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Feb. 10th, 2025 07:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alicevangeline I appreciated Jenett's update about how the DOE impacts work.
I want to talk about that too but it's too much "all about me" for a comment so here is my deal:
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I wrote a couple times back about local funding, and how state funding is much less than it ought to be. The average cost per student, including transportation, was $25,036. Excluding IEP costs, this average dropped to $18,719. The state has determined adequate education is approx 3800 (really low, nationwide). So most of the funding is through property taxes which are crazy high (my town has mobile home parks and apartments, for instance, which is a lot of kids and not a lot of taxes, so the people with larger properties pay more -Long Story Short). This is an ongoing Thing.
So Local funding is a big thing. State is small, but should be big.
But FEDERAL funding is also a big chunk - at least a couple million of the 38 mill budget. Federal law requires us to serve certain populations, and federal money pays directly for many of those initiatives. Not to mention, title money offfsets the fact that we're poor and rural.
So while my job, per se, is MOSTLY not federally funded (the work I do to support homeless students is, but that's 3K), the whole structure is reliant on federal funding to allow us to serve vulnerable populations as required by federal law. Do you hear Jaws noises regarding those last 5 words bc I do.
I think it's harder to unravel federal laws protecting DEI (disabilities!homelessness! for example) than it is to yell about them and stop funding them.
I think also 1 in 4 students in our town has some kind of extra need. That's a high number, but it's accurate. We have nonspeaking kids, kids with mobility aids, kids whose homes have burned down so they're traumatized, et cetera.
So basically the DOE is a structural pillar holding up a quarter of our building or house of cards or whatever. It's not all of it, but remove it and the damage is so substantial the house is not livable.
I want to talk about that too but it's too much "all about me" for a comment so here is my deal:
---
I wrote a couple times back about local funding, and how state funding is much less than it ought to be. The average cost per student, including transportation, was $25,036. Excluding IEP costs, this average dropped to $18,719. The state has determined adequate education is approx 3800 (really low, nationwide). So most of the funding is through property taxes which are crazy high (my town has mobile home parks and apartments, for instance, which is a lot of kids and not a lot of taxes, so the people with larger properties pay more -Long Story Short). This is an ongoing Thing.
So Local funding is a big thing. State is small, but should be big.
But FEDERAL funding is also a big chunk - at least a couple million of the 38 mill budget. Federal law requires us to serve certain populations, and federal money pays directly for many of those initiatives. Not to mention, title money offfsets the fact that we're poor and rural.
So while my job, per se, is MOSTLY not federally funded (the work I do to support homeless students is, but that's 3K), the whole structure is reliant on federal funding to allow us to serve vulnerable populations as required by federal law. Do you hear Jaws noises regarding those last 5 words bc I do.
I think it's harder to unravel federal laws protecting DEI (disabilities!homelessness! for example) than it is to yell about them and stop funding them.
I think also 1 in 4 students in our town has some kind of extra need. That's a high number, but it's accurate. We have nonspeaking kids, kids with mobility aids, kids whose homes have burned down so they're traumatized, et cetera.
So basically the DOE is a structural pillar holding up a quarter of our building or house of cards or whatever. It's not all of it, but remove it and the damage is so substantial the house is not livable.