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0.4% (yes, really) of library funding comes from the Federal government. Cutting that spending is literally a rounding error for libraries. https://www.scienced

by bhupy 6y ago

0.4% (yes, really) of library funding comes from the Federal government. Cutting that spending is literally a rounding error for libraries. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/library-funding https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/library... Only 8% of public school budgets comes from the Federal government: https://theconversation.com/federal-spending-covers-only-8-of-public-school-budgets-142348 https://theconversation.com/federal-spending-covers-only-8-o... The impact of Federal spending cuts on these programs is overrated, and one good-faith reason for cutting that spending is to federalize (I.e. decentralize) the administration of those services.

kyralis 6y ago
At the scale of the US, those numbers can be highly misleading. Public schools in high-income areas are likely either receiving less from the government or it simply makes up a tiny percentage of their budget. I suspect that the percentage is a bit higher when you look at low-income areas (either within states or even at the state level).
- bhupy 6y ago
  > I suspect that the percentage is a bit higher when you look at low-income areas (either within states or even at the state level). Okay but how many standard deviations higher? In every single State and school district, Federal funding is a tiny minority of the total budget. If we're talking about public libraries, even an order of magnitude higher %age of budget attributable to the Federal funding is a whopping...4%.
  - kyralis 6y ago
    Do you have a source for this?
    - bhupy 6y ago
      Yes: https://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-state-education-spending-revenue-data.html https://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-state-educati... The State that's the most reliant on Federal spending is New Mexico; 14% of its budget comes from the Federal government. In every State except for Oklahoma, YoY education spending increased in 2019.
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  This is largely true because States refuse to fund education equitably, allowing local public school funding to fluctuate wildly with local wealth.
xsmasher 6y ago
The average number doesn't speak to the impact on individual districts. I'm sure the impact of federal spending cuts will be small on schools whose per-student budget is already large, and large on schools whose per-student budget is small. In other words, cuts would hurt the poorest schools the most, and increase the divide that the parent article is talking about.
- bhupy 6y ago
  But school funding has never been under the purview of the Federal government, and State government budgets are already earmarked for equalizing local disparities. https://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-state-education-spending-revenue-data.html https://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-state-educati... The State that is the most reliant on the Federal government is New Mexico (14% of its education budget).

by bhupy 6y ago

kyralis 6y ago

At the scale of the US, those numbers can be highly misleading. Public schools in high-income areas are likely either receiving less from the government or it simply makes up a tiny percentage of their budget. I suspect that the percentage is a bit higher when you look at low-income areas (either within states or even at the state level).

bhupy 6y ago
> I suspect that the percentage is a bit higher when you look at low-income areas (either within states or even at the state level). Okay but how many standard deviations higher? In every single State and school district, Federal funding is a tiny minority of the total budget. If we're talking about public libraries, even an order of magnitude higher %age of budget attributable to the Federal funding is a whopping...4%.
- kyralis 6y ago
  Do you have a source for this?
  - bhupy 6y ago
    Yes: https://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-state-education-spending-revenue-data.html https://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-state-educati... The State that's the most reliant on Federal spending is New Mexico; 14% of its budget comes from the Federal government. In every State except for Oklahoma, YoY education spending increased in 2019.
srtjstjsj 6y ago
This is largely true because States refuse to fund education equitably, allowing local public school funding to fluctuate wildly with local wealth.

xsmasher 6y ago

The average number doesn't speak to the impact on individual districts. I'm sure the impact of federal spending cuts will be small on schools whose per-student budget is already large, and large on schools whose per-student budget is small. In other words, cuts would hurt the poorest schools the most, and increase the divide that the parent article is talking about.

bhupy 6y ago
But school funding has never been under the purview of the Federal government, and State government budgets are already earmarked for equalizing local disparities. https://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-state-education-spending-revenue-data.html https://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-state-educati... The State that is the most reliant on the Federal government is New Mexico (14% of its education budget).