February 9, 2023 • 12 mins
In this episode, Jay Diskey, of Diskey Public Affairs, returns to Westchester Words to share a preview of the topics he will be discussing with Kevin J. Gray during the webinar, "2023 Federal and State Education Funding Update," hosted by Westchester Education Services on Thursday, February 23.
Visit westchestereducationservices.com to register for this free session.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nicole Tomassi (00:06):
Welcome to Westchester Words, education, ed
Tech and publishing.
I'm Nicole Tomassi, and in thisepisode, I'm pleased to welcome
back Jay Diskey of Diskey PublicAffairs, to talk about some of
the changes that have occurredin federal and state education
funding since I last spoke withhim in the fall.
Jay, welcome back to WestchesterWords.
Jay Diskey (00:26):
Well, thank you, Nicole.
Thanks for having me.
Nicole Tomassi (00:29):
Towards the end of December, uh, Congress
actually made a significant movein terms of education funding
for 2023.
Wondering if you could bring usup to speed on that.
Jay Diskey (00:40):
Yeah, so I'd be happy to, Nicole.
That's right.
In late December, the USCongress, uh, finally finalized
fiscal year 2023.
I say finally, because the, uh,budget is, uh, it's supposed to,
uh, be done by the end of, uh,September.
So as usual, Congress wasrunning several months late.
But the good news is, is that,uh, they increased, uh, K12
(01:01):
programs by 5.6%, which is a,which is a really, really solid
increase.
Now, this is 5.6%, uh, over 2022levels, and it really continues
a, a really fine trend of, uh,increases in the annual programs
that, uh, Congress authorizes.
Nicole Tomassi (01:23):
Obviously, 5.6% is a very solid number, as you
said.
Um, was there anything strikingin how the allocations were
made?
Jay Diskey (01:33):
Yeah, well, most programs, uh, got very good
increases.
Uh, now the 5.6% wasn't acrossthe board.
Title One, for example, uh,which is the major program
authorized by the every studentsucceeds act formerly called the
No Child Left Behind Act.
The Title One funding rose 4.8%of the less than the overall
(01:55):
increase, but still very solidincrease, uh, title three
funding for English language,uh, acquisition, 7% increase,
which is, uh, very significant.
The Title four block grantprogram for student enrichment,
it, it grew to 7.7% or increased7.7%.
(02:15):
And, uh, this really, uh, isimportant because again, it
continues a trend, which I'll behappy to get into in just a
second.
Uh, for these programs.
Nicole Tomassi (02:26):
Correct me if I'm wrong, these funds are the
typical annual funds thatCongress allocates and COVID
monies or funds that we'vetalked about in the past are
over and above theseallocations.
Jay Diskey (02:40):
Yeah, that's a very important point.
I'm glad you raised that, Nicole.
Uh, these are the annualallocations that are made for
programs that are authorized byCongress, and the Every Student
Succeeds act.
The thing that really or, thefunds that really got along
attention over the past severalyears were the Covid Relief
(03:00):
Funds, the Emergency CovidRelief Funds.
Um, those going to separate andapart from these annual
allocations and those funds,total 190 billion, which again,
that's over and above the annualallocations.
The 190 billion, the largestsingle investment in education
(03:20):
funding in, uh, our nation'shistory, really historic.
But those funds are short-termfunds.
Uh, some have been exhaustedalready, and the remaining part
of that package, the AmericanRescue Plan, those funds, uh,
are set to end on September30th, 2024.
(03:41):
That's when those funds must beused by or committed by, uh,
meanwhile, the annualallocations will continue.
Nicole Tomassi (03:50):
Right.
And not to leave out the states,there's also been, um, varying
moves in different states,particularly California and
Florida, in terms of educationoverall.
Do you wanna speak to those?
Jay Diskey (04:04):
Yeah, absolutely.
Uh, overall, uh, last year, forexample, with states, uh, I
think nearly every state thatwas in session, and a few
weren't.
Some states, uh, skip a year,like Texas, but nearly every
state I think were the exceptionto, uh, increased education
funding.
Uh, and some did it significant.
(04:26):
Uh, California, uh, had justhistorically huge increases in
K-12 funding, uh, well over 12or 13%.
