In many school districts across the United States, record funding for education institutions enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic has gone toward teacher and staff bonuses.
According to a Monday report by the Washington Free Beacon, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona's pledge that the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 would reverse learning damages caused by the pandemic has fallen flat.
Four recent district financial disclosures served as examples. The first was the Wake County Public School System in North Carolina, which spent 78.5% of its relief from March 2020 to April 2023 on salaries and employee benefits.
A similar percentage was found within Chicago Public Schools, where 77% of its pandemic money was used on staff bonuses, salaries, and benefits, per its 2022 annual report.
Even in Tennessee and Nebraska, attempts were made to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in pandemic relief spending on teacher bonuses and raises before state officials stepped in to halt the moves.
A Tennessee school district "received a total of $63,589 in questionable bonus payments from a federal grant intended to help the school system respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by providing comprehensive screening testing," said the office of Jason Mumpower, state comptroller of the Treasury.
The news comes a week after the National Assessment of Education Progress reported that 13-year-olds scored the lowest in reading since 2004 and the lowest in math since 1990 on their federal standardized test.
Cardona, addressing those results, argued that the Biden administration predicted the devastating effects of COVID on children's education but has taken the necessary steps to mitigate further damage.
"While this latest data reminds us how far we still need to go, I'm encouraged that the historic investments and resources provided by the American Rescue Plan and the Department of Education are beginning to show positive results," Cardona emphasized.