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The latest Budget & Finance news affecting school districts across America, updated twice daily and credited to original publishers.

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K-12 Dive
Budget & Finance
Researchers sue NIH alleging unconstitutional grant screening process

The plaintiffs accuse the agency of unlawfully scanning projects for hundreds of keywords to target work disfavored by the Trump administration.

K-12 Dive
Budget & Finance
University of Maine preparing for staff and faculty layoffs

The public institution is trying to close a projected $19 million shortfall through budget cuts and improvements to enrollment and revenue.

Budget & Finance
Sacramento City Unified approves revised budget, aims for positive year-end balance

The Sacramento City Unified School Board approved a revised budget Thursday that district officials say will leave the district with a positive fund balance at the end of the school year, according to The Sacramento...

District Admin
Budget & Finance
US judge strikes down Education Department’s anti-DEI grant policy

Judge says the policy provided no discernible criteria for ​what programs would be considered "DEI" and disfavored for funding. The department also ⁠failed to consider how canceling the grants would impact those who...

EdSurge
Budget & Finance
Schools Scramble as Budget Cuts Force Reset of Free Lunch Programs

Parents, students and schools alike are navigating the changes in CEP eligibility after funding cuts.

Budget & Finance
Fitch downgrades Xavier University over deficits and weak undergrad demand

Analysts pointed to worse-than-expected fiscal 2026 financials and a projected budget shortfall for the current fiscal year.

Budget & Finance
LAUSD enrollment drops 4% as district faces fiscal challenges

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s enrollment has fallen 4% this school year, according to preliminary data. Enrollment is also projected to be about 1% below the district’s budget projection for the 2026-27...

The 74
Budget & Finance
Opinion: New York Must Not Abandon Regents Exams Without a Better Measure of Readiness

The Board of Regents took another dangerous step this week: one that could leave New York’s 1 million high school and middle school students less prepared for college and the workforce.  The discussion on NY Inspires,...

District Admin
Budget & Finance
Minneapolis Public Schools proposes closing schools amid budget challenges

As many as 16 buildings could lose their current academic programming under the proposals, although the district stopped short of describing the buildings as closed schools. The post Minneapolis Public Schools proposes...

Chalkbeat
Budget & Finance
IPS left Enroll Indy. Then, the enrollment system cut fees, but the district didn’t reverse course.

Indianapolis Public Schools announced last week that it was leaving Enroll Indy, and doubled down on that decision after the citywide enrollment system announced it was cutting costs.

Chalkbeat
Budget & Finance
Trump administration proposes stripping private colleges of tax-exempt status over DEI policies

The Metropolitan State University of Denver's Auraria campus begins to bloom. How the Trump administration's proposal will affect Colorado’s private universities will take some time to become clear.

Budget & Finance
Poll: California voters support billionaire wealth tax — and its countermeasures

A majority of California voters are backing a November ballot measure that proposes to impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires, while also supporting two propositions aimed at invalidating the tax, according to a poll...

Chalkbeat
Budget & Finance
Q&A: Why teacher pay stagnated, while school spending rose

Districts that serve predominantly Black student bodies in communities with high rates of poverty are more likely to hire inexperienced teachers and struggle to retain staff compared to affluent school systems,...

Budget & Finance
New task force hopes to draw historically Black university to Oakland

A new Oakland task force will explore the possibility of bringing a historically Black college or university to the East Bay city. An effort launched last year, sponsored by the Oakland Fund, is still in the initial...

The 74
Budget & Finance
Private Equity Is Cashing in on Autism Therapy. Children Are Paying the Price

In February, on orders from the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, Medicaid officials created a first-of-its-kind online portal containing hundreds of millions of billing records that supposedly would allow...

The 74
Budget & Finance
Opinion: Amid Shortage of Counselors, Students Need Stronger Networks, Not More Chatbots

In the last school year, the national student-to-school counselor ratio improved by a meager 1% — from 376 to 372 students per counselor. That’s progress. But at this rate, it would take over 30 years for schools to...

Chalkbeat
Budget & Finance
Michigan increased funding for English learners by $12.5 million. Advocates say a big gap persists.

English Language Development teacher Christina Rick, left, provides individual instruction to English learners and some of their peers in a biology class at Troy High School.

The 74
Budget & Finance
Opinion: What Dolly Parton Taught Us About Early Literacy

Dolly Parton left behind an extraordinary body of music, storytelling and philanthropy. Yet for those of us who work in literacy, her most consequential legacy is the millions of books that arrived at children’s homes...

K-12 Dive
Budget & Finance
IRS tax plan could imperil college finances, Moody’s says

If institutions lose their tax-exempt status over diversity efforts, they could face a loss of gifts and higher borrowing costs among other hits, analysts said.

The 74
Budget & Finance
Proposed Head Start Changes Could Cut Jobs, Raise Family Costs, Analysis Shows

A little over a month after the Trump administration debuted its proposal to dramatically reduce Head Start standards, a clearer picture is emerging of what those changes might mean for the 1,600 local programs across...

The 74
Budget & Finance
Opinion: Outcomes-Based Contracting Requires Not Just Accountability, but Partnership

School districts are under increasing pressure to do more with less. Budgets are tightening, academic recovery coming out of the pandemic remains unfinished in many communities, and educators, administrators and parents...

Chalkbeat
Budget & Finance
Tennessee kids could see major Meta settlement windfall. How will it be spent?

A Meta settlement that could direct hundreds of millions of dollars to Tennessee child mental health well-being programs is a "once-in-a-generation opportunity," one Tennessee lawmaker says.

Chalkbeat
Budget & Finance
Detroit mayor announces 7 new after-school program sites with $2.2 million in city funds

Mayor Mary Sheffield's office announced Thursday that a $2.2 million investment in after-school programming will allow around 1,000 more students access to GOAL Line Detroit programs.

K-12 Dive
Budget & Finance
University of Utah could cut up to 15% of staff ahead of future enrollment drops

The public institution said it is facing “some of the most significant challenges in its 176-year history.”

Budget & Finance
The latest in college layoffs: Full Sail, IIT and Johns Hopkins

Workforce cuts continued into the summer as institutions prepped for a new academic year in leaner times.

Budget & Finance
California approves funding for first-of-its-kind childcare district in Riverside County

California approved funds to create a special district for childcare in Riverside County on Sept. 2, LAist reported. The special district is a local government agency that provides a specific public service to...

Budget & Finance
Sacramento Unified board facing potential insolvency decides not to raise pay

Sacramento City Unified’s school board withdrew a proposal to increase the monthly stipend for its members from $827 to $3,000 a month, according to The Sacramento Bee.  The school district faces a structural deficit of...

District Admin
Budget & Finance
One school district’s fight against trump’s anti-transgender push

Jefferson County, Colo., is one of the few public school systems to sue the Trump administration over demands that it revoke transgender protections or face funding cuts. The post One school district’s fight against...

The 74
Budget & Finance
Missouri Charter School Commission Returns $685,000 in Surplus Funds to Sponsored Schools

Missouri’s largest charter-school sponsor entered August with nearly $3.3 million in its account, which is more than twice what it spent in the previous fiscal year. Now the Missouri Charter Public School Commission is...

EdSource
Budget & Finance
Who should fill the school supply gap — teachers, parents or schools?

California teachers report spending an average of $991 each year on school supplies, while the median school-provided budget nationwide is $200. The gap leaves teachers paying out of pocket and, in some cases, asking...