Ephraim Blair

Partisan gridlock in Congress has led to a federal government shutdown impacting thousands of workers nationwide.

Due to partisan gridlock, the federal government has been in a budget shutdown since midnight on Oct. 1 when Congress failed to pass a budget for the next fiscal year. The House passed a continuing resolution (CR) to extend current funding levels through Nov 21. However, Republicans and Democrats still haven’t negotiated a deal on healthcare or recessions, resulting in numerous failed attempts to pass a budget in the Senate.

While both sides trade blame, there have already been effects felt across the country, including at JDS. Like previous government shutdowns, this one has led to the curtailing of federal activities. Hundreds of thousands of workers deemed non-essential are being furloughed, meaning they are not working or receiving pay. Other government employees are still working but, like the furloughed workers, will not be paid until after the shutdown ends.  

Many families at JDS have been directly affected by these changes, including sophomore Isaac Janson’s family. His father is an attorney at the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Office of General Counsel, where he advises the agency on legal questions. Around 81% of the FCC’s 1,300 workers have been furloughed. Janson’s father, however, has been deemed an essential worker, which means he still has to work without pay.

Federal employees, like Janson’s father, are supposed to receive back pay, meaning they will be compensated after the shutdown for the time they went without pay, in accordance with the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019. Nevertheless, Janson said that losing a family income source for the duration of the shutdown is difficult. However, he found it reassuring that his father had not been fully furloughed.

“I’m worried. My father’s worried,”Janson said. “But it’s good that he’s working. It’s good that we have a stable environment where he can still have a job but not get paid.”

This is not the first time the family has had to deal with the effects of a government shutdown. During the last government shutdown in 2019, Janson’s father went without pay for 35 days and had to apply for unemployment due to the length of the funding gap.

Many other families have had similar experiences. JDS parent Ron Salz works as a conservation biologist at the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The shutdown has altered the functions of NOAA, as an estimated 90% of its staff has been furloughed. 

Salz, similar to Janson, is still working, without pay, on a project related to the Endangered Species Act, which was deemed essential. But Salz said he is not allowed to work on any other projects that are not part of this “excepted intermittent status.” As a consequence of the shutdown, NOAA’s office in Silver Spring  is closed, so Salz works from home. 

“There are several projects, important projects that I’m not allowed to work on now, and so those are going to be falling behind schedule. But otherwise, I’m just around the house more, and my work schedule is more variable, and I’m not working a full 40-hour work week,” Salz said.

Salz and Janson are not alone. Many other families at JDS, with either federal employees or contractors, have been affected by the shutdown. 

On Oct. 1, Head of School Mitchel Malkus and Chief Financial and Operating Officer Elanit Jakabovics sent out an email to the community offering help to affected families. Namely, the school is offering to delay tuition payments for the duration of the shutdown before affected families receive their back pay.

“We want families to know that we’re here for them, and that it’s our responsibility and our focus to educate their kids and to make sure that they are happy and comfortable at school. While the parents figure out the things that they have to figure out at home, we will remove this stress and this burden from them,” Jakabovics said.

Jakabovics said the school was able to quickly respond because this shutdown is not the first situation of its kind. The school sent out similar emails addressing families potentially affected by cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and COVID before it. She said several families have already reached out to the school administration.

“We’ve heard so far from numerous families who, either one or both parents have been furloughed,” Jakabovics said. “And they’ve been very appreciative of the offer to delay their October tuition payment.”

Similarly, Salz said he was appreciative of how the school is caring for its sizable community of government employees who are unable to simply go to work and do their jobs during this uncertain time.

“They’ve [JDS] been there, not just during the shutdown, but also in the more recent past when some government agencies were going through downsizing. There were some people who were being laid off, and I know the school reached out at that time as well,” Salz said. “It’s definitely appreciated. I don’t think a lot of schools do that.”