School districts face tough choices as the end of federal pandemic funding nears
School districts face tough choices as the end of federal pandemic funding nears
Public schools in this country got a serious shot in the arm in 2021 when Congress passed the American Rescue Plan and President Joe Biden signed it into law. Serious, as in $122 billion to help students recover from the pandemic — the largest one-time infusion of federal money in public education ever.
School districts have been using it to renovate HVAC systems, hire staff, expand summer school and more. But one-time means just that, and the money has to be spent by September 2024. That means school district leaders are going to have to make some hard choices about what they keep and what they cut. Summer school is one of those choices.
Summer school hasn’t always equaled fun. Because in the arithmetic of public education, who likes remedial reading and math lessons?
Storm Lake Community School District in rural Iowa wanted to change that, so it used federal pandemic relief funds to expand summer school.
“They can choose board games, they can choose Legos, they can choose computer science, cooking,” said Superintendent Stacey Cole.
The number of students attending went from 60 before the pandemic to over 500 this summer, she said. The programming costs the district $430,000 annually, and she’s not sure what will happen once the federal funds run out.
“If you have to pit that against, ‘Do we hire another two science teachers next year, or do we run half of the summer school?’ That’s a big decision to make,” Cole said.
Lots of school leaders have big decisions to make as federal dollars expire, according to a survey out this week from the School Superintendents Association. More than half say they’ll be forced to cut summer programming; they’re also anticipating job cuts.
Roland Toscano leads East Central Independent School District in San Antonio and used federal money to hire tutors, classroom assistants and educators who could help kids with dyslexia.
He’s hoping the Texas Legislature will step in with funds so he doesn’t have to lay off all those people.
“It’s just stressful. It’s disheartening,” Toscano said. “Just got a lot of restlessness about what’s to come and how we’re going to manage.”
Other districts are pivoting and spending their last American Rescue Plan dollars on stuff instead of people. They’re opting to invest in curriculum, hardware and software — things they can use beyond the 2024 deadline.
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