The federal government is providing up to $13.5 billion in the CARES Act toward public PK-12 education, plus $3 billion in additional funds to governors to use for PK-12 or higher education. The Learning Policy Institute is estimating that $14.3 billion of this funding will go toward public PK-12 education in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Use this tool to see how funding from the CARES Act will impact education spending in your state overall and per-pupil. The tool also allows you to estimate how state budget cuts, or new federal funding, may impact your state.
Learning Policy Institute notes on this analysis:
- The federal CARES Act could provide up to a total of $16.2 billion to state PK-12 systems.
A. Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER): $13.23 billion distribute through Title I, Part A formula.
B. Education Grants to Governors: $2.95 billion – these funds can be distributed out to PK-12 schools or they can be used to fund higher education programs. - We assumed that 100% of the ESSER funding and 50% of the Education Grants to Governors would go to LEAs.
A. In total this would means that states would receive $14.3 billion in federal funding. - The state budget data used in this analysis comes from the National Education Association’s Rankings & Estimates for the 2018-19 school year.
- To estimate 2020-21 funding, we adjusted the NEA’s data by 3.6% each year based on estimates from the National Association of State Budget Officers.
- We assumed that federal and local funding would remain stable in 2020-21.
A. Local funds are mainly generated through property taxes and which should remain flat over the next 12 months.
B. It appears that federal education funding will remain flat in the near future (with the exception of stimulus funds).
