Only in-person schools deserve relief funds

Congress has now passed three major COVID relief bills, providing schools with significant extra dollars. Since taxpayers are on the hook for this windfall, there should be some strings attached.

The state Legislature should condition sending out this latest round of money in the American Rescue Plan on whether schools have returned to in-person learning.

That seems a fair exchange. Given face-to-face learning is what President Joe Biden and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer say they want, the promise of additional funding should serve as an incentive to get the districts (and teachers unions) who’ve resisted bringing children back to the classroom on board. It’s a strategy state lawmakers recently tied to a small portion COVID funds, and it seems to be working.

Michigan stands to receive $3.7 billion in K-12 funding in the latest COVID bill. Added to the money from the first two bills, the take for state schools is about $6 billion, far more than they lost in revenue during the pandemic.

In fact, that’s about a third of what the state spends on education each year, says Craig Thiel with the Citizens Research Council of Michigan. Schools must spend all the funds by 2025. Thiel calls this the “single largest investment” in state K-12 funding ever.

Yet not all districts benefit equally. Far from it.

As it did with the other massive COVID bills, Congress chose to use Title I as the formula to distribute the federal dollars.

Since Title I is used to boost districts with high percentages of children from low-income families, it’s urban districts that are seeing the largest influxes of cash.

For instance, the Detroit Public Schools Community District will be receiving about $24,000 per child — or $1.2 billion — from the three bailout bills. Flint public schools will get more than $40,000 per kid.

Yet these districts have delayed getting students back to the classroom.

Plymouth-Canton schools, on the other hand, are pretty much back to full-time in-person learning, and the district is only receiving $722 per child.

COVID-19 has impacted all students, regardless of where they live or what school they attend. All schools have had to take cautionary measures as they bring kids back to the classroom.

While they can’t alter the Title I funding mechanism, lawmakers could include targets districts must meet before the funding is sent out.

It’s hard to justify sending thousands of extra dollars to districts that refuse to offer in-person learning. The Legislature should use its power to ensure districts are doing what’s right for Michigan students before flooding them with cash.

Detroit News