This week, the US Department of Education (USDE) approved Pennsylvania’s application for the commonwealth’s share of COVID-19 relief funding for schools in the CARES Act.

The CARES Act will provide $523.8 million to Pennsylvania through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER).  At least 90%, or $471 million, of this funding must be given directly to Local Education Agencies (LEAs) –school districts and charter schools. School districts will receive $400 million and charter schools will receive $71 million.

LEAs will receive funding in an amount proportionate to what each school entity received in federal Title 1-A funding in 2019.  Title I is a federal program that provides federal funding to LEAs based on the number of low income students they educate. It is intended to help increase resources available to students who are vulnerable and have greater educational needs.

Click HERE to see the funding allocation each school district/charter school will receive.

In a letter to school leaders, Secretary Rivera made clear that the CARES Act funding is one-time, emergency aid. His letter included an extensive list of allowable uses for this funding.

The remaining 10% of the funding will be used at the state level to help address issues that were caused by COVID-19.

While we are very grateful for the CARES Act funding, we need to acknowledge that it is insufficient to prevent mass layoffs and cuts in programs and services in public schools, especially in underfunded, low-wealth districts that have no cushion in their budgets.

The $13.5 billion that was allocated in the initial COVID-19 emergency response package to schools nationwide ($523.8 million to Pennsylvania’s schools) is appreciated. However, these funds are just a fraction of the $79 billion that the federal government provided to schools in 2009 during the Great Recession and not enough to replace the funding schools anticipate losing in local revenues in the upcoming school year.

School districts face local revenue losses statewide totaling $850 million to $1 billion for 2020-2021 as a result of the COVID-19 economic downturn.

Additional federal funding is needed to help close this gap and prevent layoffs and cuts in our local schools.

And, state lawmakers must do their part to help ensure that our school districts will remain whole so our students will not lose even more than they have already lost this year.  They must:

1. Keep state funding for public education at least at 2019-2020 levels. Any cut in state funding would force unnecessary cuts in our local schools and higher property taxes for our communities.
2. Enact Governor Wolf’s proposed charter school funding reforms to end overpayments to cyber charter schools and eliminate the profit that charter schools reap off of students with disabilities. This would provide $280 million in savings for school districts.
3. Provide each school district its full allocation of funding in the federal COVID-19 relief CARES Act. Federal CARES Act funding should NOT be used to replace state dollars.   

Thank you for your continued support of public education. Please stay tuned for emails with budget-related news from Harrisburg and Washington, DC. Your advocacy in the upcoming weeks will be needed to help prevent catastrophic cuts in our local public schools.

Best,

Susan Spicka, Executive Director, Education Voters of PA