CM Wong on hold harmless policy and empty school funding

Just one question.

One question.

Thank you, Chair.

Chancellor, in your statement, you mentioned that school will continue to be held harmless.

Now, as I recall, the whole harmless policy was introduced during COVID lockdown.

So because so many students left those public schools and instead of having the fundings leaving,

leaving the schools with the kids.

They want

To keep the money and keep the funding in place.

But that was, the COVID lockdown has been lifted since 2023, February.

My question to you is why are we still holding schools harmless?

Why are we funding empty seats and even empty schools?

Can you answer that?

Yeah.

Thank you for your question, Consul Memo.

I think, you know, stability in schools is very important.

And I think we need to ensure that our schools are well funded, despite the fact that, you know, we've seen enrollment declines.

If we do...

If we actually remove our own harmless funding, it would be a huge whiplash effect to schools

that would have to really contend with a lot of concerns at the budget.

And in some of our most vulnerable communities, they would feel the brunt of the issues.

And so I think we are proud to, for this year, be able to hold our schools harmless to make sure that they are stable.

And we will have an ongoing conversation about how we get to sustainability over time, including what we are able to do at the mid.

Okay, I get that, Chancellor.

But what is the estimated cost of holding initial school budgets harmless?

And do you expect this additional funding to be reflected at adoption?

Because I can see if we can free up so much funding and use it elsewhere rather than keeping schools open that are mostly empty.

Please answer that.

So we are doing our final quality assurance checks on the numbers.

So once it's final, we can provide it to you.

And yes, we can provide it to you once it's final.

I've visited some of the schools and I see that.

We can definitely do something rather than keeping them empty.

My follow-up is, how can DOE not know the cost of this policy, especially given that 26, 27 enrollment projects have been available since early May?

Council Finance has estimated that this policy will cost at least $110 million, if not more.

Does this sound correct?

So I wouldn't say we don't know the number.

Like I said, we're doing our final QA on the numbers, especially since school budgets are going to be released next week.

So as soon as that's final, we can provide the number.

I just don't want to give you something, and then it's going to change.

But yes, on par with over hundreds of millions, basically hundreds of millions of dollars.

And I have visited some of these schools, and common sense tells me that we can do a better job.

Just combine them and free up the funding.

That's where I'm coming from.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And, you know, in the future, we'll be engaged in a conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Shenzel.