Latest news with #Title4
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
State budget questions have impact on APS budget process
Jun. 10—Editor's Note: This story will be updated as more information becomes available. The Minnesota State Legislature was able to get its budget wrapped up during a furious one-day special session, but the delay in the lead-up already had uncertain repercussions on the process of Austin Public Schools budget. Slated to present a plan Monday night during the Austin Public School Board's meeting, Executive Director of Finance and Operations Todd Lechtenberg informed the board that budget finalization would come later because there was so much uncertainty at the state level and its budget. "We just have too many moving parts," Lechtenberg told the board, after going through some of the things known and unknown. The Legislature's K-12 education bill would increase funding for Minnesota schools by $4.2 million in the 2026-27 biennium, however, the bill calls for $420 million in general education funding cuts in the following biennium. While there will be some work to dig through and see what the budget ultimately consists of and its effects on APS, some of the things already in the budget included reductions in three different areas. Compensatory aid modifications could decrease revenue by around $277,136, though Lechtenberg did say that is down from what it was in the beginning at around a $1.1 million decrease. However, this is a one-time reprieve and a task force is currently being formed to address this point. Announced late Monday night, the bill would also call for a 10% cut in transportation funding for students with disabilities by fiscal year 2027, resulting in a 5% decrease in special ed transportation aid for districts in 2026. That cut would further reduce 90% coverage in 2027. This cost was 100% covered in the past. The state's education bill would also cut school library aid by $19.62 million in fiscal years 2026-27, which could reduce the impact to APS by around $31,537. However, at the same time the summer unemployment coverage was expected to be continued through 2028. Lechtenberg also pointed to several things that further add to the unknown of APS's budget including what the effects will be of the Minnesota Paid Leave legislation, which will kick into effect on Jan. 1 There will also be the impact of union settlements which are still in the process of being negotiated, the impacts of tariffs enacted by the Trump Administration, a potential district referendum and federal funding. In particular, the federal funding question revolves around title funding. The district has already received its Title 1 and Title 4 funding, but they don't know the dollar amounts for Title 2 and Title 3 funding yet. Also factored into the budget discussions will be the impact of a lower than estimated projected district enrollment, though that could be mitigated somewhat by a state aid increase to $7,481 per student representing a 2.74% increase. The district will pick up the budget discussion again on June 24, and are required to finalize the budget by June 30. In other news: Board members adopted a 14% increase to its medical insurance renewal in order to keep up with expected claims for the 2025-2026 school year as well as a 3% increase to do the same. According to Lechtenberg, the district was operating at 112% and 142% lost ratio for the 12-month spans of April 2024 to March 2025 and April 2023 to March 2024 respectively. However, the increase is a step down from last year when the district instituted a 24% increase.
Forbes
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
DEI And Civil Rights Are Not The Same
In 1964, following tumultuous protests against racial segregation in the deep South, the bombing of Black churches in Birmingham, the dramatic march in Selma, and Martin Luther King's March on Washington, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. It stands as a major achievement for African-American civil rights following centuries of enslavement and oppression under Jim Crow segregation. The Act required the removal of Whites Only signs, outlawed discrimination in hiring, and otherwise demanded the breakdown of legally sanctioned racial segregation in America. One section, Title 4, was reserved specifically for education. The Southern Education Foundation (SEF) worked to have that section included, advancing the Supreme Court's decision in Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) to allow African-Americans equal access to quality public education which they had previously been denied. In enacting Title 4, Congress funded regional Desegregation Assistance Centers to provide school districts with technical support to dismantle the structures and practices that limited educational opportunities for generations of African-American students. In 2022 SEF received an Education Department grant, authorized by Title 4, to direct the center for the southern region, which serves 11 states and the District of Columbia, comprising more than a third of the nation's public-school students and over 1 million students of color. Earlier in 2016, the centers' name had been changed from Desegregation Assistance Centers to Equity Assistance Centers (EAC), no trivial change because, in February, the Trump administration falsely claimed that the work to help school districts comply with federal civil rights laws violated those very laws by focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, and terminated funding of the centers. I could not disagree more with this decision, or with its rationalization, which recklessly blurs the lines between civil rights enforcement and DEI. The EAC for the southern region has violated no law, and the centers are not DEI programs. These centers are authorized by Congressional mandate to uphold Title 4 of the Civil Rights Act, while DEI policies, however laudable, are not. The current administration either doesn't understand the difference or pretends not to, and SEF has filed a federal lawsuit to halt this assault on the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Let's return to that name change, which reflects the Education Secretary's proposal to revise the program — 'revise' in this case meaning 'to remove the regulations that govern the State Educational Agency Desegregation (SEA) program, authorized under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.' Between the lines, this suggests that all the impediments to educational opportunity that historically were directed against African-Africans are now neatly addressed, that segregation practices no longer harm anyone. Changing 'Desegregation' to 