Burbio School Tracker 6/5: 2024-25 Budgets
This week we look at 2024-25 budgets for some districts that received the most dollars-per-student of soon-to-be-expiring federal aid. We also look...
This week we look at trends in school board meeting discussions in AI, a visualization of school budgets from "ESSER-heavy" districts across the U.S., and the most recent overview of stimulus spending by state.
1. Burbio's School Board Meeting Tracker covers school board meetings for over 2,000 school districts each month, representing over 50% of the K-12 school population. This week we begin by looking at the percent of districts that have discussed AI-related subjects at least once since January. Some notes:
- For AI policy, we searched the terms AI Policy, AI Guidance, Acceptable Use Policy, Artificial Intelligence Policy, and AUP.
- For Artificial Intelligence, we searched for the term "Artificial Intelligence" plus a basket of highly specific terms such as Training Data, Gen AI, LLM, etc. The majority of the hits were around the broader term Artificial Intelligence.
- This is a fast-moving category and we will continue to iterate on how districts are discussing the subject. It is worth noting how few discussions are occurring around AI policy at the district level.
2. In our March 19th Tracker we ranked large districts by the amount of ESSER III funding-per-student the district received as we reviewed districts facing the largest budget transitions post-stimulus. In recent weeks, we have profiled 2024-25 district budgets from that list of top 50 "ESSER-heavy" districts. This week we expand that examination and add some districts beyond the top 50 (ranking indicated in parenthesis), and we follow with a chart showing trends we are seeing:
- In Michigan, the Detroit Public Schools (#2) budget increases expenditures by 13.5% versus 2023-24. Grand Rapids Public Schools' expenditures (#39) drop by 8.5% with media reports indicating the budget "does not include any teacher layoffs or cuts to student programming."
- In Virginia, Richmond Public Schools (#65) has an expenditure increase of just over 8%, Norfolk Public Schools (#84) reports a 12.1% increase in expenditures, and Roanoke City Public Schools (#105) is flat in expenditures year-over-year.
- Newark Public Schools, NJ (#64) will see a budget increase of 14% in 2024-25 amidst an increase in state aid.
- Memphis Shelby County Public Schools, TN (#61) shows an expenditure drop of 11%, from just over $2.1 billion to $1.8 billion.
- Lawrence Public Schools, MA (#74) has an 8.5% increase in expenditures.
3. Over the last three editions of the Tracker we have evaluated over twenty districts that receive a high amount of dollars-per-student in ESSER III aid, and evaluated their most recent budgets as well as their NCES enrollment trends from pre-Covid to 2021-22. In the chart below you see a breakdown of results:
Burbio will be adding school budgets and, where available, school board presentations on those budgets, to our District profile in the coming weeks. We will be focusing on the 500 largest U.S. districts to start. The board presentations of school budgets often include details on spending initiatives.
4. Burbio tracks ESSER III spending by districts nationally. Under ESSER III guidelines, funds must be obligated by September 30th, 2024, and disbursed by January 28th, 2025. Burbio tracks ESSER III spending plans with a particular focus on district-level activity. Below is an overview of states that have reported since 3/31/24:
