Texas plans to use $1.2 billion school COVID-19 fund to balance budget

Texas school districts are disappointed that the $1.2 billion funding they were expecting to receive under the CARES Act will be used to supplant money being lost by the state’s reduction in public school funding.

“They have a budget to balance; I get it,” Lago Vista school District Deputy Auperintendent Suzy Lofton-Bullis told Austin American-Statesman. “But that wasn’t the intent of those funds.”

The $1.2 billion from the CARES Act’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund was supposed to be supplemental and assist districts with costs related to COVID-19.

“Basically, the state is hijacking that money by reducing the state contribution by an equal amount,” Troy Reynolds, head of Texans for Public Education, told Austin American-Statesman. “They can claim the districts are getting the federal money, but if I’m supplanting state money with it, that means I can’t use it to cover the unexpected costs because I have to use it to cover the budget.”

While the Texas Education Agency said districts could be reimbursed for costs through grants or from the governor’s fund, some districts say it won’t be enough.

“The state does the best it can with what they have, but we are the ones that end up having to fund a lot of stuff educationally,” Granger school district superintendent Randy Willis told Austin American-Statesman. “And we have to make do with what we have.”

Even though the future of obtaining reimbursements isn’t clear, Austin School District Business and Operations Chief Nicole Conley said Texas’ decision to use the CARE funding for the budget wasn’t unexpected.

“They’re doing what every other state is doing,” Conley told Austin American-Statesman. “California, New York — they’re losing revenue, and they’re using this money to backfill state entitlement.”