After the Stimulus Money Ends: The Status of State K-12 Education Funding and Reforms
Author: Rentner, Diane Stark
Date: 2012-02-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: State Surveys,Educational Change,State Agencies,Superintendents,Administrator Attitudes,Educational Finance,Program Budgeting,Resource Allocation,Funding Formulas,Elementary Secondary Education,Educational Assessment,Educational Indicators,Economic Impact,Compliance (Legal),Educational Policy,Change Strategies

The economic downturn of the past few years has taken a toll on state budgets for elementary and secondary education. The $100 billion for education provided by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), better known as the economic stimulus package, helped to blunt some of the harshest effects, but these funds have been nearly depleted. What is the fiscal condition of states now that the stimulus funding is coming to an end? And what progress have states made in implementing the four reform-related ARRA assurances? This report by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) addresses these two questions. The information in this report comes from a CEP survey of deputy state superintendents of education or their designees conducted in October through December of 2011. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia, which is counted as a state in the tallies in this report, responded. The 2011 survey was the second CEP survey on state funding, ARRA implementation, and state capacity. Findings from the previous survey, conducted in fall 2010, are described in the 2011 CEP report, &quot;More to Do But Less Capacity to Do It: States' Progress in Implementing the Recovery Act Education Reforms&quot; (CEP, 2011b). This 2012 report focuses on the status of funding from state sources, which accounts for about 48% of total revenues for elementary and secondary education, on average (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). A general finding reveals that state budget cuts for elementary and secondary education appear to have bottomed out in many states although some states remain strapped for funds. In this uncertain fiscal environment, states are nevertheless implementing or planning several reform strategies to address the four ARRA assurances. Other key findings include: (1) Fewer states anticipated decreases in state funding for K-12 education for FY 2012 than had decreases in FY 2011; (2) The cuts in K-12 education funding that states project for FY 2012 are more modest in size than the cuts made in FY 2011; (3) Funding cuts in FY 2011 have adversely affected education reform efforts in school year 2011-12 in some states; (4) The four ARRA reform-related assurances appear to have had a positive impact on education reform in many states;(5) Most of the states surveyed are carrying out numerous strategies to address the four ARRA assurances; and (6) Federal funding to save or create teaching jobs provided through the ARRA and the &quot;EduJobs&quot; program had a positive impact on elementary and secondary education in most states. Study methods for reports based on CEP's Fall 2011 State Survey are appended. (Contains 3 figures and 7 tables.) [For related report, &quot;More to Do, But Less Capacity to Do It: States' Progress in Implementing the Recovery Act Education Reforms,&quot; see ED516577.