Have States and Governors Used K-12 CARES Act Funding?
As Congress considers billions in new federal emergency aid for K-12 education, $13.7 billion remained unspent as of September 30th.
Members of Congress are currently discussing providing new emergency funding for American K-12 education. On December 1st, a bipartisan group of Senators announced a framework for a new COVID-19 relief package that would include $82 billion for K-12 and higher education.
In March, Congress passed and President Trump signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which provided $30.75 billion to the U.S. Department of Education for an Education Stabilization Fund, “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally.” The Education Stabilization Fund fund included $16.2 billion for K-12 education, including $13.2 billion for an “Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief” (ESSER) fund and $3 billion for a “Governor’s Emergency Education Relief” (GEER) fund. The Department of Education awarded ESSER grants to state education agencies and GEER funds to the nation’s governors.
In November, the Department of Education published a website to provide data about how Education Stabilization Funds were being spent. The website features a map of state pages with data showing that amount of ESSER and GEER funding provided to the state and whether the funds had been spent as of September 30, 2020.
Table 1 presents a state-by-state overview of the amount of funds awarded to each state for the ESSER and GEER grant programs and the amount that states had spent as of September 30th. At that time, $13.7 billion of the $16.2 billion awarded had not yet been spent.
It is possible and perhaps likely that governors and state education agencies have spent additional GEER and ESSER funding since September 30th. It is also possible that states or governors have obligated the funding but not yet spent it. The Department of Education explains that the data portal “will be updated frequently” and, in early 2021, “the Department will begin to post information from state, outlying areas, and IHEs’ annual reports regarding their use of ESF grant funds.”
However, the currently available data from September 30th should help Congress understand what funds remain available to state education agencies and governors as lawmakers consider new federal emergency education aid.
At the end of September, more than half of the states had spent less than 10 percent of their ESSER funds. Thirty governors had spent zero percent of GEER funding at that time.
With Congress considering $82 billion in new aid, lawmakers should recognize that new emergency education aid for state education agencies and governors is unlikely to be used for several months and may not be used during the 2020–21 school year. Instead, Congress should provide emergency education aid directly to vulnerable and low-income students affected by prolonged school closures.
