The Journal reports:
U.S. school districts are struggling to spend billions of dollars in federal pandemic-relief money before the funding expires.
Districts have yet to spend 93% of $122 billion sunk into the K-12 education system last year as part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Education.
Great. Then Congress should take it all back — and it should do so now.
There is no good reason for U.S. school districts to “struggle” to spend federal money. If they desperately need it, that’s one thing. If they don’t, Congress should reclaim it. We have massive annual deficits and more than $30 trillion of debt. The states are in pretty good shape, all told. $113 billion is real money. Take it back.
And no, this doesn’t count as a real problem:
If local districts don’t spend or direct the funds by September 2024, the money will disappear from their budgets. Some school officials and observers are concerned by the coming deadline and the large portion of the funds that remain unspent.
The short-term nature of the money has made it harder to use, school officials said, because any new staff may have to be laid off when the money expires. Workforce shortages and supply-chain issues have also posed challenges, officials said.
The “short-term nature of the money” was the result of the money being earmarked for pandemic-relief. This wasn’t some generalized, medium-term gift that was badly thought through; it was a narrow response to a crisis. If there are no obvious short-term, pandemic-related, crisis-driven projects that school districts need to spend federal money on, then they should send it back.
Education is the preserve of the states. There is a limited case for the federal government helping out in a crisis. There is no case at all for the federal government sending so much money to schools that they can’t work out what to do with it.
Take it back.