If you give two hoots about the quality of education for your children or grand kids, as they say in the biz, this one’s for you.
It’s difficult to use the word “silver-lining” in the same sentence with the term “COVID 19” but if there was one, at least on the education front, it would have to be the $3.7 billion avalanche of emergency federal government money that cascaded into every school district in the state.
Suddenly after years of being unable to provide so-called enrichment services for students, school boards were hiring more social workers, mental health counselors, reading and math tutors, along with more products to sanitize classroom, gyms, and cafeterias from the virus while at the same time installing state-of-the-art ventilation systems to suck the bugs out of the buildings.
Like manna from heaven these federal dollars were a God-sent but with every silverlining, there can be negative consequences and those chickens are fixing to come home to roost.
According to the widely respected Michigan Citizens Research Council, composed of some pretty sharp bean-counters, when the federal manna disintegrates this Fall, schools will be facing what they are now calling the “COVID cliff.” None of the schools can afford to keep those enrichment goodies leaving the MCRC folks to forecast that some 5100 school employees, including those in the classroom, will face layoffs.
Ouch. While some budget savvy/ responsible districts socked some of the money away for a rainy day versus one time spending on expensive new services, not every school did that.
“I do think that schools will have to make some reductions,” warns the veteran educator who runs the Michigan Association of School Boards. Don Wotruba’s members will have some tough budgetary choices to make and it’s fair to say that the higher quality of education being offered during COVID is on the verge of becoming but a fond memory.
Surely the state legislature can step in and pump more state bucks into the schools.
While it is true that the Whitmer administration has allocated more dollars in recent years and actually reduced the funding gap between well-to-do districts and those not so wellto- do, there is not enough in state coffers to cover the federal largess of $3.7 billion.
Some thing has got to give or as someone put it, “it’s time to sober-up.”
When the MCRC story first came out, it looked like 5100 teachers would be asked to leave.
“Absolutely not,” Wotruba said. “I would be shocked if it was even close to that.”
If he is right that leaves all thoseotheremployees staring at the unemployment line. Some of them were hired with the understanding that their gig might not last forever, but either way, critical services will be lost.
The state is no stranger to struggling school districts. Just think of Kalkaska or River Rouge. But added to that list, Ann Arbor.
Yes that Ann Arbor.
Faced with a whopping $25 million dollar gaping and embarrassing hole in it’s budget, the school board has warned there will be layoffs, but it so far has not picked the winners and losers. Those howls you hear from A2 are from all those highly educated parents of school kids in the system wondering how could this happen...to US, of all people.
Well as the fall unfolds, those weary souls will have plenty of company as other school boards figure out how to re-configure their circular minus the federal moola.
Brace yourself boys and girls, this could get really ugly.
