House Democrats Release New COVID-19 Relief Proposal Allocating $60 billion to Schools | Understanding ESSA
 

House Democrats Release New COVID-19 Relief Proposal Allocating $60 billion to Schools

House Democrats Release New COVID-19 Relief Proposal Allocating $60 billion to Schools

May 12, 2020

Legislation introduced by House Democrats “would provide nearly $60 billion to K-12 school districts to help them address the coronavirus pandemic,” according to Education Week. The total “falls short of public demands from education advocacy groups,” yet will likely not make it past the Republican-controlled Senate anyway. “The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act would create a $90 billion ‘state fiscal stabilization fund’ for the U.S. Department of Education to distribute to K-12 as well as higher education.” Roughly 65% of those funds would go to states and school districts while 30% would be allocated to public colleges and universities. The rest would go to administrative costs and other expenses. Schools could use this money to “support a large variety of services under the Every Student Succeeds Act” and “other federal mandates.”