All told, the federal government has allocated $190 billion in pandemic relief aid to help schools recover — more than four times the amount the U.S. Education Department spends on K-12 schools in a typical year, and with few strings attached.
Jim Hill High School principal Bobby Brown, points out one of the outdated air-condition units that are installed throughout the Jackson, Miss., school, Jan. 12, 2023. A litany of infrastructure issues in the nearly 60-year-old school make for tough choices on spending COVID recovery funds on infrastructure or academics. – The air-conditioning gave out as students returned from summer break last year to Jim Hill High School in Jackson, Mississippi, forcing them to learn in sweltering heat.
For poorer school districts, deciding what to do with that money has involved a tough tradeoff: work on long-term academic recovery or fix long-standing infrastructure needs. The data in AP's analysis came from education market research firm Burbio, which reviewed how more than 6,000 districts across the country, representing over 75% of the nation’s public school students, planned to spend their federal relief money. The data covered the final and largest round of federal aid to schools, totaling $122 billion.
In Texas, the Victoria Independent School District is also grappling with competing infrastructure needs and pandemic recovery. It plans to spend half of the $28.4 million it received in the last round of relief funds on academics, teacher retention and student supports that include social-emotional behavior specialists.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a recent speech that the relief funding was “intended to accelerate reopening and recovery, not to fill decades of underinvestment in education funding and support for students.”
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