Pop Quiz: Are School COVID Relief Funds Working?

Educators and analysts still don’t understand whether the billions the federal government sent to schools is achieving its goals.

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Last September, McAllen, a mid-sized city in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, was considering how best to spend some of the nearly $140 million it received in federal COVID-relief funds. In addition to hiring counselors and educational staff, the McAllen Independent School District (ISD) Board of Trustees had another idea: What if it expanded a “historic Spanish Revival adobe hacienda surrounded by lush tropical landscaping & native woodland?”

The Quinta Mazatlan, which the board unanimously voted to spend $4 million to expand, is an old estate and lush bird sanctuary owned by the city of McAllen. The money will fund construction of a school science center on the grounds, with the aim of teaching students about ecology.

“We’re using this money to address achievement gaps, which do exist as a result of COVID, and this will not only address those achievement gaps, but it’s going to connect kids to higher education, and it’s going to bolster their education in the scientific realm for decades to come,” McAllen ISD spokesperson Mark May told local news station KRGV.

One of the funds’ major purposes is to address learning loss, which remains a problem after COVID. One national analysis showed that in spring 2021, K-12 students were an average of five months behind in math and four months behind in reading.

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  6. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    The funds should mainly be used for two things (assuming repairing school facilities is not required). 1. Give teachers who put up with a lot and worked hard during the pandemic a raise. 2. More importantly, the money is temporary, but so is the learning loss problem. Immediately hire enough tutors to cover all of the kids who have fallen behind and start giving them free remedial education in reading, math, etc. (No woke nonsense - this is to address learning loss, not “white privilege.”)

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    Michael Darwin

    As a school teacher I can tell you our administration (which has now changed, at least at the very top) was throwing money at whatever they could, and little of it seemed aimed at repairing what our students lost for 18 months. They just knew they had money and had to use it or lose it.

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    Jeff Younger

    One problem that jumps out is the time constraints attached to the funds. Reminds me of my experience in the Navy as the end of the fiscal year approached. Rather than reward officers and NCOs who ended the year with a surplus of disposable/discretionary funds, we were ordered to ensure every last penny was spent prior to fiscal year end. A surplus was viewed negatively, in that it might reduce future budgets. While that was just my little corner of the federal leviathan, I doubt it was a unique scenario.

    Perhaps school boards might make better use of the funds if they had assurances that productive, cost-effective utilization, even an initial proposal requiring some fleshing out, would allow the deadlines to be extended. Or better yet, incentivize those districts that improve results without burning through unnecessary funding.

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  9. Emma

    No.

    Lol. Sorry. But this was always an easy free money giveaway disguised as "covid relief" just like every other bill to "save the children" or "clean the air" we've seen in congress. Also a great test run in control, obedience, and easy path to more government dependence and permission. Predictable as usual.

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  10. LucyTrice

    Thanks very much for this.

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