For example, uh, Florida I thinkwas around 8%.
Uh, again, really largeincreases, and I say really
large because when you followstate budgets, as I have for
(04:48):
many years, uh, state andfederal education budgets,
you'll see that usually one,two, 3% increase is pretty good.
Uh, and is, you know, uh,typical by historical norms.
But last year, uh, and the yearbefore that, states funded, uh,
(05:09):
K-12, uh, very well, and alsopost secondary.
A lot of this had to do withtrying to fund learning recovery
programs.
They are very important in theaftermaths of Covid 19.
So yeah, the states did havevarious, uh, big budgets.
Right now, state legislaturesare meeting again, uh, to do the
(05:30):
next year's budgets, many ofwhich will start on July 1st.
The budget proposals, uh, lookpretty good, but most states
won't fund as many in increasesas they did last year.
Uh, in California, for example,it's pretty much right now
looking at flat fundingeducation.
(05:51):
But on the other hand, oh, whatCalifornia did last year was so
historically large, uh, I don'tthink, think anybody are
surprised that, uh, the statemade flat fund or maybe even
take a little cut.
Uh, so we'll see.
But that has six months to gobefore California, and many
states come to any sort of, youknow, final stages in their
(06:11):
budget.
Nicole Tomassi (06:11):
I, I had been reading, you know, towards the
end of the year, in thebeginning of this year, um, that
California specifically as wellas New York, were both staring
down very significant budgetdeficits overall, just in their
general, uh, budgets due to forCalifornia effects of, um, all
the Silicon Valley kind ofshaking itself Out.
(06:31):
In New York, just the, you know,the financial markets not
performing well and big banksshedding employees there.
But it sounds like from whatyou're saying, even though
that's happening, and eventhough there's going to be
budget deficits it's notnecessarily going to have an
impact on education.
Jay Diskey (06:45):
Yeah.
At this point, uh, does itappear so, uh, but again, the
increases won't be as large andmany states, uh, have very large
rainy bay funds, uh, includingCalifornia, uh, not in New York.
That is true.
Uh, so it will be really up toindividual states.
I think it, I, again, I thinkthe, there will be, the
(07:07):
education funding will at thispoint.
It looks, it will be okay withsome increases.
I know that Georgia, uh,governor has rolled out a budget
, uh, that has very goodincreases at it, for example,
uh, in other states as well.
But there is some belttightening that's gonna go on.
Uh, I think as everybody knows,it's hard to listen to any
(07:29):
newscast and not hear the R wordrecession.
Mm-hmm.
, uh, the majorityof a Congress and the country
are predicting some sort ofrecession.
Most, uh, are calling it apotential mild recession later
in the year.
And that has led a lot of statesinto more of a belt, uh,
(07:50):
tightening posture ship.
On the other hand, uh, just thismorning, new numbers for the
gross domestic product, uh, werethe G D P were, uh, uh, released
and they were pretty good.
The economy, in many ways isstill strong, not nearly as
strong as it used to be, uh, butholding up.
So it's going to be aninteresting year for all of us,
(08:13):
uh, for everybody involved ineducation, but for every
consumer out there as well.
Nicole Tomassi (08:19):
And that's probably the key word for 2023.
Interesting.
, I saw those numbersthis morning as well.
It's either a tale of twocountries, or it's a tale of 50
very different state economies.
Jay Diskey (08:30):
Yeah, it really is.
And, and looking at this, andagain, I'll use California as an
example.
That state has had, you know,massive flooding, uh, over the
past several weeks or twomonths.
They had Ty.
Uh, typically they have a lot ofwildfires.
So, you know, these, these sortof emergencies have to be
addressed through various typesof funding.
(08:53):
Um, and Florida, for example,had a horrific hurricane.
Nicole Tomassi (08:58):
Mmmhmm.
Jay Diskey (08:58):
That's Southwest Florida.
Um, and, uh, Metro Sure, thestate and it's counties are
still paying for that.
So it really is an individualthing.
Uh, state, my state also, uh, anumber of states, the so-called
energy states, obviously Texas,Louisiana, but also places like,
uh, Montana, Wyoming, which areenergy states they're being
(09:22):
affected in various ways by, uh,oil prices, uh, fluctuating a
great deal.
