U.S. government releases nearly $4 billion in education funds for Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico will receive almost $4 billion to strengthen its education programs, the U.S. Department of Education said Monday, part of a larger pool of federal money President Joe Biden’s administration has distributed to the island since taking office in January.
The announcement came as U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona visited the island Monday, another move from the Biden administration to double down on its commitment to improving relations with the American territory.
“I am honored to be in Puerto Rico — the island of my roots — as the federal government releases critical funds to support Puerto Rico’s efforts to safely reopen its schools for inperson learning and to provide all students on the island with the opportunity to pursue their passions and achieve their dreams,” said Cardona, whose parents were born on the island.
The federal education official is the first Biden Cabinet member to visit Puerto Rico.
The money, which arrives as the island prepares for the school year that begins in August, will help the government make physical repairs to school buildings, Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said in a statement. Those improvements are necessary to make sure students are safe in the classroom, he said, specifically citing schools in the southern part of the island that were damaged or destroyed by earthquakes.
Roughly $1.2 billion of the federal money comes from a congressional appropriation passed late last year to help education systems from across the country recover from the coronavirus pandemic, while another $662 million comes from program grants from the 2020 fiscal year.
The bulk of the funds, $2 billion, comes from the American Rescue Plan, a nearly $2 trillion measure signed into law by Biden in March designed to aid recovery from the pandemic.
With the release of Monday’s funds, Puerto Rico now has access to all the pandemic-related federal education aid and annual program grants that were designated to the island, the federal education agency said.
Puerto Rico’s public education system, which has over 800 schools, faces harrowing challenges. Many students lack safe housing, computers and internet access, and they struggled to receive an education remotely after the pandemic halted inperson learning. Pierluisi opened the schools in March, but a wave of coronavirus infections shut them down in April. The majority of the public school student population lives under the poverty level, and more than 103,000 are in special education programs. The 2019-20 school dropout rate hovered at almost 15%, according to the island’s education agency, although experts say that number is likely much higher. A series of hurricanes and earthquakes since 2017 have also damaged and shuttered school grounds across the island.
Cardona was slated to meet with Pierluisi on Monday morning to discuss the newly released funding.
Pierluisi welcomed the funds, and also signaled interest in continuing to collaborate with the Biden administration.
“This government has the highest commitment to education, that is why we have worked on a comprehensive plan to address the educational lag and we are giving priority to structural improvements in schools ... so that our children can return to school classrooms in a face-to-face and safe manner,” the governor said.
Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Education Eliezer Ramos Parés said officials would “ensure the proper use of every dollar.”
The Biden administration has released billions in aid and funding for Puerto Rico since arriving at the White House in January, much of it held back by requirements and bureaucracy imposed during the Trump presidency.