Madison Aument: Jordan Zarate is a school board member for the Rim of the World School District. The district… which serves some 28-hundred students… is one of many districts across the country that relies on federal funding from the Department of Education. Now that funding is frozen and districts like Zarate’s don’t have access to it. We talked about what that means for smaller districts like Rim of the World. What funding has actually been frozen at this point?
Jordan Zarate:Yeah, so the Department of Education has impounded five different federal funding streams for Rim, covering everything from English language learner services and supports to supplementary instructional materials. It affects our EL aides, our EL coordinators, and our professional development and teacher training as well. Altogether, it totals over a quarter of a million dollars for our district alone, out of the nearly $1 billion that’s been impounded for the state of California.
Madison Aument: Let’s break it down. How is this freezing of the funds going to affect students?
Jordan Zarate: Well, we’re doing our best right now to stave off the impact to students. In June, we passed our budget on time for the upcoming fiscal year starting July 1. Less than a week after we adopted our budget, these federal funds were impounded. So it greatly impacts our budget, but at the same time, we’re having to operate under contingency plans—floating that money out of our general fund in the hopes that we’ll get reimbursed. But we don’t know for sure. We have to plan for different scenarios: maybe we’ll get reimbursed by the end of the year, maybe only partially, or maybe none of it will come through.
Madison Aument: How will this affect teachers?
Jordan Zarate:It creates a lot of uncertainty—not just for our teachers, but also for our classroom aides and EL coordinators, whose positions are partially funded through these federal streams. Hopefully, we’ll be able to keep all our staff and get reimbursed. But with the recent change in California state law from three years ago, districts only have one opportunity to lay off staff—and that’s March 15. So at the very least, folks will be employed through the end of the year. But the ramifications could really trickle down. Right now, we’re operating on a razor-thin, positive three-year ending fund balance. Losing a quarter of a million dollars could shift us from that positive to a negative balance in that same time frame. We’re already working to stretch every dollar we can to provide as many student services as possible—but the thing is, it’s really hard to stretch a dollar that may or may not exist.
Madison Aument: Anything I missed?
Jordan Zarate: One positive note I’d emphasize is that our Board of Education adopted an advocacy platform in June. One of the items in that platform is to advocate for the preservation and enhancement of federal funding revenues. So it is on local school boards’ radars, it is being discussed at the advocacy level, and it’s something we’ll continue to push for.
If you’re looking to support public education and the preservation of its funding, reach out to your local school boards. See if they’ve adopted an advocacy platform, and ask how you can help support or further that advocacy work.
Madison Aument: That was Jordan Zarate… a school board member for Rim of the World. You can find this segment on our website at KVCR news. org. This segment was funded by the Nowak family. For KVCR News, I’m Madison Aument.