So, uh, again, it's, it's alwaysa 50 state story when you really
get into these budgetaryconditions.
Nicole Tomassi (09:39):
Just wanna let listeners know that you're going
to be joining Kevin Gray inFebruary and going to bring
everybody up to date on wherethings are at that point in time
in terms of education fundingfor K-12.
There'll be more about thestates in terms of where they're
progressing with their budgettalks.
Jay Diskey (09:57):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to the, uh, webinar in
late February.
This is the, uh, an update of a,uh, webinar that Kevin and and I
together, uh, last fall.
So now, uh, we're gonna preview,uh, the budgets that will roll
out in 2023.
We'll also take a look at someof the other types of bills that
(10:18):
are being passed, uh, that haveto do with education,
technology, instructionalmaterials, curriculum, uh, et
cetera.
So I'll have a number ofexamples of various types of
bills that are kicking around inthe States as well as in, uh,
United States Congress.
Nicole Tomassi (10:36):
Yes, there's definitely a lot of legislative
action happening.
People who want to, uh, get anupdate on what's happening and
how it's gonna play into yourproduct development plans,
please visit our website,westchester education
services.com, and you'll findthe webinar registration
information there.
Jay, thank you so much fortaking some time out of your day
(10:57):
to give us a bit of a previewand an update on what's been
happening, and we'll catch youin a couple of weeks for the
webinar.
Jay Diskey (11:04):
Very Good.
Thanks so much, Nicole.
Nicole Tomassi (11:07):
Thank you for listening to this episode of
Westchester Words.
If you're looking for previousepisodes or want to read
additional content that has beenshared by some of our guests,
please visit our websites,westchester publishing
services.com and westchestereducation services.com.
For an internationalperspective, check out our
sister podcast, WestchesterWords, UK and International,
(11:29):
available on the WestchesterEducation UK website,
westchester education.co.uk, orwherever you stream podcasts.
We'd love hearing from ourlisteners and welcome your
emails at Westchester Wordswestchester, ed svcs.com.
Tell us what you enjoy hearingon our podcast or suggest topics
(11:51):
that we can cover in futureepisodes.
Speaking of future episodes, Ilook forward to having you join
us for the next episode ofWestchester Words, when we'll be
having another engagingconversation about a topic of
interest to the education atTech and publishing communities.
Until then, stay safe, be well,and stay tuned.
Welcome to Westchester Words, education, ed
Tech and publishing.
I'm Nicole Tomassi, and in thisepisode, I'm pleased to welcome
back Jay Diskey of Diskey PublicAffairs, to talk about some of
the changes that have occurredin federal and state education
funding since I last spoke withhim in the fall.
Jay, welcome back to WestchesterWords.
Jay Diskey (00:26):
Well, thank you, Nicole.
Thanks for having me.
Nicole Tomassi (00:29):
Towards the end of December, uh, Congress
actually made a significant movein terms of education funding
for 2023.
Wondering if you could bring usup to speed on that.
Jay Diskey (00:40):
Yeah, so I'd be happy to, Nicole.
That's right.
In late December, the USCongress, uh, finally finalized
fiscal year 2023.
I say finally, because the, uh,budget is, uh, it's supposed to,
uh, be done by the end of, uh,September.
So as usual, Congress wasrunning several months late.
But the good news is, is that,uh, they increased, uh, K12
(01:01):
programs by 5.6%, which is a,which is a really, really solid
increase.
Now, this is 5.6%, uh, over 2022levels, and it really continues
a, a really fine trend of, uh,increases in the annual programs
that, uh, Congress authorizes.
Nicole Tomassi (01:23):
Obviously, 5.6% is a very solid number, as you
said.
Um, was there anything strikingin how the allocations were
made?
Jay Diskey (01:33):
Yeah, well, most programs, uh, got very good
increases.
Uh, now the 5.6% wasn't acrossthe board.
Title One, for example, uh,which is the major program
authorized by the every studentsucceeds act formerly called the
No Child Left Behind Act.
The Title One funding rose 4.8%of the less than the overall
(01:55):
increase, but still very solidincrease, uh, title three
funding for English language,uh, acquisition, 7% increase,
which is, uh, very significant.
