I agree that the reason given (seemingly without evidence) is bull****.
I also agree it sucks to snatch away funds that schools were counting on (to be fair, the funds will stop at the end of the year, so there will be some allocated funds).
I am curious what other folks think of these types of federal initiatives.
For example, I am always wondering if these funds are used to provide
effective mental health care. I couldn't click on the link above but from this NPR article (
LINK) and this article (
LINK), the only examples provided are just hiring staff and paying their salary. I am assuming this is used for more than that but its the only actual allocations discussed in the media that I could locate.
I am in support of these being short term federal govt grants that provide proof of concept for states that, in turn, will then create funding for mental health in their states. However, just hiring staff, to me, seems so short sighted. It does not address the factors that are leading to increased mental health problems in youth, it does not provide for hiring staff that practices evidence based treatments, and it has no long term off ramp for this type of funding.
I guess my view is that these seem like band aids to satisfy voters in the short term rather than a concentrated effort to deal with a growing problem over the long term. Practically, we higher these social workers and counselors, the mental health problems continue to grow, state/local govts continue to rely on federal funding and ask for more to higher more staff, and the cycle continues.
