The end of the federal ESSER extension announced by Trump Secretary of Education McMahon Friday hit the Massachusetts news wires today, largely because the executive branch issued a frankly not very helpful press release, which goes for impact without starting with what the funding actually is.
And now we have news articles and headlines that are only making that worse, so in lieu of banging my head against the train window here, let's try to parse more of this out.
Cheering for large sections of today's New Bedford Light interview with Superintendent Andrew O'Leary:
Soon after Trump took office this year, O’Leary got some social media and talk radio flak because he had sent out a letter to school staff informing them that the New Bedford district follows state guidelines that restrict building and information access from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities.
O’Leary feels strongly about his system’s immigrant students. He spoke at a Saturday City Hall rally, objecting to a March 21 New Bedford raid where, he said, several children who attend city schools “woke up to terror” when federal agents in military fatigues broke the door to their home.
He says the criticism hasn’t bothered him because as superintendent he’s the person who can better deal with rebukes so staff can go about their jobs educating and protecting children. He is particularly concerned, he said, about continuing the New Bedford schools’ inclusive philosophy toward marginalized populations like undocumented immigrants and transgender and nonbinary people.
“All the criticism came to me because you have seen scenarios out there, around the state and around the nation, where this individual teacher and this individual principal got targeted,” he said. His voice then grew quiet. “I would hate to see that” in New Bedford, he said.
And also:
Business roundtable-type organizations, he said, have incorrectly convinced the public that schools should be about producing skilled, high-earning graduates for the commercial sector.
That’s the wrong paradigm, according to the superintendent.
“I think we’ve listened to the wrong people around that, and what it does is, it diminishes what a school actually is for: its community,” he said. “It’s a place where students grow and flourish and develop as young people who can contribute to society in all sorts of ways.”
O’Leary is doing nothing less than laying down a marker that the New Bedford schools are not about business or careers or even getting into college, but rather about boosting the people of the city and how they feel about themselves.
“What concerns me the most is that these are community assets,” he said. “Schools are the hubs of neighborhoods. Schools, where our young people are, are one of the most important things that society invests in, and they belong to the community.”
Public schools have traditionally been thought of as something for the whole group, not for one individual, he said.
“Eroding a community asset is something we should raise concern about,” O’Leary said.
Yes, indeed! More of this, please!
It is time once again for another of my “skunk at the garden party” posts; partly in response to last week's Ways and Means hearing on education and local aid, I want to flag something which is not, generally, being mentioned.
Yesterday, after not only its appointment but its first meeting, Governor Healey announced the formation and membership of her K-12 graduation council.
I do just first want to say that I dislike this thing where the Governor's office only announces things afterwards. It feels to me like an attempt to avoid critique.
Can we be blunt? The group is way too big to make meaningful recommendations.
More importantly, this group has some membership, alongside those you'd expect, that's gives some troubling insight into what voices she thinks need to be at the table on graduation.
Students, teachers, MASS, MASC, MTA, AFT, higher ed...great.
The business roundtable? MBAE (again)? Mass Taxpayers? Can we stop with "we educate children to become workers" already?
And the House minority really brought back Jim Peyser?
This continues my concern that the Governor herself doesn't have a lot of interest in public education, and is leaving it to the latter of the "Healey-Driscoll administration," whose history in Salem showed no great concern over the push for privatization.
Anyway, they're having listening sessions across the state, though those haven't been announced yet.
Just once I'd like someone setting something like this up in Massachusetts to cite the actual CONSTITUTIONAL reason we have education in Massachusetts. Until then, I guess you'll only see that on my sign at protests.
As EdWeek reports, the U.S. Department of Education told states on Friday that all extensions on ESSER spending were cancelled:
McMahon alerted state education chiefs in a letter dated Friday that the deadline to spend all remaining funds was that same day at 5 p.m. EST.
She said the additional time “was not justified” and that states and school districts “have had ample time to liquidate obligations.”
Because the department can reconsider its decisions, McMahon wrote in the letter obtained by Education Week, “you could not rely on the Department adhering to its original decision.”
“By failing to meet the clear deadline in the regulation, you ran the risk that the Department would deny your extension request,” McMahon said. “Extending deadlines for COVID-related grants, which are in fact taxpayer funds, years after the COVID pandemic ended is not consistent with the Department’s priorities and thus not a worthwhile exercise of its discretion.”
May I add as an aside: how snarkily unprofessional in tone is this?
I haven't seen an number yet on how much is outstanding.
Also, because of the way federal funding to districts flows--they draw against the state, which then draws down from the federal government--it's not clear who is going to be left holding the bag, so to speak, on the contracts already committed to that now have to be paid.
Remember that at least some of this was funding overdue facilities projects that ran into supply line issues (remember those?) during the pandemic, and thus needed the time for completion.
McMahon's letter does extent a new wavier option:
McMahon said in her letter to state schools chiefs that it would now consider extensions “on an individual project-specific basis.” It asked states to submit a statement explaining why an extension is “necessary to mitigate the effects of COVID on American students’ education” and “why the Department should exercise its discretion to grant your request.”
Coming on the heels of that very weird video threatening Maine, I can only guess what one will have to agree to in order to get an extension.
As there is more, I will share it.
NOTE: this does not impact most districts (including, yes, Worcester) as most districts have fully expended their ESSER funding already. There are some that received extensions for very particular circumstances, though
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*taking notes from our former Governor and Commissioner, one presumes
Interesting to note today that there's been another Commissioner's screening committee meeting posted for Monday
This after they'd met Tuesday after the Board meeting at which Chair Craven sure seemed to imply they'd be announcing finalists shortly. They're planning interviews in April (and frankly, some of us would like to know when!)