'Equity' suggests that education inequalities plaguing Black students are so under control that federal funding designed to address these inequalities can be extended beyond the Congressional intent and into the expansive arena of DEI. This could not be more wrong. Vestiges of the practice of lawful segregation still harm Black students to this day. It is important to note that desegregation did have its pros and cons. Education attainment levels soared for African-Americans during the nation's efforts at desegregation. Unfortunately, desegregation, or more precisely resistance to desegregation, caused the unsettling of many communities due to disinvestment, 'white flight' and divisive politics. It should also not be forgotten that thousands of Black teachers and administrators were wrongfully terminated during the desegregation processes. Nonetheless, better and more informed practices are available to address the continued presence of racially segregated and unequal public education. As for those regulations, many would find it astonishing that in 2025, 132 U.S. school districts remain under federal desegregation orders, 130 of them in the South. It's not uncommon to see one side of a district receive funding for STEM courses, music programs, and technology, while Black students across town do not. Several of these districts have sought assistance from SEF in the past two years, underscoring the ongoing impact of racial segregation. There is a grave inconsistency between these 132 open court orders and the termination of the very funding designed to address them. The Department of Education is wrong to label Title 4 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as a DEI program, and much as I may admire some DEI policies, the Civil Rights Act's historic step toward desegregation did not have DEI as a goal. Confusing a congressional edict to end segregation with DEI policies that have no genesis in the Black Civil Rights movement to end Jim Crow is historically ignorant, disrespectful, and harmful to the urgent need to focus on resolving continuing racial inequalities in public education. It is my hope that this lawsuit brings clarity to the conversation around the differences between civil rights and DEI. This issue deserves national attention because it requires us all to believe three essential truths, without which democracy cannot work for everyone. Words matter. Facts matter. History matters.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'There's a lot at stake': Area educators react to possible dismantling of U.S. Department of Education
Editor's note: Federal Fallout is a Tribune-Democrat news series addressing the potential local impact of funding cuts. JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – While navigating the uncertain future of the U.S. Department of Education, Greater Johnstown School District Superintendent Amy Arcurio said she's 'optimistically guarded' regarding President Donald Trump's order to dismantle the agency. 'We recognize the situation is fluid at this point,' she said. There's been little guidance about what the order means, Arcurio said, since the president issued the directive March 20. Amy Arcurio Amy Arcurio is the superintendent of Greater Johnstown School District. The president's plan instructs U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to take all legal steps to 'facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the states and local communities.' This will be done 'while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs and benefits on which Americans rely,' the order says. Some of the administration's reasoning for sunsetting the agency, created by Congress in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter, ranges from low math and reading scores to wanting to empower states to control education decisions. Many public education advocates have noted that control of curriculum already stands with the states and the federal Department of Education is there to ensure funding is implemented properly. Federal Fallout logo 'The (U.S.) Department of Education is not just another federal bureaucracy,' a statement from nonprofit education advocate EdTrust said. 'It's the watchdog, ensuring all students – including students of color, students with disabilities, multilingual learners and students from low-income backgrounds – have equal access to quality education. This is not the time to abandon our nation's students – the future of America depends on them.' For Greater Johnstown, and several other limited-income schools in the region, an interruption or delay in federal funding could be detrimental, officials said. LesPaul Buchko, Greater Johnstown business manager, said the district receives roughly 11% of its annual budget from federal sources – $8.7 million for the 2023-24 term – with about 66% from the state and nearly 23% from local sources. A majority of those federal dollars, about $3.7 million last year, is allocated to Title 1, Buchko said. That program supplements education in districts such as Greater Johnstown, which has a poverty rate of 93%, by supporting curriculum improvements, supply purchases, staff salaries and other cost areas. Other federal sources include Title 2A – aimed at increasing student achievement and used at Johnstown for some payroll – and Title 4, which applies to learner support and enrichment, such as social-emotional learning, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and related offerings. Local impact Pennsylvania Department of Education data show that in the 2019-20 term, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, districts in Cambria County received an average of roughly $400,000 in federal subsidies, with Greater Johnstown being an outlier with $4.9 million because of its impoverished status. Somerset County districts ranged from $125,000 to $515,000 for the same time period, and Somerset Area, which has a more than 50% poverty rate, was the highest at $1.4 million. In the 2022-23 school year, Cambria County districts collected between about $1.1 million and $3.4 million in federal dollars due to Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding. Greater Johnstown got more than $18 million at that time. Somerset County schools received roughly $487,000 to $2.3 million for the same year. The U.S. Department of Education's public education budget in 2024 was $158 billion. Federal Fallout | Greater Johnstown Elementary School Silver Lining ABA Registered Behavior Technician Christine McGrew (left) assists a child with a craft in the autistic support classroom at Greater Johnstown Elementary School on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. According to the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the commonwealth received $1.6 billion for K-12 schools from the U.S. Department of Education in the 2022-23 fiscal year, with $578 million going to Title 1; $428 million for Individuals with Disabilities in Education programs and special education; and to assist educators and support professionals. Aaron Chapin, PSEA president, said in a release that Trump's order puts that funding at risk, and the teachers' union estimates nearly 7,000 educators and support professionals would lose their jobs without that federal funding. 