A TON of money thrown at American schools that must be spent in the next four years….
And Biden and Democrats are trying to send even MORE money to the schools in his next bills…..
The Question is?
Can educator’s actually spend the money?
And ?
What happens in four years when. it runs out?
Educators across the country are eagerly making plans to spend their share of the roughly $129 billion allocated to aid schools under the Biden administration’s stimulus legislation, signed in March. The money is intended to help schools reopen during the pandemic, and according to the act, at least 20 percent must be spent on helping students recover academically from the effects of school closures and remote learning.
Districts say the money will allow them to hire tutors, social workers and mental health counselors; enlarge summer enrichment programs; and reduce class sizes. But even as they welcome the help, some superintendents are finding that the funds come with complications and unintended consequences, and in some cases, cannot be spent on all of their top priorities….
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Another complication for schools is the 2025 deadline. It is not easy to spend such a large amount of money quickly, while also not creating programs that will burden their budgets later on.
“There’s always a concern: When the money goes away, how do you sustain it?” said Walter Gonsoulin, the superintendent of Jefferson County Schools in Alabama. “We think that we’ve done a good job in planning for that, but of course, we have to continue to assess that.”…
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Some district leaders question the deadline — and whether students can fully make up for academic losses by then. Exactly how far students have fallen behind is not yet clear, but in Texas, the pandemic appeared to have erased several years of gains in reading and math scores. The decline was greatest among poor students and those who were learning remotely.
“It’s going to take more than two or three years,” said John Davis, the chief of schools at Baltimore City Public Schools. “This stuff should be sustained because there’s going to be kids that are behind.”
Federal officials have acknowledged the challenges that schools face but pointed to other Biden administration proposals, including its American Families Plan, that would, among other things, offer more money for preschool.
“We know that beyond recovery, we have more work to do to make sure our schools emerge from this crisis better than they were before,” Kelly Leon, a spokeswoman for the Education Department, said in a statement…..