The Title four block grantprogram for student enrichment,
it, it grew to 7.7% or increased7.7%.
(02:15):
And, uh, this really, uh, isimportant because again, it
continues a trend, which I'll behappy to get into in just a
second.
Uh, for these programs.
Nicole Tomassi (02:26):
Correct me if I'm wrong, these funds are the
typical annual funds thatCongress allocates and COVID
monies or funds that we'vetalked about in the past are
over and above theseallocations.
Jay Diskey (02:40):
Yeah, that's a very important point.
I'm glad you raised that, Nicole.
Uh, these are the annualallocations that are made for
programs that are authorized byCongress, and the Every Student
Succeeds act.
The thing that really or, thefunds that really got along
attention over the past severalyears were the Covid Relief
(03:00):
Funds, the Emergency CovidRelief Funds.
Um, those going to separate andapart from these annual
allocations and those funds,total 190 billion, which again,
that's over and above the annualallocations.
The 190 billion, the largestsingle investment in education
(03:20):
funding in, uh, our nation'shistory, really historic.
But those funds are short-termfunds.
Uh, some have been exhaustedalready, and the remaining part
of that package, the AmericanRescue Plan, those funds, uh,
are set to end on September30th, 2024.
(03:41):
That's when those funds must beused by or committed by, uh,
meanwhile, the annualallocations will continue.
Nicole Tomassi (03:50):
Right.
And not to leave out the states,there's also been, um, varying
moves in different states,particularly California and
Florida, in terms of educationoverall.
Do you wanna speak to those?
Jay Diskey (04:04):
Yeah, absolutely.
Uh, overall, uh, last year, forexample, with states, uh, I
think nearly every state thatwas in session, and a few
weren't.
Some states, uh, skip a year,like Texas, but nearly every
state I think were the exceptionto, uh, increased education
funding.
Uh, and some did it significant.
(04:26):
Uh, California, uh, had justhistorically huge increases in
K-12 funding, uh, well over 12or 13%.
For example, uh, Florida I thinkwas around 8%.
Uh, again, really largeincreases, and I say really
large because when you followstate budgets, as I have for
(04:48):
many years, uh, state andfederal education budgets,
you'll see that usually one,two, 3% increase is pretty good.
Uh, and is, you know, uh,typical by historical norms.
But last year, uh, and the yearbefore that, states funded, uh,
(05:09):
K-12, uh, very well, and alsopost secondary.
A lot of this had to do withtrying to fund learning recovery
programs.
They are very important in theaftermaths of Covid 19.
So yeah, the states did havevarious, uh, big budgets.
Right now, state legislaturesare meeting again, uh, to do the
(05:30):
next year's budgets, many ofwhich will start on July 1st.
The budget proposals, uh, lookpretty good, but most states
won't fund as many in increasesas they did last year.
Uh, in California, for example,it's pretty much right now
looking at flat fundingeducation.
(05:51):
But on the other hand, oh, whatCalifornia did last year was so
historically large, uh, I don'tthink, think anybody are
surprised that, uh, the statemade flat fund or maybe even
take a little cut.
Uh, so we'll see.
But that has six months to gobefore California, and many
states come to any sort of, youknow, final stages in their
(06:11):
budget.
Nicole Tomassi (06:11):
I, I had been reading, you know, towards the
end of the year, in thebeginning of this year, um, that
California specifically as wellas New York, were both staring
down very significant budgetdeficits overall, just in their
general, uh, budgets due to forCalifornia effects of, um, all
the Silicon Valley kind ofshaking itself Out.
(06:31):
In New York, just the, you know,the financial markets not
performing well and big banksshedding employees there.
But it sounds like from whatyou're saying, even though
that's happening, and eventhough there's going to be
budget deficits it's notnecessarily going to have an
impact on education.
Jay Diskey (06:45):
Yeah.
At this point, uh, does itappear so, uh, but again, the
increases won't be as large andmany states, uh, have very large
rainy bay funds, uh, includingCalifornia, uh, not in New York.
That is true.
Uh, so it will be really up toindividual states.
I think it, I, again, I thinkthe, there will be, the
(07:07):
education funding will at thispoint.
It looks, it will be okay withsome increases.
I know that Georgia, uh,governor has rolled out a budget
, uh, that has very goodincreases at it, for example,
uh, in other states as well.
