This week, the Education Writers Association (EWA), a nonprofit focused on advancing education coverage, held its annual conference.
The EWA is a nonprofit organization focused on advancing education coverage.Called “Dollars and Sense: Understanding School Funding,” its series looked at ways to find out how exactly school districts are spending federal dollars from Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER). And in a few years, once that pandemic relief aid runs out, what could happen to schools and students next?
“Best practice says that you don’t use short-term expenditures for long-term programs, but that is what is happening,” said Juan Perez, reporter at Politico, when moderating a panel with Roberto Rodríguez, the assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development at the U.S. Department of Education (ED). “Are you prepared for schools to essentially hurtle off a fiscal cliff once this funding dries up?”
Perez referred to how ESSER has been used to develop mental health support programs for students in many school districts. But whether schools can continue such critical programs without ESSER remains unclear.
“There is an opportunity to extend a plan for spending those relief dollars for an additional 18 months, which takes us through March of 2026,” said Rodríguez in response. “So, we are trying to mitigate those challenges around the funding cliff. But it is clear that we have failed to make investments in the underlying system that we need to close opportunity gaps. This is why the administration’s investments are so important.”
Yet several audience members pressed Rodríguez on the lack of detailed public information regarding how school districts and states are specifically using these federal funds.
“Many of us in this room have been trying to track ESSER spending, and we often see that the biggest spending item is ‘other,’” said Matt Barnum, national reporter at Chalkbeat. “Some of us have been vexed with why it is so difficult to see where this money is going.”
