April 2024: AESA State Examiner

Emerging K-12 Education Policy and Finance Trends in the United States

There are currently 2,074 education bills pending in state legislatures across the United States. Another 921 have been introduced and failed, and 254 have been enacted into law this legislative session.  This means that, to date, approximately 8% of education-related bills introduced have been passed and enacted. Bills addressing student wellness and health, the teaching profession, and education finance have been the most prevalent.

As the first quarter of 2024 came to a close at the end of last month, certain policy themes and patterns were beginning to emerge that should give educators and education policy advocates a sense of the policy and funding issues of relevance that are likely to garner attention the remainder of this legislative session and through the end of the calendar year.

A review reveals the following key trends in K-12 education policy in the United States for 2024:

1. Continued momentum for high-quality reading grounded in the science of reading and an extension into a focus on high-quality math instruction grounded in the science of learning.
2. Increased parental control and restrictions on student access to social media and cell phones in schools.
3. Rapid expansion of school choice programs, especially education savings accounts (ESAs) that allow families to customize education.
4. Ongoing efforts to raise teacher pay and address teacher shortages, though with some political challenges.
5. Debates and policy challenges around the impact of artificial intelligence on education, including on standardized testing.
6. Declining enrollment in lower grades but rebounding enrollment in upper grades, leading to potential staffing and funding challenges for districts.
7. Growing interest in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) education and personalized learning to promote a more comprehensive approach.
8. Policies to implement student-centered and competency-based learning models.
9. Governors highlighting the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education in their State of the State addresses.
10. Evolving approaches to how states count student enrollment for funding purposes; and
11. Increased focus on providing comprehensive school health services, including mental health support.

These trends were identified through a review of legislation that has been introduced, proposals within Governor’s State of the State Addresses, agency rule making decisions, and public policy analysis.

These trends demonstrate that state policymakers are focused on addressing learning gaps, empowering families, strengthening pathways to college and careers, and supporting teachers. They also reveal an influx of partisan legislation on more controversial issues like parents bills of rights, transgender youth, bathroom designations and more designed to rally voters to the polls this fall.  They also highlight ongoing challenges, such as the impact of technology, enrollment changes, choice expansion, and the lasting effects of the pandemic on education.

As an educational leader, and in one’s related role as an education advocate, it is important to stay on top of emerging policy trends.  It has been said, the legislatures react, they seldom lead.  And what is happening in one state is surely likely to make it to others eventually.

Monitoring state legislatures and executive activities in the United States involves a combination of resources that provide legislative tracking, budget analysis, and political insights. Outlined below are eleven resources that can be valuable for these purposes:

• State Legislative Websites: This should be your first stop.  Each state’s legislative website is a primary resource for tracking legislative activities, including bill tracking, session schedules, and committee meetings. These sites often provide live streaming of legislative sessions.
• National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL): NCSL offers comprehensive resources for tracking state legislation, including databases that detail the status of bills across different states. It also provides analysis on a wide range of policy issues affecting states.  Go to:  https://www.ncsl.org/
• Council of State Governments (CSG): CSG provides tools and insights on state government operations, including fiscal analysis and policy developments. It serves as a forum for fostering intergovernmental cooperation among states and sharing best practices. Go to:  https://www.csg.org/
• National Association of State Budget Officials (NASBO):   Go to: https://www.nasbo.org/home
• Education Commission of the States (ECS): ECS is a not-for-profit education policy research organization and think tank that partners closely with the fifty states. Among its reports and resources is a 50-state policy database as well as legislative monitoring tools.  Go to: https://www.ecs.org
• The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP): CBPP focuses on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals. It provides in-depth analysis of state budget and tax policies.  Go to:  https://www.cbpp.org/
• Ballotpedia: Ballotpedia covers American politics at all levels of government with a focus on neutral, accurate, and comprehensive information about politics, elections, and policy. It includes detailed pages on state legislatures, budgets, and elections. Go to:  https://ballotpedia.org/Main_Page
• org: This site by the National Institute on Money in Politics collects comprehensive campaign finance data on state elections, providing insights into the financial influences on state politics and policy. Go to: https://www.followthemoney.org
• Pew Charitable Trusts’ State Fiscal Health: Provides interactive tools and research that help understand state fiscal conditions and economic trends. Their resources are crucial for monitoring state budget processes and fiscal health. Go to:  State Fiscal Health | The Pew Charitable Trusts (pewtrusts.org)
• The Urban Institute’s State and Local Finance Initiative: This initiative provides data, analysis, and insights on state and local government fiscal and economic issues. It is particularly useful for understanding the broader implications of state policy decisions on economics and public finance. Go to:  https://www.urban.org/research-area/state-and-local-finance
• AESA: AESA supports its members with both Federal advocacy and State-level advocacy resources. The State Examiner is a monthly report curated by the Association of Educational Service Agencies (AESA). It provides legislative monitoring, news articles, and related content gathered from the fifty states. Each edition also includes advocacy tips to activate and empower members to be informed, effective education advocates. Go to:  https://www.aesa.us/

Together, these resources offer state-level education advocates a robust toolkit to monitor and analyze state legislative and executive activities impacting the nation’s schools.