02.27.26

NEW: Government Watchdog Agency Report Highlights Lessons from COVID-19 Education Funding to Improve Accountability

WASHINGTON – Today, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report on the implementation of the American Rescue Plan Act’s (ARP) Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Maintenance of Equity provision. The report was requested by House Committee on Education and Workforce Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA-03) and Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Committee on Appropriations.

As a condition of receiving ARP funds, states and districts agreed not to make certain cuts, including cuts to high-poverty school funding. The GAO found that the lack of reliable data collection, combined with the lack of career staff with institutional knowledge, meant there was not enough information to determine whether schools distributed supplemental payments as intended under the law.

“When every Democrat worked together to pass the ARP in 2021, we included funding to ensure schools could safely open, stay open, and make up for lost time in the classroom. We also included a Maintenance of Equity provision to ensure that states and districts were not using ARP funding to supplant funding for low-income schools,” said Ranking Member Scott. “Unfortunately, GAO was not able to determine how the Maintenance of Equity requirements were implemented. While better information could have been kept, it is important to note that last year the Trump Administration fired the staff responsible for overseeing ARP implementation, thereby losing institutional knowledge of the program. This report underscores how dismantling the Department of Education undermines the federal government’s ability to successfully implement education initiatives according to the law.” 

The GAO recommends in the future that the Department of Education: (1) develop internal written procedures for engaging in technical assistance for its grants; (2) establish procedures to ensure the reliability of data collected for grants oversight; and (3) develop a way to document and share key lessons learned from implementing major grant efforts, as appropriate.

To read the full report entitled, “K-12 EDUCATION: Lessons Learned from Implementing COVID Relief Funding Provisions Could Improve Future Grant Monitoring,” click here.

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