COVID federal relief aid has expired, and districts and unions want it replenished

In response to COVID, the federal government sent Minnesota $1.3 billion for E-12 education. Those dollars were meant to help schools return to, and maintain, safe in-person learning for all students.

The funding expired Monday, Sept. 30, and district and union leaders in St. Paul and Minneapolis are already calling on Congress to “replenish” the money, reports Kare 11.

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar and Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum have “co-sponsored legislation to continue the funding that had flowed to schools across the country under Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, commonly known as ESSER, which totaled nearly $200 billion nationwide. Minneapolis and St. Paul each received more than $200 million over the past three years,” continues Kare 11.

School districts knew this money was one-time aid and should not have relied on the COVID funding for budgets beyond the emergency, American Experiment’s marketing and communications director Bill Walsh told Kare 11.

“It was never sold as something that was going to last forever. No one should be writing budgets based on that income in the future. It was always going to be one-time,” Walsh said. “Sure, use it to plug gaps, use it to get through a tough year, but it’s not going to solve long-term problems and it’s very irresponsible to do any kind of budgeting in that way at all.”

During the 2023 legislative session, the DFL-led state legislature approved more than $2 billion in new school funding statewide. But as I wrote here, “new” state aid doesn’t go very far when it comes with lots of strings. Back in February, the Minnesota School Boards Association, the Association of Metropolitan School Districts and others estimated that “up to half the $2.2 billion had already been earmarked for as many as 65 new mandates,” reported The 74.

“Now, district leaders statewide are scrambling to explain to their communities that, in fact, they are facing massive cuts,” continued The 74. “In many places, balancing the budget will mean layoffs or school closures.”

The state’s second-largest district, St. Paul Public Schools projects, a $150 million deficit for the 2024-25 academic year. Minneapolis Public Schools anticipates a $116 million shortfall. Even the most prosperous Twin Cities suburbs are stuck explaining the disconnect to families who moved there for their well-funded schools.

A Minneapolis Public Schools spokesperson told Kare 11 that “pubic schools, especially those in urban areas, are not funded at the level needed on an ongoing basis. That is why so many districts, especially those that received federal COVID dollars, are facing budget shortfalls this year.”

Minneapolis Public Schools is asking Minneapolis voters to approve a ballot measure in November that would increase their property taxes “in order to raise $20 million, which the district said would offset some cuts,” according to Kare 11.

The district has stated it “is working to stabilize our financial situation in several ways,” including through a levy increase, reduced spending, efforts to increase student enrollment, and analyzing programmatic and operational changes.

As I wrote here, the Minneapolis school district’s budget woes have been linked to a number of reasons, particularly spending choices and declining student enrollment. (Why would you use non-recurring money to add 400 jobs despite years of shrinking enrollment?)

District administration spending is up 43 percent since 2017, school administration spending is up 21 percent, and total spending on regular instruction has decreased 9 percent over that same time period.

As of spring 2024 results on the state’s Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs), 34 percent of students districtwide were meeting grade-level math standards and 40 percent were meeting grade-level reading standards. (Over 91 percent of students expected to take the math test did, and reading participation was over 92 percent.) Broken down by student subgroup, just under 8 percent (7.8 percent) of black students in the district were proficient in math and 15 percent were reading at grade level.

District enrollment is down 43 percent since the early 2000s, according to Minnesota Department of Education data shared by the Minnesota Reformer. And this isn’t the first time school leadership has tried to boost enrollment.

 In 2017, the district added new literacy programs and a focus on “social-emotional learning” to address low test scores and student needs. In 2019, a task force was assembled “to stem the flow of students out of the district and woo new families” by “improving efforts to listen to and respond to families’ needs, crafting retention plans for schools and improving the district’s culture and school climate.” In 2021, the district’s redistricting plan shuffled thousands of students to new schools and appeared to instead exacerbate enrollment losses.

Now, district staff have “prioritized targeted marketing efforts” that include “mailed information, billboards and video messages that play at gas station pumps across the city” and “attending community events and parades.”