The 74

By: Edwin Park

K-12 education and Medicaid are often cast as competing state budget priorities. Amid the calamitous loss of tax revenue in the coronavirus health and economic crisis, look for fiscal conservatives to cite their support for schools as they make arguments for cutting Medicaid spending. But a new analysis for the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families suggests that preserving Medicaid and the flow of federal Medicaid dollars to states is essential to maintaining steady funding for K-12 schools. Proposals to restructure and cut federal Medicaid funding for states — supported by the Trump administration, congressional Republicans and some state leaders — would shift more risk and more cost to states. And that would likely leave less state money for K-12 education budgets.

…

Read more here