UPDATE Oct 1, 6:15pm: I’m sure many of our readers are trying to understand what the government shutdown means for schools. We have also been reading lots of opinions in an attempt to understand. The short answer, upon which almost everyone agrees, is it seems to depend on how long the shutdown lasts. The longer it lasts, the more schools, teachers, and students will be affected.
Our first view comes from Education Week, here.
The second calm and collected view we found comes from the National Association for Music Education, here.
As of this writing, the US House of Representatives had sent another bill for funding the government that included the delay of certain elements of the Affordable Care Act for another year, and the Senate promptly refused to accept it late Monday night, sending the government on a path toward a shutdown, several news agencies are reporting.
So it seems a government shutdown looms, the first one since the 1990s, and some people may be wondering how it will affect schools. Private schools will continue normal operation, while public schools will be able to hold on for some time.
Most Illinois schools get about 10 percent of their money from the federal government, and Maryland schools get even less than that, and at least for now, there doesn’t seem to be anything to worry about.
However, if a shutdown lasts for a long time, schools could start to feel the pinch. That’s because the federal employees who enable the transfer of funds to school districts won’t be on the job if the government shuts down. Money that’s already on the way will still get there, but after a while, it will stop, waiting for someone, basically, to write the checks.
Although the president and members of Congress are considered “essential” employees of the government and won’t be furloughed, other “nonessential” personnel will not be able to come into work if the government shuts down. This includes workers at national parks, public works projects like the Hoover Dam, and yes, US Department of Education employees who don’t report directly to the president.
Just because they are defined as “nonessential,” by the way, doesn’t mean they’re unnecessary. Think of it like this: If your house were on fire, you might grab important photos that aren’t digital. You certainly wouldn’t waste time going to the refrigerator and rescuing food. That’s not to say that you don’t need food to live; it’s just not “essential,” at least in the short term.
So, all the nonessential personnel who work for the government would have to stay at home. But the effects of this work stoppage wouldn’t be noticeable in schools for a while, because the government does a lot of work well in advance.
For example, the federally funded free and reduced-price meals many students get at school are funded on a monthly basis, and October’s funds are already in the pipeline. Plus, school districts can carry over any unused funds in these programs from the previous fiscal year, USA Today reported.
Students in Washington, D.C., a federal enclave, will notice a government shutdown much more. There would be no garbage collection, and public libraries in the city would close until the government reopened them, according to one report from NBC 4 in Washington.
But in general, the US Department of Education has a plan for how to keep money flowing to schools if the government shuts down. Officials released the plan earlier, according to a report in the Washington Post. But they can’t keep using a contingency plan: a long shutdown could result in money not getting to schools. Here’s what the department’s contingency plan says:
A protracted delay in Department obligations and payments beyond one week would severely curtail the cash flow to school districts, colleges and universities, and vocational rehabilitation agencies that depend on the Department’s funds to support their services. For example, many school districts receive more than 20 percent of their funds from Department-funded programs.
Over 14 million students receive student aid, in the form of grants and loans, at over 6,600 schools through Pell Grants and Direct Student Loans, and if a shutdown is prolonged, the payment of this money could be delayed because there won’t be enough people to process the payments, Other programs, such as Race to the Top and Promise Neighborhoods, are funded by Congress only through Dec. 31.
That is, college students may be more directly affected than K-12 students, but this might be a good time to check your lunch money reserves, just in case the House is hunkering down for a long debate about the Affordable Care Act.
For a more general description of some of the effects you can expect from a federal government shutdown, please see the following short article on Yahoo News, here, or this very nice FAQ article in the Baltimore Sun, here. A shutdown will certainly affect a great many Maryland residents, simply because a large number of people who live in the state work for the federal government.
