Editor's Note (The View From Here)
Two New Annual Special Features
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has a mandate to report to Congress on the condition of education by June 1 of each year. Their recently released report, The Condition of Education 2017, gives us a look at the trends and developments in education using the latest available data. When looking at enrollment, public school enrollment has increased from 50.04 million (2013-2014) to 50.30 million (2014-2015). The number of students enrolled in public charter schools has increased from 2.5 million (2013-2014) to 2.7 million (2014-2015).
While the number of students continues to increase, the revenues continued to increase as well, but the source of that revenue is shifting. In the 2012-2013 school year, revenues for public schools totaled $622 billion — $58 billion from federal sources, $281 billion from state sources, $283 billion from local sources. In the 2013-2014 school year, total revenues rose to $632 billion, but the federal contribution dropped to $55 billion, while the state sources increased to $292 billion and the local funding increased by $1 billion to $284 billion.
While it is nearly impossible to predict where education funding will end up in the next few years, indications are that this trend may continue, but, even more likely, schools will be forced to do more with less.
With this in mind, we present our first annual Facilities Sourcebook, which is designed to serve as a year-round reference guide to facilities, security, technology and business services and products for the K-12 market. The businesses that are featured in this special section are advertisers that regularly support this magazine. Without them, we would not exist. We ask that you take that into consideration when you make future decisions about purchasing materials and services.
Also included in this issue is a special section containing the winners of the Healthy Facilities Awards. This is a new awards program that has been created in partnership with the Healthy Facilities Institute (HFI). It is designed to acknowledge the thousands of caring individuals who work in the nation’s public and private schools, creating and maintaining healthy environments for the students and staff. You will find details about the award recipients starting on page 31. We also plan to present a webinar highlighting the best practices of these winners in October.
By the time you receive this issue, most of you will have begun a new school year. May it be a successful one!