Washington, D.C., schools prioritized staff rather than student outcomes, and now, big budget cuts are on the way while academic results have not improved.
According to the D.C. Policy Center, Washington public schools are going to see a 13% decline in funding just after losing COVID stimulus funds. Schools used these funds to hire more employees even as enrollment fell. On average, elementary schools and middle schools lost students while hiring additional staff, while high schools added more staff than students.
These schools also negotiated pay increases, which will add another $92 million in costs in the fiscal 2025 and $103 million in 2026. These salaries were not accounted for in the normal funding formula and will require cuts, do not account for additional pay raises that may be negotiated, and won’t be able to be offset with an increase in revenue as Washington’s revenues are dropping.
Worse still, 60% of high school students in Washington are considered chronically absent. So, Washington burned through COVID funds and doled out millions to an increasing staff for pay raises while the student population decreased and those students that remain miss significant school time.
This irresponsible management and decision-making, along with a lack of focus on what matters most in the education system (the students), is now going to make things even harder on students who are already struggling and being left behind. Once again, students got left behind as a result of decisions made during the pandemic, but no one learned a thing.