The EdWeek Research Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, provided the content for this report. Allovue was the sponsor. EdWeek Research Center publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. References to sponsors in this research paper do not constitute endorsements by Education Week or Editorial Projects in Education. The EdWeek Research Center produces independent, objective, nonpartisan research and analysis. For more information, contact us at RCinfo@epe.org .
Jess Gartner, the CEO and Founder of Allovue, is a member of the board of trustees for Editorial Projects in Education.
As school districts prepare for the end of federal COVID relief funding, the second annual Allovue Education Finance Survey finds that K-12 teachers and administrators have grown more pessimistic about the financial conditions in their districts and schools. A total of 1,855 educators responded to the 2023 survey, including 467 district leaders, 592 school leaders, and 796 teachers.
In 2022-2023, the Allovue Education Spending Confidence Index was developed to gauge educators’ level of optimism regarding their districts’ financial status. On a 600-point scale ranging from -300 (extremely pessimistic) to +300 (extremely optimistic), this year’s score was -67, down 29 points from last year’s score of -38. In a 10-person interview study that was a companion to this year’s survey, educators cited multiple concerns, such as the use of one-time COVID relief funds to pay for ongoing expenses; the rising cost of addressing student behavioral and mental health challenges; uncertainty around state budgets and local tax referenda; and expectations of a looming recession.
For the second year in a row, “funding that fails to keep pace with inflation” surfaced as educators’ number one concern related to district finance.
“Once those one-time monies are gone and we’re in the middle of a recession and we don’t have increased core revenue, we’ll be right back where we were before the pandemic,” a California principal predicted in an interview.
Same as last year, administrators involved in budgeting say their top challenges are long-range planning and accurate forecasting. Software is another concern, with roughly half saying their budgeting tools are out of date and in need of modernization, and only a quarter indicating that the software they use interacts or operates well with relevant programs and apps.
Also unchanged from 2022: teachers and administrators are most likely to attribute increasing per-pupil spending rates to increasing student needs.
“The mental health needs of kids since COVID not doubled, not tripled, quadrupled—or even more than that. I can’t even really put a number on that,” a district-level safety/at-risk coordinator in Tennessee said.
With nearly two-thirds of school and district leaders reporting that 10 percent or less of their COVID relief funding remains, educators have fewer resources available to address ongoing pandemic-related fallout. Seventy-three percent of respondents say that the end of these funds has had or will have a negative impact on their budgets. If districts do have to make budget cuts, administrators say they are most likely to reduce spending in professional development, contributions to savings/rainy day funds, and extracurriculars.
The survey also investigated knowledge of school resources beyond pandemic aid. Typically, the federal government supplies roughly 10 percent of all K-12 education funding. However, survey results suggest that educators generally overestimate this amount—the median guess was 20 percent. Survey results further suggest that educators generally underestimate per-pupil funding and the cost of teacher benefits.
According to follow-up interviews, these finance knowledge gaps ultimately make it more challenging for educators to advocate for resources, make informed decisions, and engage in long-range budget planning.
The second annual Allovue Education Finance Survey was commissioned by Allovue, a technology solution for K-12 financial management, and administered by the nonprofit, nonpartisan EdWeek Research Center in November 2023. The companion study interviews were conducted in December 2023 and January 2024 with a total of 10 teachers and administrators from eight states. Allovue was acquired by PowerSchool in 2024; visit to learn more.