Blog

Your Education Road Map

Politics K-12

Politics K-12 kept watch on education policy and politics in the nation’s capital and in the states. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: Federal, States.

Federal

Miguel Cardona Unveils Summer Learning Partnership, Releases Some COVID-19 Aid

By Andrew Ujifusa — March 24, 2021 4 min read
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona speaks at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Meriden, Conn., on March 3.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The U.S. Department of Education will join governors and state education chiefs to help create plans for summer learning and enrichment programs serving students hurt most by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Summer Learning & Enrichment Collaborative will assist states, school districts, and others in planning how to use new relief funds, including the $1.2 billion earmarked for summer enrichment in the American Rescue Plan, the COVID-19 relief package signed by President Joe Biden earlier this month. (That earmark represents 1 percent of the package’s K-12 education aid.) The partnership, which includes the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, is set to launch in April.

The department announced the new summer collaborative ahead of the agency’s National School Reopening Summit on Wednesday, an event highlighting how schools can reopen safely for in-person learning this year and next. The agency also announced that Cardona would go on a “school reopening tour” in the weeks following the summit.

Also, in advance of the summit, the department announced the release of $81 billion in American Rescue Plan K-12 funds to states. That represents about two-thirds of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding for states and school districts.

A department letter to states about the release of this money says that in order to access the remaining third of their allotted ESSER money, states must submit a plan describing how “ESSER funds will be used to safely return students to in-person instruction, maximize in-person instruction time, operate schools, and meet the needs of students, and that addresses other requirements” of the relief package.

The American Rescue Plan does not explicitly say that states must develop and submit plans to resume and maximize in-person learning in order to access any funding. However, many of the allowable uses for the money deal with reopening school buildings, and lawmakers spoke frequently about how the package would help get students back into classrooms. Cardona and President Joe Biden have emphasized the importance of schools resuming traditional instruction.

When Congress debated the American Rescue Plan earlier this year, some lawmakers supported amending the legislation to somehow make additional federal K-12 relief contingent on schools resuming face-to-face instruction. But these efforts failed.

All the same, there’s no authority in the law for the department to ultimately withhold funds due to dissatisfaction about plans for in-person learning. States won’t necessarily have to be very detailed in additional information they submit to access the remaining funds. And it’s common for states to submit applications to access federal aid agreeing to certain conditions.

The Education Department says it plans to make an application for the remaining funds available next month. Separately, the American Rescue Plan requires school districts to publish plans to resume in-person learning within 30 days of receiving aid.

The rescue package requires states to award districts their share of the funds within 60 days of getting it from the Education Department. In total, states and school districts are getting roughly $122 billion in ESSER.

Educators are grappling with summer strategies

What to do during the summer months has quickly become one of the biggest priorities for education officials and others.

“The Collaborative will build and deepen partnerships across states, districts, and among educators, parents, philanthropy, and nonprofit partners to scale up and sustain successful programs,” the department said in a statement announcing the partnership.

Although the department has put a focus on how schools and other groups can help students this summer, some districts have already set plans for the warmer months in motion. And some states are taking action: In North Carolina, for example, state lawmakers have advanced a bill requiring to provide 30 days of summer learning. Attendance is one of several concerns for educators, however, when it comes to summer school programs.

Districts are considering a range of approaches for the summer and beyond, from virtual tutoring and extending the 2020-21 school year, to increasing access to highly-rated teachers and adding days to the school calendar in the 2021-22 academic year.

Recent studies have shown that approaches such as tutoring can be effective, although they can prove quite expensive. Researchers have also looked at how extended-learning academies, utilizing small class sizes and teachers who passed a competitive application process, can help students.

The American Rescue Plan funding doesn’t limit summer learning funding to traditional approaches like summer school. Indeed, some share the belief of Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., that recreation and enrichment, not academics, should be the priority for many students this summer after a difficult year for children, parents, and educators. Murphy lobbied for dedicated summer-enrichment aid to be included in the American Rescue Plan, and recently requested that the Education Department release guidance for summer programs.

Data released by the department on Wednesday about how students are learning during the pandemic found that as of January, 43 percent of 4th graders and 48 percent of 8th graders were learning full time from home. But there are also very large disparities in the amount of live teaching different students are getting every day. Biden has said he wants most K-8 schools open and providing in-person learning five days a week by April 30, but his administration’s expectations on this front have shifted and led to backlash.

For more state-by-state information on the $81 billion awarded to states Wednesday, see the chart below.

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
Reading & Literacy Webinar
The Future of the Science of Reading
Join us for a discussion on the future of the Science of Reading and how to support every student’s path to literacy.
Content provided by HMH
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
College & Workforce Readiness Webinar
From Classrooms to Careers: How Schools and Districts Can Prepare Students for a Changing Workforce
Real careers start in school. Learn how Alton High built student-centered, job-aligned pathways.
Content provided by TNTP
Student Well-Being Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: The Power of Emotion Regulation to Drive K-12 Academic Performance and Wellbeing
Wish you could handle emotions better? Learn practical strategies with researcher Marc Brackett and host Peter DeWitt.

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

Federal Trump Admin. Starts Moving CTE to Labor Dept. After Supreme Court Order
The Education Department put arrangements to move some of its programs on hold while court battles over downsizing played out.
4 min read
Students make measurements to wood to add to a tiny home project during their shop class at Carrick High School in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Dec. 13, 2022.
Students make measurements to wood to add to a tiny home project during their shop class at Carrick High School in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Dec. 13, 2022. The Trump administration is shifting management of career and technical education programs to the U.S. Department of Labor now that the Supreme Court have given the go-ahead to proceed with downsizing of the U.S. Department of Education.
Nate Smallwood for Education Week
Federal Hope Shattered for Laid-Off Ed. Dept. Staff After Supreme Court Order
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to proceed with 1,400 Education Department layoffs.
6 min read
Supporters hold signs and cheer Education Department employees as they leave after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025.
Supporters hold signs and cheer Education Department employees as they leave after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025. The Supreme Court on July 14, 2025, allowed the Trump administration to proceed with department layoffs that a lower-court judge had put on hold.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Federal Trump Admin. Says Undocumented Students Can't Attend Head Start, Early College
The administration issued notices saying undocumented immigrants don't qualify for Head Start and some Education Department programs.
7 min read
Children play during aftercare for the Head Start program at Easterseals South Florida, an organization that gets about a third of its funding from the federal government, on Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami.
Children play during aftercare for the Head Start program at Easterseals South Florida, an organization that gets about a third of its funding from the federal government, on Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami. The Trump administration said Thursday that undocumented children are ineligible for Head Start and a number of other federally funded programs that the administration is classifying as similar to welfare benefits.
Rebecca Blackwell/AP
Federal How Medicaid, SNAP Changes in Trump's Big Budget Bill Could Affect Schools
The bill will stress a major funding stream schools rely on, leading to ripple effects that make it harder for schools to offer free meals.
6 min read
President Donald Trump signs his signature bill of tax breaks and spending cuts at the White House on July 4, 2025, in Washington.
President Donald Trump signs his signature bill of tax breaks and spending cuts at the White House on July 4, 2025, in Washington. The bill cuts federal spending for Medicaid and food stamps—cuts that stand to affect students and trickle down to schools.
Evan Vucci/AP