1. School districts in different states release preliminary budgets on different timelines. This week we look at budgets from four states where we have found preliminary 2023/24 budgets that have been announced. ESSER III spending deadlines don't arrive until September 2024, which falls into the 2024/25 academic year, so impact from that shift would not necessarily be evident in this upcoming fiscal year. All the states happen to be on the East coast.
It is important to note the budget releases are preliminary and may change, and the FY 23 figures, while finalized budgets for this year, may change when the year is completed. In future issues we'll be examining budgets from additional states, as well as layering on enrollment trends. For now note double-digit projected increases for several large districts:
2. This week we also have updated our blog from August where we looked at expenditure increases in school districts from 2022/23 (this current year) versus two years ago (pre-pandemic). Over 60% of the districts in the survey have seen an increase of 15% or more during that time, with 16.6% of districts (the two bars on the right) increasing by more than 30%:
3. This week we highlight two more states that announced 2022-23 enrollment. First Michigan, where enrollment dropped 0.4% versus 2021/22. For grade level comparisons, you can see the by-now-familiar spike in first grade (in yellow) which follows last year's kindergarten increase (red):
All the locales in Michigan are showing declines:
In Washington enrollment increased by 0.5% versus 2021/22. The city locale was flat and suburban, rural and town all increased:
In most states, Pre-K continues to increase this year, but at a slower rate than last year. In Washington, conversely, Pre-K (in yellow) increased faster this year than last year (in red):