Public Education isn't a priority for the government of TX. Money Intended for Education Should Stay in Education - Raise Your Hand Texas The federal government is providing billions in COVID-19 relief funding to public schools across the country. Texas initially received $1.3 billion in federal stimulus funding intended for our schools in the spring of 2020. However, our schools did not see any additional money because Texas instead diverted these funds to fill other state budget holes. Now, another $5.5 billion in federal funds promised to our schools hangs in the balance. The state should not use federal stimulus dollars that were meant for education to fill other holes in the state budget. Please share on social media with #FundTxEdRecovery. Texas to get $5.5 billion more in federal funding for schools but won’t say how it will be spent (dallasnews.com) Texas students need additional resources to overcome academic setbacks brought on by the pandemic, but school leaders aren’t so sure they’ll have the flexibility to spend new federal dollars to help them. The federal government gave Texas two big education stimulus packages — totaling around $6.8 billion — to help students recover from the pandemic. But as the first package of $1.3 billion flowed to districts, local school administrators saw aid cut elsewhere. It was hard to keep up with the new needs driven by the pandemic— such as physical improvements to campuses so students can learn safely in person and expanded online infrastructure for those in remote classes — as Texas used federal dollars to replace state funding. Now that Texas is poised to receive its second round, educators are waiting to find out if it will flow as additional dollars that they can use to address deep learning losses. “It’s going to take additional funding and additional services and not just over a three-month period or a six-month period,” said Kevin Brown, executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators. “This is a serious crisis that our children face, and it is going to take multiple years to address all of the needs.” But there’s no clear answer on how the new money will be spent. Education Commissioner Mike Morath said in January that “appropriators” will determine that. Texas Education Agency officials did not respond to questions from The Dallas Morning News asking how Morath would spend that money, when it will be distributed or who will have the final say on how it gets spent. The ultimate authority over the federal dollars and how to use them rests with the education agency and Morath. Even though the agency has the ability to distribute the funds without express approval from the Legislature — and did so with the first round of stimulus money — it doesn’t look like that will happen again. When Texas received close to $1.3 billion in the first stimulus package through the CARES Act, it distributed the new federal funds to districts and reduced state aid accordingly. In Denton ISD, for example, this meant the district received about $2.7 million in new federal dollars but lost in state aid. Meanwhile, Denton had to absorb about $4 million in COVID-related expenses, officials noted at a board meeting this month. Districts across the state dipped into savings as costs mounted. The state pooled other federal funding to help districts purchase devices and personal protective equipment, but it wasn’t enough to offset the new costs. Educators would have preferred that the money from the CARES Act went directly to local districts as additional aid but recognize that the state needed to stabilize its own funding to prevent future cuts, Brown said. And the stabilization maneuver may have paid off. Last summer, Comptroller Glenn Hegar forecasted that Texas would face a $4.6 billion shortfall. But when he announced the financial outlook for the coming legislative session in January, Hegar delivered a more optimistic picture, estimating that it will be a less than $1 billion shortfall. ...
