Budget & Finance

How Sloppy Math Makes Budgeting Harder for Schools

By Mark Lieberman — February 07, 2023 | Updated: February 08, 2023 3 min read
One Hundred Dollar Bill with the words "Uh Oh!" on a patch covering Ben's mouth
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Updated: This story has been updated with a comment from the Virginia Department of Education.

Some school funding shortfalls are caused by a complex mix of factors, like demographic shifts and political trends. Others, though, can be traced back simply to sloppy math and inadequate proofreading.

Take the current predicament in Virginia. Every year, the state sends each school district an interactive spreadsheet. School finance staffers plug in the number of students and other demographic details about their student bodies, and the spreadsheet returns an estimate for the state aid the district can expect for the coming school year.

On Jan. 31, weeks after districts had already started planning for next school year’s budgets, the state made a startling announcement: Thanks to human error, some of the spreadsheet’s calculations failed to account for changes in revenue caused by the state’s reduction of its sales tax on groceries at the start of the year.

In short, the estimates were too high. Worse still, the state discovered the same error also affected the current school year’s budget calculations.

All told, the state’s estimates for schools exceeded the actual planned investments by more than $200 million, including $58 million for the school year that’s currently underway.

Andy Hawkins, executive director for financial services for the 7,500-student Manassas City school district, still isn’t sure how much money his district believed it got this year that it shouldn’t have. But next year, the error could cost the district nearly $1 million in expected funds, or $133 per student.

“Especially when you’re in a poorer school district, you depend on state money as your lifeline,” Hawkins said. “For them to come back at this late date and say we made a mistake, it causes significant problems.”

Without that $1 million for next year, Hawkins said schools will experience some tangible changes. Class sizes will increase. Supplemental instruction programs could be cut. The district would have to buy fewer supplies and delay maintenance on school buildings that need upgrades.

This burst of chaos is playing out while the district deals with a wide range of other financial challenges, including the oncoming expiration of federal COVID relief funds.

For their part, state officials have said they have sufficient funds available to make up the difference. The state education department plans this week to send districts an updated spreadsheet that generates accurate estimates, Charles Pyle, a spokesperson for the agency, said in an email Tuesday.

“Governor Youngkin’s goal is for no local school division to experience a budgetary shortfall because of the error,” Pyle wrote.

Funding cuts hit chronically underfunded schools harder

These problems also point to a much larger systemic one, Hawkins said: State funding for education hasn’t kept up with inflation or returned to levels it reached before the Great Recession. This is true in Virginia and many other states, where headlines about school funding increases ignore that the cost of schooling is rising faster than the availability of new resources.

In Iowa, for instance, legislators just approved a 3 percent increase in state aid for schools, even as inflation approached 7 percent last year. Minnesota is considering a law that would mandate that school funding increases be tied to the inflation rate, but advocates are frustrated that the proposed law would cap the increases at 3 percent.

In Virginia, Hawkins has calculated that the Manassas City schools would have received $25 million more over the years if funding increases matched annual inflation. The district would be able to offer better benefits to keep teaching positions filled, and improve the quality of instructional offerings.

The state currently has a $3.6 billion surplus. The centerpiece of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s recent state budget proposal, still under review by lawmakers, is cutting individual and corporate income taxes, at a cost of nearly $700 million in state revenue. Education spending proposals include investments of $24 million in reading and math specialists, $50 million in merit bonuses for teachers, and $50 million for laboratory schools developed by universities.

Hawkins isn’t impressed.

“The error that was made is bad,” Hawkins said. “But it’s just another thing in a long line of ways where public education hasn’t been properly funded throughout the years.”

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Equity & Diversity Webinar
Classroom Strategies for Building Equity and Student Confidence
Shape equity, confidence, and success for your middle school students. Join the discussion and Q&A for proven strategies.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Professional Development Webinar
Disrupting PD Day in Schools with Continuous Professional Learning Experiences
Hear how this NC School District achieved district-wide change by shifting from traditional PD days to year-long professional learning cycles
Content provided by BetterLesson
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Budget & Finance ESG: The Hotly Contested Investment Strategy That Could Pose Trouble for Teacher Pensions
Pension funds are facing political pressure either to incorporate social goals into their investment approaches, or to do the opposite.
6 min read
Illustration: ESG Concept of Environmental, Social and Governance.  Sustainable Development. Alternative Energy.
iStock/Getty Images
Budget & Finance Letter to the Editor Federal Funds Should Be Prioritized to Support Mental Health
A psychologist urges districts to invest in social-emotional and mental health supports—above all others—in this letter to the editor.
1 min read
Education Week opinion letters submissions
Gwen Keraval for Education Week
Budget & Finance The Ballooning Expense That's Cutting Into Funding for Students
The costs of retirement benefits and unfunded pension liabilities have grown far more quickly than overall spending on K-12 schools.
3 min read
Illustration of money being carried away by a balloon that says "pensions"
Cemile Bingol/DigitalVision/Getty; Liz Yap/Education Week<br/>
Budget & Finance Data See Which School Districts Declined Federal Pandemic Aid
Administrative hassle, philosophical disagreements, and abrupt school closures are among the reasons districts rejected ESSER funds.
1 min read
Image of money falling from tree branches.
z_wei/iStock/Getty + EdWeek