Education Funding

DeVos and States Clash on Whether COVID-19 Aid Is Just ‘Sitting in the Bank’

By Andrew Ujifusa — November 20, 2020 4 min read
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the Department of Education building Wednesday, July 8, 2020, in Washington.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Just a small portion of federal coronavirus relief earmarked for schools had been spent by the end of September, the U.S. Department of Education announced Friday. And U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said this data reveals that some states have fallen down on the job during the pandemic.

But state education leaders say the department and DeVos aren’t painting a complete picture of how the money is being used. They also stress that CARES relief is vital for efforts to support schools and students during the pandemic, and that states need additional relief from Washington.

The Education Department’s new data tool provides information about how much different pots of the CARES Act, signed by President Donald Trump in March, has been spent. From the enactment of CARES to Sept. 30, the department said, $1.6 billion of the $13.2 billion provided for K-12 schools—or 12 percent—had been spent. And of the $3 billion in a governor’s education fund that can be spent on K-12 and higher education, $535 million—or 18 percent—had been spent.

The data portal provides state-by-state information. For example, on May 1, California was awarded $1.65 billion for K-12 schools from CARES, and as of Sept. 30 had spent $368 million of it, or 22.3 percent of the total award. Limited data is also available on sub-grantees, such as school districts.

We’ve previously written about how quickly CARES money has been spent, and terminology matters here. By the end of May, for example, a federal watchdog found that just 1 percent of CARES money for education had been spent.

At the time, however, representatives for state and local education officials said that the report likely reflected technicalities, such as how quickly districts were drawing down funds they in fact had plans for. They also brought up strategic concerns about the likelihood of additional aid from the federal government and states that led them to take a conservative approach to the use of funds. And it’s possible the rate that schools are spending CARES money might have ticked up dramatically since the start of October.

CARES says schools have until the end of September of next year to spend the money. In August, new federal data showed that the vast majority of CARES education aid had been legally obligated for different uses, if not actually spent (think of contractual agreements, for example). More early data on districts’ plans for CARES aid is here.

‘Neglected Their Obligations’

DeVos used the unveiling of the data portal to criticize those states she said had not fulfilled their duty to students despite having the means to do so.

“States that neglected their obligations to provide full-time education, while complaining about a lack of resources, have left significant sums of money sitting in the bank,” DeVos said in a statement about the portal. “There may be valid reasons for states to be deliberate in how they spend CARES Act resources, but these data make clear there is little to support their claims of being cash-poor.” (By contrast, DeVos said institutions of higher education did a “better job” of putting CARES relief to use.)

But the Council of Chief State School Officers quickly pushed back on that. On Friday, after the portal was made public, the group’s CEO, Carissa Moffat Miller, said the department’s data and how it was presented was misleading.

“The Education Department’s figures do not tell the full story of how CARES Act funds are being used,” Miller said in a statement. “Many states and school districts have obligated funds beyond the levels described in the Department’s figures—that is, they have placed orders or entered into service contracts that must be paid in the future.”

She noted that states and districts have until September 2022 to enter into obligations to spend CARES money, and added that CCSSO estimates schools will need between $158 billion and $245 billion in new federal aid to cover various costs related to the pandemic.

In her Friday statement, DeVos also expressed her hope that parents and others “will use this information to advocate for an immediate safe return to learning for all students,” and criticized the recent shutdown of in-person learning in New York City and other places.

President Donald Trump as well as DeVos have pushed for schools to hold in-person classes during the pandemic, saying that remote learning is not as good as face-to-face instruction and threatens students’ mental and emotional health. The role Trump as well as teachers’ unions have played in reopening decisions has been a significant, and significantly disputed, topic.

A district that pays a teacher using CARES money over the course of the school year might not draw down and spend money for that purpose all at once. Yet in that situation, the district still has concrete plans for that money and isn’t just leaving the cash idle in a bank account, said Jonas Zuckerman, who is the Title I Director at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, but spoke in his capacity as president of the National Association of ESEA State Program Administrators.

“Making a definitive statement about how much money is ‘sitting in the bank’ at this point is inaccurate,” he said.

Separately, Zuckerman said that the months-long fight over CARES money and private school students didn’t help provide clarity to states and schools when making decisions about using the aid money.

“The tool ... can be a valuable tool itself. But I think it also needs to be transparent in terms of what it’s actually showing,” Zuckerman said.

Related Tags:

A version of this news article first appeared in the Politics K-12 blog.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
AI and Educational Leadership: Driving Innovation and Equity
Discover how to leverage AI to transform teaching, leadership, and administration. Network with experts and learn practical strategies.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
Investing in Success: Leading a Culture of Safety and Support
Content provided by Boys Town
Assessment K-12 Essentials Forum Making Competency-Based Learning a Reality
Join this free virtual event to hear from educators and experts working to implement competency-based education.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Funding Gun Violence Takes a Toll. We Need More Support, Principals Tell Congress
At a congressional roundtable, school leaders made an emotional appeal for more funds to help schools recover from gun violence.
5 min read
Principals from the Principals Recovery Network address lawmakers on the long-term effects of gun violence on Sept. 23, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Principals address Democratic members of Congress on the long-term effects of gun violence on Sept. 23, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Courtesy of Oversight Committee Democrats Press Office
Education Funding ESSER Is Ending. Which Investments Accomplished the Most?
Districts have until Sept. 30 to commit their last round of federal COVID aid to particular expenses.
11 min read
Illustration of falling or declining money with a frustrated man in a suit standing on the edge of a cliff the shape of an arrow dollar sign.
DigitalVision Vectors
Education Funding Explainer How One Grant Can Help Schools Recover From Shootings
Schools can leverage a little-known emergency grant to recover from violence or a natural disaster. Here’s how.
9 min read
Broken piggy bank with adhesive bandage on the table
iStock/Getty
Education Funding A Funding Lifeline for Rural Schools Is at Risk, and Not for the First Time
Rural schools near national forests rely on dedicated federal funds. But so far, lawmakers haven't renewed them.
7 min read
School bus on rural route, Owens Valley, CA.
iStock/Getty