As 2021 gets underway, educators face an abundance of questions — specifically when it comes to K-12 funding. Despite the influx of funding available, districts must navigate how to make the most of the funds and ensure they are setting their students and teachers up for success during, and after, the pandemic.

To help make sense of both the available and proposed federal funding opportunities, Susan Gentz (a partner of K20 Connect) spoke at the Teaching and Learning Transformation 2021 virtual summit, hosted by Teq and SMART Technologies.

You can view Susan Gentz’s complete funding webinar, “Funding Innovation in 2021” below.

According to Gentz, “It’s an excellent time to be bold [with your funding plans].” The Elementary and Secondary School Relief Fund (more commonly known as ESSER II) offers $82 billion dollars which is to be split the following ways:

• $54.3 billion for K-12 schools, (mostly delivered through Title I funding and is four times what the schools received from the CARES Act in March 2020)
• $22.7 Billion for higher ed, with $1.7 billion set aside for minority-serving institutions and around $1 billion for for-profit colleges
• $4 billion for governors to spend at their discretion, with $2.7 billion allocated for private schools. This is called the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (or GEER), which you can learn about here.

Because there are no new accountability requirements for the funds, and because districts can bundle the ESSER II funds with the increased Title funds, “districts can really show what they want student learning to look like [with the use of these funds].”

But those dollars do need to be stretched to address new or increasing needs caused by the pandemic. According to Gentz, needs can include (but are not limited to):

• Purchasing educational technology that aids in regular and substantive interaction between students and educators
• Planning and coordinating long-term closures, including providing technology for online learning
• Planning and implementing online learning during the summer months
• Supporting provisions found in major education laws, including Every Student Succeeds Act, ESSA, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education act (IDEA) (Title IV-A of ESSA and Part D of IDEA permits federal funds toward professional learning in effective EdTech use.)

The ESSER II bill also includes $7 billion for connecting families, a family subsidy that can be used for infrastructure. Although districts will not see those dollars, low-income families (which make up approximately 33 million households in the U.S.) would qualify for these funds.

For more on K-12 funding

For more information on educational funding, visit Teq’s funding opportunities page.

Stay informed on the latest funding opportunities by following Susan’s Twitter @shoing, and hop over to @OTIS4educators on Twitter for more blogs and videos like this, including:

• Title Funding to Improve Student Engagement and Professional Learning
• Pennsylvania Funding by School District