Pandemic enrollment decline should not cost schools

As if trying to provide education during a pandemic were not difficult enough, school districts across the state now have to be concerned about declining revenue because of reduced enrollment.

Much of the decrease, by the way, can be tied directly to students leaving public schools — perhaps for home schooling or private education — because of COVID-19.

Santa Fe Public Schools enrollment, Superintendent Veronica García said, appears to be down 500 students on the 26th day of the year. Enrollment is about 12,526 for pre-K through 12th grade in the district’s public and charter schools. Should the decline continue to the 40th day, it would indicate at least a 3.8 percent decrease from 2019-20 numbers.

Such a falloff would mean a loss of several million dollars for an already tight school budget. Necessary spending because of COVID-19 — even with federal and state assistance — and teaching remotely while preparing for in-person schooling to begin already has stressed budgets across the state.

For the potential budget shortfall because of declining enrollment, there is a simple solution. State lawmakers need to hold districts harmless for the pandemic-caused enrollment decreases.

It’s not that complicated — lawmakers must pass legislation during the 2021 session that would fund districts based on 2019-20 enrollment numbers. A district’s funding is based on the previous year’s enrollment.

Given the unusual circumstances of this pandemic school year, it is logical — and necessary — for pre-pandemic numbers to hold. The 2021-22 budget, then, would be based on 2019-20, not 2020-21. This not only would ensure schools won’t be short of cash, it would give school boards and district administrators more certainty in planning. Some certainty amid all the uncertainty would be most welcome right now.

Santa Fe is hardly the only district facing woeful budget projections, either. In Albuquerque, enrollment could be off some 4,000 students this year from last year, to about 76,000, a 5 percent decline. Las Cruces Public Schools could lose about 2.4 percent of its enrollment.

How a district is affected depends on which students aren’t showing up. The state’s complex State Equalization Guarantee weighs a number of factors in assigning a dollar value per pupil — everything from the number of special education students, non-English speakers, grade level of the student and poverty factors are weighed. Then the Public Education Department assigns a dollar value to each pupil.

Already, the state reduced the funding formula by $159 million during the current school year, which meant a decrease of more than $7 million this year for Santa Fe Public Schools out of $111 million.

Complicating school funding for public schools is this reality: The state still needs to live up to its obligations under the Martinez-Yazzie lawsuit, in which a judge found that New Mexico is not meeting its constitutional obligation to fund education adequately — that’s an obligation New Mexico must meet.

The lawsuit requires the state to target spending to help at-risk students receive a better education — those same students are most likely to fall further behind because of the pandemic, with its reliance on virtual education using the internet. Poor students are more likely to lack regular internet access and help at home to engage fully in virtual learning — they need more attention right now, not less, a necessity that will not go away next year or the year after.

Lawmakers know this, just as teachers, administrators and families do. It’s essential to hold students harmless for factors out of their control. School budgets need to stay intact — something the Legislature can achieve come 2021.