Superintendents and school boards are now embarking on “the most complicated budget year ever,” says a leading expert in K12 finance. The main reason is the expiration of ESSER relief funding that has helped drive academic recovery even as some districts have been slower to catch up from the disruptions of the last several years.

“You've got to overcommunicate right now,” says Marguerite Roza, a professor and director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy. “Schooling will look different in the fall when ESSER is gone, and people don't like surprises.”

The Ednuomics Lab's overall mission is to help districts make smart decisions about the best way to use financial resources on behalf of students. Roza encourages superintendents and their teams to tap principals to communicate with staff and parents about how the end of ESSER will impact their schools.