Education, EdTech, and Publishing
Funding and Policy Impacts for US K-12 Education in 2023
Jay Diskey talks about how federal and state funding, state subject adoption requirements, and other policy initiatives will shape US K-12 education in 2023.
Welcome to Westchester Words education, Edtech and Publishing. I'm Nicole Tomasi, and in this episode I'll be speaking with Jay Disci, the founder and principal of Jay Discree Public Affairs will be discussing how education funding looks at the state level and what.
:This could mean for K Twelve educational.
Nicole Tomassi:Material purchases over the next twelve to 24 months. Jay, I'm very pleased to welcome you to Westchester Words.
Jay Diskey:Well, thank you, Nicole. I'm very pleased to join you today.
:So to begin with, for listeners who.
Nicole Tomassi:May not be familiar with who you are, could you talk a little bit about your professional background in policy as well as publishing and education?
Jay Diskey:Well, the three words you mentioned, policy, publishing and education have largely defined my career over the past three and a half decades. In that time I served as a special assistant. And us? Secretary of Education, also as a senior staff member on the US. House of Representatives committee on Education. I later headed up the K twelve division. The association of American publishers. Now, for the past six years, I've served as consultants many educational, publishing and tech companies looking for opportunities largely in the state and federal. It is a market that is mine and large, nearly entirely controlled by government funding. So it's very important to keep the tabs on current policy, current funding, and help those companies find their way through the current policy and funding tickets, so to speak.
Nicole Tomassi:As you indicated, education is largely reliant on funding, whether at the federal or the state level. And certainly the last few years have been quite chaotic in K Twelve education. But some of the good news, if we could call it that, is that states are receiving significant federal funding that came out of the three Covet relief bills at a really high level. Can you discuss how much funding states received for K Twelve education and whether there are certain provisions that are attached to those allocations?
Jay Diskey:Yes, indeed. The three large federal relief and stimulus packages were passed by Congress in 2000 and 22,021 in reaction, obviously, to the Coba 19 pandemic. Taken together, the three packages provide 190,000,000,000 in K Twelve education funding. All three together. Again, 190 represent a historic investment in US. Education, elementary education. It's the largest investment ever. The funds are flexible in general. They can be spent on helping schools and students recover from the pandemic learning recovery programs that are at the top of the order. Funds can be spent on a variety of learning needs, including developing new programs, learning strategies, professional development. The funds can also be used to purchase instructional materials and content, technology, and a variety of other things to help students and teachers, schools in general, recover from the pandemic. So again, it's a very large and historic investment in K Twelve education.
Nicole Tomassi:If you don't mind my asking, in a more typical year, say, like in 2019, for example, what kind of federal funding would normally be allocated for K Twelve education?
Jay Diskey:Yeah. Goodness. In 2019, it was around 42 billion for K Twelve education at the federal level, and now that's rolled by a couple of billion. So, yes, very good question. And what it leads me to say is the relief money I talked about is on top of the normal annual federal allocations to K Twelve education. So when you think of, let's say, 44 billion, which it was real close to 44 billion for this current fiscal year, and you divide that into 190, that comes out to about 4.54 and a half. So in other words, we're seeing this huge, and I'll use the word again, historic investment. That is four and a half times what the annual spend on education is. So it's quite remarkable. There's a lot of money out there for schools and school districts and quite frankly, education vendors to look at.
Nicole Tomassi:And how much time do states have to allocate or spend these additional federal funds?
Jay Diskey:Here comes the difficulty. They don't have forever. All of the funds must be obligated another federal contract for committed by school districts and states by September 30, 2023. If one were to ask what's so magical about September 30, that is when the federal fiscal year ends. So September 30, 2023 is the end of federal fiscal year for 2023. Now, what is very concerning is that at this point here, in the early fall of 2022, only about half of the funds have been spent. Largely the package one and two funds have for the most part been spent. Package three, which was the largest of the three. That's from the American Rescue Plan, the third package, a lot of those funds have not been spent, and school district districts are planning and allocating and figuring out how to go about this. It is concerning. It's leading to the creation of a lot of programs at this point in time in which they are needed. But at the same time, it really is a compressed timeline. I'm often asked, well, gee, can the deadline change? Can the US. Department of Education simply up and move the deadline? US. Department of Education has already indicated that for large maintenance and capital projects, such as a whole new HVAC system in a school, there's probably some flexibility there because of timelines having to do with contracting and labor, but for implementing learning programs, by all likelihood, no. In order to change this, the issue would have to move back to Congress. And I don't think anybody really wants that to happen. It could take a long time to get figured out on Capitol Hill, basically.