But there is some belttightening that's gonna go on.
Uh, I think as everybody knows,it's hard to listen to any
(07:29):
newscast and not hear the R wordrecession.
Mm-hmm.
are predicting some sort ofrecession.
Most, uh, are calling it apotential mild recession later
in the year.
And that has led a lot of statesinto more of a belt, uh,
(07:50):
tightening posture ship.
On the other hand, uh, just thismorning, new numbers for the
gross domestic product, uh, werethe G D P were, uh, uh, released
and they were pretty good.
The economy, in many ways isstill strong, not nearly as
strong as it used to be, uh, butholding up.
So it's going to be aninteresting year for all of us,
(08:13):
uh, for everybody involved ineducation, but for every
consumer out there as well.
Nicole Tomassi (08:19):
And that's probably the key word for 2023.
Interesting.
It's either a tale of twocountries, or it's a tale of 50
very different state economies.
Jay Diskey (08:30):
Yeah, it really is.
And, and looking at this, andagain, I'll use California as an
example.
That state has had, you know,massive flooding, uh, over the
past several weeks or twomonths.
They had Ty.
Uh, typically they have a lot ofwildfires.
So, you know, these, these sortof emergencies have to be
addressed through various typesof funding.
(08:53):
Um, and Florida, for example,had a horrific hurricane.
Nicole Tomassi (08:58):
Mmmhmm.
Jay Diskey (08:58):
That's Southwest Florida.
Um, and, uh, Metro Sure, thestate and it's counties are
still paying for that.
So it really is an individualthing.
Uh, state, my state also, uh, anumber of states, the so-called
energy states, obviously Texas,Louisiana, but also places like,
uh, Montana, Wyoming, which areenergy states they're being
(09:22):
affected in various ways by, uh,oil prices, uh, fluctuating a
great deal.
So, uh, again, it's, it's alwaysa 50 state story when you really
get into these budgetaryconditions.
Nicole Tomassi (09:39):
Just wanna let listeners know that you're going
to be joining Kevin Gray inFebruary and going to bring
everybody up to date on wherethings are at that point in time
in terms of education fundingfor K-12.
There'll be more about thestates in terms of where they're
progressing with their budgettalks.
Jay Diskey (09:57):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to the, uh, webinar in
late February.
This is the, uh, an update of a,uh, webinar that Kevin and and I
together, uh, last fall.
So now, uh, we're gonna preview,uh, the budgets that will roll
out in 2023.
We'll also take a look at someof the other types of bills that
(10:18):
are being passed, uh, that haveto do with education,
technology, instructionalmaterials, curriculum, uh, et
cetera.
So I'll have a number ofexamples of various types of
bills that are kicking around inthe States as well as in, uh,
United States Congress.
Nicole Tomassi (10:36):
Yes, there's definitely a lot of legislative
action happening.
People who want to, uh, get anupdate on what's happening and
how it's gonna play into yourproduct development plans,
please visit our website,westchester education
services.com, and you'll findthe webinar registration
information there.
Jay, thank you so much fortaking some time out of your day
(10:57):
to give us a bit of a previewand an update on what's been
happening, and we'll catch youin a couple of weeks for the
webinar.
Jay Diskey (11:04):
Very Good.
Thanks so much, Nicole.
Nicole Tomassi (11:07):
Thank you for listening to this episode of
Westchester Words.
If you're looking for previousepisodes or want to read
additional content that has beenshared by some of our guests,
please visit our websites,westchester publishing
services.com and westchestereducation services.com.
For an internationalperspective, check out our
sister podcast, WestchesterWords, UK and International,
(11:29):
available on the WestchesterEducation UK website,
westchester education.co.uk, orwherever you stream podcasts.
We'd love hearing from ourlisteners and welcome your
emails at Westchester Wordswestchester, ed svcs.com.
Tell us what you enjoy hearingon our podcast or suggest topics
(11:51):
that we can cover in futureepisodes.
Speaking of future episodes, Ilook forward to having you join
us for the next episode ofWestchester Words, when we'll be
having another engagingconversation about a topic of
interest to the education atTech and publishing communities.
Until then, stay safe, be well,and stay tuned.
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