Some school districts that grew during pandemic feel shortchanged
While the vast majority of California's school districts lost students during most of this past decade, hundreds of districts — mostly small and rural — have grown, emerging from the height of the pandemic with higher enrollment.
Most districts would welcome an enrollment increase and the per-student state funding boost that usually comes with it. But these growing districts were shortchanged when the state implemented blanket COVID-19 policies protecting districts that lost enrollment during the pandemic.
“The decision to hold districts harmless for declining enrollment came from a well-intended solution,” said Peter Birdsall, president of lobbying firm Education Advocates. “Even at the time, the concern was raised that some districts were growing. `Hold harmless' actually hurt them.”
Because schools are funded on a per-student basis, when attendance drops, so does district revenue. For the 2020-21 school year, the state froze funding for school districts at pre-pandemic levels. So districts that
saw enrollment and attendance plummet during the pandemic maintained their funding levels. But those that grew ended up with less money per student.
Education Advocates and the Small School Districts' Association, an advocacy group representing these districts, estimate that 169 school districts, mostly small and rural, weren't funded for all their students last school year.
“I think a lot of people
look at the statistics and they say, `Where are the kids going?'” said Nicole Newman, superintendent at the Wheatland Union High School District, about 40 miles north of Sacramento. “But that's not the case for every school district.”
And while the shortchanged districts are asking the Legislature to make up the difference, key lawmakers appear to be split: Some say the state has an obligation to make these
districts whole, but others say the districts should forget about the past and look forward to unprecedented funding headed for all California schools next year.
According to a CalMatters analysis, 189 of the state's 940 school districts grew between the 2019-20 and the 2020-21 school years. The combined enrollment at those districts is about 10% of California's total public school enrollment.
“This has never happened in California finance where a district isn't paid for serving a student,” said Tim Taylor, executive director of the Small Schools Districts' Association. “I know for a fact that if this had happened to any of the big districts, they would've been paid.”
By the end of the 201920 school year, Wheatland Union High had about 900 students. The following school year, it grew to 932 students, a 4% increase. Meanwhile, public school enrollment statewide decreased by 3% that first year of the pandemic.
The growth among many small districts reflected the availability of affordable housing, Newman and other district administrators across the state said. Residents from coastal urban areas started buying homes further inland when employers shifted to remote work during the pandemic.
In San Bernardino County, Lucerne Valley Unified School District didn't budget for growth in the 2020-21 school year. Superintendent Peter Livingston said he submitted a budget to his county office of education that anticipated stable enrollment. He says if he had budgeted for growth, the county wouldn't have believed him.
“The county would've kicked back our budget,” he said. “They would've said, `Where are these kids coming from?'”
But when the district's enrollment, excluding charter schools, increased by about 40 students, the district budget was short $460,000, Livingston said. In a typical year, the state usually adjusts funding for growing districts, but because funding was frozen at pre-pandemic levels, Lucerne Valley Unified never got the money. The 840-student district had to hire four additional teachers and pay their salaries with reserve funds.
Newman is still hoping to get the $385,000 dollars her district should have received last year.
“I had to hire three more teachers, and those teachers had to get paid when I didn't get the funding for those students,” Newman said. “In smaller school districts, that's a significant amount.”
Newman said she had to dip into the district's reserve fund to pay for extra staff. In total, Newman estimates that the 169 districts that grew in the last school year are owed $76.7 million — “a speck of water in the bucket for California,” she said.