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Beginning next week, services that the people of D.C. depend on – trash pickup, street sweeping and libraries – will begin to disappear.
Somehow, the shutdown is leaving week two and will soon enter week three. D.C.’s budget situation is getting more dire by the day and, if it continues much longer, D.C. public school teachers may not get paid as they continue to educate the city’s kids.
Mayor Vince Gray’s spokesperson Pedro Ribeiro says that if they shutdown continues and D.C.’s budget is still frozen, they may not be able to make payroll at the end of this month. “We just can’t tell when they’re going to get paid,” he said.
After-school programs run by contractors may go away too, because the city can’t pay the contract: “We can promise to pay them at some point, but some won’t work for free or an IOU.”
“The mere fact that we’re having this conversation is absurd,” Ribeiro said, adding that this won’t happen to any other school district in the country.
Public charter schools may also soon begin to suffer. From a previous DCist report:
As it stands, the city will not be able to make its quarterly per-pupil payment to its charter schools. Gray noted the social and emotional support that schools provide for low-income students, saying that many eat their only meal of the day at school.
Ramona Edelin, executive director of the D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools, said the payment, totaling $101 million, is supposed to go toward preparation for SAT and other entrance tests as well as food services and teacher pay. “Some schools have something in reserve, and some will apply for bridge loans, which they’ll have to repay with interest, which is not in their budgets,” Edelin said. “Some schools could have to close their doors.”
Elsie Whitlow Stokes Freedom Public Charter School executive director Erika Bryant said that 68 percent of her students are low-income, which is defined as qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. She emphasized the impact that the budget freeze is already having on her community. “Several of our families are receiving TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and WIC (Women, Infants Children), and they’re faced with the possibility of not receiving those subsidies,” Bryant said. “We have families where two parents work for the fed, and they’re not getting any income. They’re all furloughed; they’re stressed out about that, that has a ripple effect on children.”
In remarks to D.C. citizens yesterday, Gray once again called on Congress to pass and President Obama to sign “legislation that would immediately exempt the District from the restrictions against spending our own money.”
I understand that this federal shutdown has largely been caused by the brinksmanship of extreme Republicans on the House side – and that one of the tactics of the House members has been to offer piecemeal funding bills that would open only parts and functions of the federal government that are non-controversial, such as national parks and cancer research.
I believe Democrats have been right to hold firm against this temptation. But allowing the District government to spend our own money is an entirely different matter.
The District is not a federal agency, and the House passed a bill to exempt us from the shutdown on a bipartisan vote. So, allowing us to spend our own money is not a partisan issue. In fact, the budget proposed by the President for this fiscal year already contains budget autonomy for the District!
Yesterday, local think tank D.C. Appleseed proposed the city alter the Budget Autonomy Charter Amendment to take effect immediately: “If D.C. leaders act quickly and decisively—as they have throughout the shutdown—there’s time to put the Charter Amendment and the local budget into effect within days.”
Ribeiro called the idea “very creative. Unfortunately judges don’t judge you on creativity.”
Clarification: There is a chance payroll may be met at the end of the month. It’s not clear yet.