Nicole Tomassi:States have about twelve and a half months to allocate those funds out of the American Rescue Plan. But that doesn't mean they have to spend them by the end of September 2023, right?
Jay Diskey:Yes, for the most part. And again, the so called obligation word is one that is not familiar to a lot of people. It's a federal contracting term, term of art, so to speak, and federal contracts, it does mean commitment. I would imagine that as we move forward in this timeline, the word commitment will begin to be better to find, and perhaps the department will be able to find out where there are areas of flexibility. But setting that aside, I don't think any state or school district ought to wait for flexibility to occur. And I don't think most states are. Nicole, what this is all pointing out is that this is a huge amount of money to spend in a relatively compressed period of time, but it is what it is. Congress created this as a huge emergency fund to get schools back on their feet and to help students in learning recovery. And frankly, without going too deep into test scores, the test scores that came out right at the end of August, the National Association of Education Progress, showed that there were a lot of issues to be solved with learning recovery. In essence, for the first time since early 1990s, scores in reading and mathematics at the K Twelve level have taken a step backwards. There's been a steady climb from the past 30 or more years, but because of the pandemic, scores have gone backwards to some degree. So there's a lot of alarm, a lot of concern. Secretary of Education issued a number of statements about the need for full learning recovery.
Nicole Tomassi:Well, it seems like there's certainly the additional funds to help address that. So let's hope that states allocate wisely indeed. So primarily as a result of the federal infusion Jay, many states did increase their education budgets for the coming year, and in some cases by double digit percentages. Can you touch on which states saw some of the largest increases?
Jay Diskey:Yes, indeed. Let me talk about some of the high enrollment states, which for obvious reasons, higher enrollments the more students that can be reached. California their state aide number. This is state aid to districts to support learning schools and learning. California is up 13.7%. Michigan is up 14.6%. Pennsylvania is up ten, eight. Florida is up a little over 8%, new York 7%, ohio, 7.1%. And before anybody raises their hand and say, what happened in Texas? Texas, the legislature was not in last year. It meets every year, so the state did not have to produce a budget. So there's no number to give for legislative action in Texas. But all of these are very solid numbers. Most states, if not close to all, increase their education budgets. Now this is state aid flows through the state department's education and down to the district. This does not even include some of the special programs that a state agency might have for certain types of activities statewide literacy programs, for example, and some other things as well. So indeed, it is a very good year for state budgets. Typically, as someone who's watched state budgets in education for more than 30 years, usually a couple of percentage points movement is a really good year and now we're looking at just in a number of states really nice single digit and even double digit increases.
Nicole Tomassi:Do you think, Jay, that some of these state increases are due to improved tax revenues or other funding sources besides the federal government?
Jay Diskey:Yes, by and large, state tax revenues coupled with the federal funding that we've been talking about, there's obviously record levels of both federal and state. Now, they were generated in various ways, human tax revenue and they're spot on with the states assets emerge from the Pandemic. People started spending, started going out to restaurants again, started putting expensive fuel in their cars, buying those things that consumers buy and it has caused state tax revenues to shoot up in many states. States have used the funds in a variety of ways, but their highest priorities have been to create bigger rainy day funds or so called the surpluses or whenever that next recession comes along. But right up there is helping school districts recover from the Pandemic and adequately funding education programs.
Nicole Tomassi:I might be delving a little bit out of my knowledge base here, but I live in a state where the education funding comes primarily from property taxes. And certainly where I live, we saw an exodus out of the major metropolitan areas into the suburban areas and home prices went skyrocketing up. So that increase the property taxes on those which just gave local districts more money to work from. I don't know if that's the case in other states around the country. Is that one of those knock on effects of the pandemic?
Jay Diskey:Yeah, indeed it is. Now, one thing about property taxes, the increases that certain communities increases are decreases that certain communities will see will not be immediate. Usually there's a lag of one to two years in computing increases in property taxes and in fact there are some states and communities that only do it every three or four. So that will be a lagging effect from the pandemic, but it certainly is factored in to all of the bits and pieces of the economics of the Pandemic and how the country is coming back together again economically.
