Federal fiscal aid given amid the COVID-19 pandemic has been insufficient to entirely make up for the student learning loss that occurred because of the shifts during the health crisis, a recent study found.
Dr. Matthew P. Steinberg
The study, “Fiscal Federalism and K–12 Education Funding: Policy Lessons from Two Educational Crises,” looks at the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic and the federal fiscal funds provided to help alleviate the losses from the two crises – American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds in 2009 and Elementary and Secondary Schooling Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Dr. Matthew P. Steinberg, an associate professor of education and public policy at George Mason University and Dr. Kenneth A. Shores, an assistant professor specializing in education policy at the University of Delaware, were the study’s authors. The study itself was published in Educational Researcher, an American Educational Research Association (AERA) journal.
“Though ARRA and ESSER provided unprecedented amounts of federal aid to states and localities, these amounts were likely insufficient to accomplish their policy goals,” the study’s authors wrote. “… Lost revenues from the Great Recession totaled $223 billion whereas ARRA aid was only $50 billion. Estimated costs to offset learning loss accrued during the COVID-19 pandemic vary widely, but plausible estimates exceed $500 billion dollars whereas ESSER funds totaled only $189 billion.”
ESSER funds – totaling nearly $190 billion – had come in three parts via the Coronavirus Aid Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020 (approximately $13.2 billion); the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act of 2021 ($54.3 billion); and the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021 ($122 billion).
The report presents values ranging from $325 billion all the way up to $1.02 trillion in terms of the monetary amount needed to offset the estimated student learning loss that occurred during 36 weeks of the pandemic.
The study’s authors also observed issues in the distribution of said funds.