'Think of what this means for students from low-income families living in communities that count on these federal investments to support their public education, as well as students with disabilities and their families,' he said. Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center-PA, said in a statement that dismantling the federal education department 'would certainly mean far fewer federal resources for our most underfunded schools across the state and fewer supports for underserved students.' She said that includes 26 million students affected by poverty who are supported by Title 1 funding and 7.4 million students with disabilities who benefit from Individuals with Disabilities Education Act money. The law center said $4.67 billion is provided to Pennsylvania schools from all federal sources, which includes Medicaid, food and transportation supports. Some federal dollars at Greater Johnstown go to paying for personal care nurses to help special education students, Arcurio said. 'We want to make sure all children, especially the most vulnerable children that are identified and come to us from poverty, we want to make sure they don't lose any of the resources they have to give them access to an education,' she said. 'A lot at stake' If that funding were moved to the state level, there could be issues with allocations, former Pennsylvania Department of Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak said. 'There's a lot at stake here in terms of changing something that, in my view, really doesn't need to change,' he said. Federal Fallout | Greater Johnstown Elementary School Greater Johnstown Elementary School Kindergartners shown here in the cafeteria during a lunch period at the school on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. The Johnstown resident and former Greater Johnstown superintendent has followed the situation closely and expressed worries about the dismantling of the Department of Education. Zahorchak said rural schools in the state rely on formulaic funding, and if it's left to state legislatures, he fears they could lower their own public school contributions in response. He also shared unease about the lack of oversight from a federal entity, which he said could lead to rollbacks of protections for special education students, minorities and other vulnerable students. Arcurio said that part of the reason the U.S. Department of Education was created 46 years ago is because school districts were not implementing funding the way it was intended. She provided the example of separating special education students from their peers. 'Public education is not failing,' Zahorchak said. 'Government organizations from the federal and state (levels) are failing education.' He pointed to the historic fair funding lawsuit in which a Commonwealth Court judge ruled in 2022 that the state was not upholding its constitutional duty of public school support. Jerry Zahorchak Some area educators aren't as worried about potential adjustments brought by the president's directive. Mark Bower, Rockwood Area superintendent, said he'd 'welcome less federal involvement at the local level.' He called standardized testing 'overly restrictive' and said the 'constant changes' in guidance from Title IX – a federal law that prohibits discrimination in education programs based on sex – 'make it difficult for schools to operate with consistent expectations each year.' Bower said: 'I do not expect an interruption of service. We are expecting the funding to flow through the state and actually, (I) am anticipating more flexibility and local control.' Rockwood received about $170,000 in federal funding in the 2019-20 school year and roughly $638,000 in the 2022-23 term because of ESSR dollars. Bower said the typical funding rate is used for two elementary teacher positions' salary and benefits. Post-secondary impact Nathan Ginnelly, a secondary education major at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, shared a similar evaluation to Bower's. He said as a prospective teacher, he's not anxious about his prospects after graduation this year, adding that he doesn't believe any teachers should be concerned about their jobs. Ginnelly said he's kept up with the impact of Trump's order 'here and there,' but is more attuned to commonwealth matters. However, he said there will be 'a lot to learn' if the U.S. Department of Education is closed and those responsibilities fall to states. 'You're going to see a lot of decision-making on the state, which was already there,' he added. Charline Rowland, Pitt-Johnstown education division chair, said the possible impact of federal downsizing 'hasn't hit home yet for most of our teacher candidates.' She said the adjustment of federal financial programs, such as student loans and Pell grants, could be an issue not just for colleges and universities, but for any post-secondary institutions, including vocational schools. Trump has said he wants student loans to be moved to the U.S. Small Business Administration and special education to now be overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Rowland, a teacher for nearly 30 years, said the majority of education majors at UPJ qualify for financial assistance. As a potential benefit to that situation, she brought up the Pennsylvania Student Teacher Support Program, which supplies stipends to teacher candidates during schooling. Rowland said she's worried about K-12 support programs as well. She said English as a second language learners, those in special education, alternative education and district outreach efforts, may be at stake. The best-case scenario, she said, is that the states continue to support those programs and collaborate with the public school districts. 'I know it's a sad time for the federal government with the U.S. Education Department,' Rowland said. 'However, I'm hoping we can reimagine what it would look like at the state level and make sure it can get to the local school program and improve in professional development for teachers, as well as our education students.'