Nicole Tomassi:So many pieces to the puzzle, aren't there? Hold on, Jade. According to information that you had shared with me, there's about more than three dozen reviews that are taking place are scheduled to take place at the state level for instructional materials over the next couple of years. Based on the experience that you have, what are some of the most significant ones that education companies should be keeping their eye on?
Jay Diskey:Yes, indeed. And again, as you mentioned, Nicole, these are state level reviews in the Socalled adoption states and there are 16 states that actively adopt the other states simply leave it to the districts to do what they want to do in terms of curriculum. But 16 states such as California, Texas, Florida, Carolinas, Tennessee, etc. And a lot of states with significant populations have state adoptions where they call on a fairly regular basis, certain subjects to be updated in accordance with new standards. For example, in terms of some of the reviews coming up, for example, in the next two years, when I say two years, these are so called bid review years. And so just looking at the 2023 bid review year and the 2024 bid review here, there are three dozen, approximately 40 states that have reviews and all sorts of subjects. For example, Florida, Texas, and North Carolina have scheduled reviews of science for 2023 the following year. Texas, Tennessee, and I think two or three other states have scheduled reviews of social studies materials. One caveat Texas may be delaying that review. We can keep you posted on that. Now, I mentioned science and I mentioned social studies. Are there other subjects? Of course there are other subjects. There are math reviews, ela English Language Arts, Arts, Stem adoptions, world Languages, for example. In other words, there are lots of opportunities out there and they're occurring when fiscal conditions are very positive. Now, there are some education publishers that are very intent on following adoptions and do so on a regular basis. Other publishers may not want to get directly involved in the adoption process, but what I always advise clients to do is if you're not quite ready or interested in preparing materials for adoption, keep an eye on the adoption if you have subjects in those areas. Many of the adoption states are still free Lazar districts, the freedom to adopt, and they don't have to go by the state adopted list, and we can get deeper into that at some other point if you would like to.
Nicole Tomassi:Nicole that actually is the perfect time for me to share that. You'll be coming back to join us on Thursday, October 13, when Westchester Education Services is going to be hosting a webinar about two thousand and twenty three K Twelve Education Policy and the Funding Outlook. You'll be talking a little further in depth about this topic, as well as answering questions that attendees have, whether that's education publishers, at tech companies, or just people who are interested in what's going on in the education space and how the outlook is for the next couple of years. Visit our website, westchester Educationservices.com, and register for free. Jay there's one final question that I like to ask our guests because of the thoughtful responses that they share. What is a piece of advice you wish someone had given you when you were starting out in your professional career or that you would like to share with others today?
Jay Diskey:Yeah, very good question. I'll give a piece of advice that somebody gave me in the mid 1990s on my first job, or maybe even before I was starting my first job, and it's this throughout a person's career, they should find a way to make themselves indispensable. Indispensable to their colleagues, their superiors and their clients. Make yourself indispensable by working hard and really take whatever you can do to make the job about others, not about you, so to speak. I found that in doing so, you will help yourself and others succeed many times over. So I hope that quick bit of advice makes sense.
Nicole Tomassi:Actually, it makes more sense than you would probably know, because funnily enough, about that time in the early to mid ninety s, I was working for a publisher who put out a title called The Indispensable Employee. I read that book and took some tips away that in some cases did make me indispensable. I think you hit on some very good points that when you're of service to others first, rather than to yourself, in a way, you do make yourself indispensable. So I think that was spot on. Jay, I want to thank you so much for sharing those words of wisdom as well as for joining me today on Westchester Words. I'm looking forward to learning more from you about the federal funding outlook and just the general funding outlook for education in next month's webinar.
Jay Diskey:Likewise. Thank you so much. Nicole.
:Thank you for listening to this episode of Westchester Word. If you're looking for previous episodes or want to read additional content that has been shared by some of our guests, please visit our websites westchesterpolishingservices.com and westchestereducationservices.com. For an international perspective, check out our sister podcast, Westchester World UK and International, available on the Westchester Education UK website, westchestereducation. Co UK or wherever you stream podcasts. We love hearing from our listeners and welcome your emails at westchesterworld at westchestered svcs.com. Tell us what you enjoy hearing on.
Nicole Tomassi:Our podcast or suggest topics that we.
:Can cover in future episodes. Speaking of future episodes, I look forward to having you join us for the next episode of Westchester Words, when we'll be having another engaging conversation about a topic of interest to the education at tech and publishing communities. Until then, stay safe, be well, and stay tuned. You.
