Financial Transparency has Arrived! Now What?

Now that most states have released their ESSA-required school-level spending data, State Education Agencies (SEAs) and districts (and policymakers and advocates) want to know how to use these data to make sure our dollars are doing the most for students.

October 30th marks the second meeting of the Financial Decision-making Working Group (FiDWiG), a new partnership between the National Center and Edunomics Lab. FiDWiG is a collaboration between SEAs and Regional Centers (RCs) on how to leverage financial transparency for decision making. Given current financial shortfalls and likely longer-term impacts, making data-driven financial decisions is more important than ever.

At this meeting, we’ll dive into the fiscal implications of enrollment drops, changes to the teacher workforce, how SEAs can leverage limited dollars to do more for the most vulnerable students, and ways that states can and are responding to revenue declines.

During each FiDWiG, Dr. Marguerite Roza, Director of Edunomics Lab, and guest experts will present concrete frameworks, tools, and strategies to support SEAs and RCs in making the most of their school-by-school financial data. We will share the great work SEAs are already doing and highlight opportunities to take financial transparency and decision-making to the next level. This will be a forum for collaboration and conversation around any financial challenges or questions that SEAs are facing and a place to hear what others are doing. Additionally, we will break down the latest news on the changing fiscal climate, any K-12 stimulus packages, and what it all means for SEAs.

These will be interactive meetings, where SEAs and RCCs can grow their capacity, freely ask questions and share opinions, and work together on maximizing financial transparency data to improve systems in support of better equity and outcomes for students.

To join the conversation, register here: Questions? Email Hannah Jarmolowski at hj254@georgetown.edu