Changes to K-12 Funding Could Be Coming: How Data Can Help Districts Survive the Impact

Guest post by Dr. Nathan L. Fisher

As we start a new year, school leaders look toward the future with hope and optimism. However, we can’t help but feel our anxiety begin to increase when we tune into today’s non-stop news cycle. Will the ongoing call to slash K–12 spending turn from a pledge into a promise in 2025? How different will the Department of Education look 12 months from now?

If you’re a district administrator uneasy about the great unknown, you’re not alone. We have to be financially ready to weather the impact of possible federal budget cuts. Instead of panicking, education leaders need to prepare – to think strategically about the programs we offer and use the power of data to successfully advocate for our students’ needs.

Why data is more important than ever before

While federal funds average just 11 percent of a district’s budget, small cuts can be significant, causing districts to either eliminate programs or search out other revenue sources. Even if President Trump’s talking points never come to fruition, administrators and school boards must continue to diversify their funding to provide the best possible opportunities for their students.

Whether engaging state legislators to advocate for increased funding, building public-private partnerships with local businesses, or seeking corporate or foundation grants, data is king. Funders want to know how your proposal will have a measurable impact on student success and that you can extract maximum value from their investments. For instance, if you’re proposing a new literacy program, the information you present must define a concrete needs assessment, student demographic and performance data, impact metrics, and past project outcomes. A great anecdote can grab a granter’s attention, but it’s the numbers that keep them engaged.

Get your toolbox ready for 2025

At Roselle Borough Public Schools in New Jersey, where I serve as superintendent, 74 percent of our students receive free or reduced lunch. Maximizing every dollar spent and every program offered is imperative to ensuring we build a solid foundation for their success before and after graduation day. Our administrative team and school board members are dedicated to identifying the rates of return on our spending to determine whether we’re putting the right money behind the right programs and interventions – or if we need to shift our limited resources.

Our team has excelled in the data collection process, but teacher shortages, administrative turnover, and the inescapable daily time crunch limited our ability to use data to enhance and elevate learning opportunities. We needed information to be easily accessible, analyzable, and most important, actionable.

In 2023, we transitioned to a new solutions platform tailored to our district that allows us to collect, centralize, and visualize data from multiple sources. Powerful graphics and visual elements help us quickly identify data patterns and trends, both on an individual student and district-wide level, that we can take action on. Through data visualization, we can immediately identify district-wide trends and see a complete picture of each student’s academic progress. Previously, siloed data impeded our ability to interpret and share information quickly and efficiently, but today, data analysis is right at our fingertips, the moment we need it.

Because of these new data-informed insights, we’ve become more concise in our decision-making and more prepared to prioritize initiatives and interventions that balance the academic, social, and emotional needs of our students. We can better allocate our limited resources to programs proven to improve outcomes and determine whether a building block in our MTSS framework needs to be repaired or replaced altogether. For example, the information we generated on this year’s incoming kindergarten students ensured we had the academic supports in place on day one rather than wait until issues arose during the school year.

MTSS Dashboard

Just as important, instantaneous data analysis provides undeniable evidence to support our narratives when seeking increased funding from legislators, granters, and businesses. Proven metrics assure our funders we’ve done our due diligence in determining the best solutions for our students and will be the best stewards of their financial investments. In addition, having a dynamic reporting system allows us to share our progress with funders on a regular basis, helping foster genuine, sustaining partnerships that build the foundation for ongoing funding.

Almost five years ago, COVID proved district administrators need to be prepared for the unpredictable. While we have an idea, but no guarantee, of what the next year will look like in terms of policies, school choice, and funding, every superintendent and school board needs to have a data-informed strategy in place that is agile enough to adapt to changing circumstances. Instituting a centralized data hub for your district equips you with the data intelligence required to justify priorities and validate your decisions, helping you best navigate your district through the funding challenges ahead.

Dr. Nathan L. Fisher is the superintendent of schools for Roselle Public Schools (RPS). He has served in numerous roles across the district for more than three decades, including having served as the former principal of a 2020 National School of Character. Dr. Fisher was awarded the Citation Award from Phi Delta Kappa, the Geraldine Dodge Fellowship Grant for Principal Leadership, the Community Service Award from the National Council of Negro Women, and the NAACP: Roselle Branch Role Model Award. Active member of the Digital Promise’s League of Innovative Schools and IEI: Institute for Education Innovation organizations.

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