The vast majority of school districts anticipate more funding cuts in 2011-12, the Center on Educational Policy says.
Based on a nationally representative survey of 450 districts, the center reports that 84 percent of districts expect they will have to cope with funding cuts in the coming year. In 2010-11, about 70 percent of districts reported that they experienced budget cuts.
The center says that funding woes have become worse in many districts because the federal stimulus funds that helped cushion the blow of shrinking budgets have been mostly depleted. In 2009 and 2010, school districts received about $80 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and in the summer of 2010, districts received an additional $10 billion through the Education Jobs legislation, the center says.
