Less than a third of the $18 billion in federal pandemic aid allocated for Texas public schools has been used by districts across the state. The Texas Education Agency says it鈥檚 the largest influx of money Texas schools have seen.
But as Texas public schools face supply chain delays, staffing shortages and hiring troubles, they鈥檙e struggling to find ways to spend all of it, .
Emily Donaldson, a reporter for the Morning News鈥� Education Lab, joined Texas Standard to share more about how districts have been utilizing the money so far and how much time is left to use it.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Tell us more about some of the reasons that these schools have not been able to spend a lot of this money.
Emily Donaldson: Sure. So just like in other industries, Texas schools are facing supply chain delays, staffing shortages, trouble hiring. You know, if the way that they were going to use their federal funds was to hire a ton of tutors that were going to help catch kids up, there鈥檚 only a limited supply of tutors. And so if that was their plan, then they can鈥檛 really spend that money in that same way, and they鈥檝e got to rework what they were going to do.
What have some districts been spending their money on?
The money is pretty flexible, so in a large variety of ways. Essentially, they can spend the money on anything that kind of relates to the pandemic. But the only requirement is to spend about 20% on learning loss 鈥� oo kind of helping catch kids up. And so they鈥檝e spent it on everything from, you know, hiring additional teachers or staff members to bumping up teacher pay and adding technology. You know, even like facility support, like cleaning or buying PPE for students.
What about the money that鈥檚 still left on the table? How much is unspent?
The money came in three different packages; in the first one, schools didn鈥檛 see a lot. Of the two biggest pots of money, 71% remains unspent.
And this at a time when a lot of schools say they just don鈥檛 have the money to hire teachers and they鈥檙e really fearful about the fall. Can this money be used for those needs?
Yeah, absolutely. I want to be clear, too: They have two more years to spend all of the money that they鈥檝e been given, so there鈥檚 still plenty of time. And you want to kind of measure it out so you鈥檙e not spending it all at once [and] then you don鈥檛 have it later on down the line when the needs are still there. But, you know, I鈥檝e talked to some education experts who say that schools do need to kind of pick up the pace a little bit because there鈥檚 tremendous needs now. And as much as they can, they need to be providing the resources now.
But there鈥檚 a flip side to this, too. You mentioned they have two years to spend the money; when that time is up, what happens to the pay that you have promised teachers? Will there be money there to backfill 鈥� to cover their salaries, for example?
There鈥檚 certainly a concern that there鈥檚 going to be a 鈥渇iscal cliff鈥� 鈥� kind of the term people have been using 鈥� that once the money is gone, you know, how do you sustain that? And so that鈥檚 something districts are having to grapple with: Do they go into their fund balance? Do they look for alternative sources of funding to make sure that all of the investments they鈥檝e made don鈥檛 just go away?
What are some solutions districts are looking at at this juncture?
I think districts know the urgency that they have to spend. They鈥檙e, of course, familiar with their students鈥� needs. And so I think what they鈥檙e doing is really tracking down the best investments that they can make. So education experts have told me that they really need to be in touch with how their investments are doing, whatever that data looks like.
So whether that鈥檚 making improvements on a campus to try to encourage kids to come back, they need to be tracking attendance data. If they鈥檙e looking at investing in tutors to make sure kids have extra time of instruction, then they need to be looking at the results and the growth and learning. But they鈥檝e got to be following up on what鈥檚 actually working and then probably investing more in those things.
Do you get a sense that schools have been actually reluctant to tap into these funds, or is there some kind of bureaucratic explanation for why these funds have not been actually flowing to the schools themselves? What鈥檚 your take?
You know, I don鈥檛 get a sense that they鈥檙e reluctant to use. I mean, districts across the state are all publicizing their plans, meeting with their community. I think there鈥檚 just a lot of logistical hurdles to actually making sure that all of this money is spent because it鈥檚 such a huge infusion of cash.
It also takes time to spend all the money. So if you hire a tutor, the entire investment of their salary, for instance, is not going to be paid out the first month that you hire them. It鈥檚 going to take the full year for that full investment to actually be spent. So we鈥檙e seeing kind of this lag in spending right now. And the big concern, I think overall, is just making sure that nobody鈥檚 rushing at the very end to spend it and then spending it unwisely.
