January 2003 — Special Feature
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IT in a Time of Budget Cuts How School Funding Will Affect the Quality of Education
States are in the worst financial situation in 50 years. Collectively, they are running budget deficits in the range of $50 billion. While large states like California and New York account for the bulk of this revenue shortfall, the economic downturn and its dramatic result on tax revenues has affected states nationwide. Even states like Kansas now face budget deficits equal to nearly 25% of their entire budget. With state finances in unprecedented trouble, school districts are bracing for intensified budget cuts. Just as in the private sector, most of these cuts will occur in capital budgets — and that means in information technology.
Dramatic cuts in IT spending could have significant long-term effects on educational outcomes. Studies have demonstrated that up-to-date and well-integrated hardware and software can improve educational outcomes. Similarly, mastery of technology itself is now an important part of the learning process. Work activity increasingly centers on the Internet and other technological tools. Thus, students entering the workforce without exposure to these tools are at a profound disadvantage compared to those with technology experience. In a labor market that could be tight for the foreseeable future, this could turn into a significant national, social and economic concern.
Compliance With Legal and Regulatory Issues
While budgetary issues intensify, legal and regulatory issues are also taking on a larger profile. Many of the events from the last few years have heightened the need to guarantee that schools are safe and secure places. Technology itself has intensified this concern, with the Internet and e-mail providing new avenues for inappropriate and possibly dangerous activities during school hours. Laws such as the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) have focused administrators on addressing this issue — most often through the use of additional technologies like network management and filtering software. Compliance with these laws and regulations has also taken on a budgetary dimension. Meeting the demands of CIPA and other laws opens the door to E-Rate and other federal monies.
The need to balance these demands and make them work for children, staff and parents is the responsibility of IT administrators and coordinators. They are the ones who have to make the difficult decisions that will impact the learning environment in significant ways on a daily basis. Yet for all their responsibility, IT administrators’ concerns are usually not part of the public discussion about school funding priorities; though they should be.
California Technology Challenge
To begin bringing some shape to that voice, Lightspeed Systems’ Education Solutions Program conducted a survey and follow-up interview with 40 IT administrators and coordinators in California’s K-12 public school districts in September 2002. The districts were large and small, urban and rural. The results of the “California K-12 Technology Challenges Survey” were presented at the California Educational Technology Professionals Association Conference in October 2002.
