Education Funding

Why School Leaders Are Sweating the Deadline for Spending COVID Relief Funds

By Mark Lieberman — January 25, 2022 2 min read
Collage image of U.S. dollars and clock
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

As the president, federal lawmakers, and critical media coverage ramp up pressure on schools to quickly spend the $195 billion in federal pandemic aid they received in 2020 and 2021, school administrators are pushing back with an unexpected message: We need more time.

A coalition of nearly three dozen school, health, and environmental advocacy groups, led by AASA, the School Superintendents’ Association, last week sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona asking the department to consider extending the deadline for spending COVID relief funds on construction and capital improvements projects.

The current deadline for spending all of the COVID relief funds is September 2024—more than four years after the pandemic began taking a toll on school operations and causing all manner of disruption for students and staff alike. Congress approved the aid in three waves in March 2020, December 2020, and March 2021.

School administrators say they want until December 2026 to spend federal funds on improving ventilation; fixing roofs, windows, and doors; and modernizing classrooms to account for the oncoming effects of climate change. Districts are competing over the same finite set of contractors and materials, leading to price hikes and shipping delays that are likely to persist for a while, school leaders say.

Facilities have long been a major area of need for the U.S. school system, whose buildings are increasingly dilapidated as state and local funding for construction falls billions of dollars short of the necessary work. The federal government last year dangled the possibility of dedicated funding for school infrastructure as part of President Biden’s Build Back Better proposal, but those funds ultimately fell out of negotiations for the still-languishing bill.

The list of districts’ priorities for federal funds is long and varied: everything from expanded instructional programming and curriculum materials to increased salaries and recruitment bonuses for educators; new laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots for students; and masks and other personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Some districts got thousands of dollars per student, while others got far less.

Determining how much federal funding schools have spent so far is nearly impossible to do without lots of guesswork. Some districts may have committed to investing in salaries for people that will only be fully paid out by the end of the school year. Others are mixing federal funds with other sources to piece together investments.

Some districts have been wary of using federal funds for ongoing initiatives or positions, which they might have to cut or downsize once again when the funds run out. A similar situation after the Great Recession caught many school districts off guard.

Read this explainer from me and my colleague Andrew Ujifusa that describes how the COVID funds work, how schools can use them, and how their effectiveness will be assessed.

Consult this table to see how much each district in the United States got from three rounds of federal emergency aid.

Related Tags:

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
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
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

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 How States Are Rethinking Where School Funding Should Go
There's constant debate over the best way to allocate state money to schools. Here are some ways states are reworking their school funding.
7 min read
Conceptual illustration of tiny people is planning the personal budget, accounting, analysis.
Muhamad Chabibalwi/iStock/Getty
Education Funding A Court Ordered Billions for Education. Why Schools Might Not Get It Now
The North Carolina Supreme Court is considering arguments for overturning a statewide order for more school funding.
6 min read
A blue maze with a money bag at the end of the maze.
iStock/Getty
Education Funding Schools Want More Time to Spend COVID-19 Aid for Homeless Students
Senators want to give districts more time to spend COVID relief funds for students experiencing homelessness.
4 min read
New canvas school bags hanging on the backs of empty classroom student chairs in a large modern classroom
iStock/Getty Images
Education Funding ESSER Isn't the Only School Funding Relief That's Disappearing Soon
Federal relief aid, policies to prevent schools from losing enrollment-based funding, and support for vulnerable families are expiring soon.
10 min read
Vector illustration of a businessman's hand holding a slowly vanishing dollar sign.
iStock/Getty