N.M. schools budget only 9 percent of federal relief funds to address learning loss

Jul. 23—New Mexico students paid dearly as a result of school closures brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

By some estimates, students may have lost up to a year of learning.

But instead of devoting big hunks of federal relief money to blunting the pandemic's effects in the classroom, many school districts in the state plan to spend a large portion of the stimulus funds they've received so far on technology and building improvements, according to a report presented this week to the Legislative Finance Committee.

"School districts and charters are planning to spend about 38 percent of that $490 million dollars just on technology and HVAC systems," Micaela Fischer, the committee's program evaluation manager, told lawmakers — referring to combined funding from the CARES Act and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.

In comparison, she said, schools plan to spend only 9 percent to address learning loss and 8 percent to provide at-risk student interventions.

Fischer said the findings were "sort of surprising to our staff" since they had issued two reports showing "pretty clearly that our kids probably missed a fair amount of learning because of the switch" to remote education during the pandemic.

Two of the state's largest school districts, Las Cruces and Rio Rancho, are budgeting an even smaller percentage of their Response and Relief funds to address learning loss: 4 percent and 6 percent respectively, according to the report

Some schools, however, bucked the trend.

"Los Alamos Public Schools is the only district allocating 100 percent of its CRRSA ... funds to address student learning loss and implement summer and after-school programs," the report states.

"Some [schools] really did double down on using those first two tranches of federal funding to address learning loss, but those districts tend to be the ones with the least amount of at-risk students," Fischer said.

In an email, Santa Fe Public Schools spokesman Cody Dynarski said the district plans to spend $2.6 million of the nearly $10.8 million in Response and Relief funds to address learning loss among students, including low-income students, children with disabilities, English-language learners, racial and ethnic minorities, students experiencing homelessness and children and youth in foster care. He said the numbers could be adjusted.

"A nearly equal amount of funding ($2.3 million) will be used to purchase supplies to clean facilities and $2.2 million will fund school facility repairs and improvements to reduce the risk of virus transmission and improve air quality," he wrote. "Funding will also provide enhanced educator professional development and transformational leadership to address the unique needs of at-risk populations, including low-income children, students with disabilities, English learners and Native American students."

Dynarski said in a telephone interview school officials are expected to meet next week to determine whether the numbers should be adjusted.

Dynarski said the district received almost $2.7 million in CARES Act funding. About $300,000 of that was to address learning loss. According to the federal Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, allowable uses of funds under the CARES Act "related to preventing, preparing for, and responding to COVID-19."

"I believe we had to spend most of it on making schools safer," Dynarski said.

Fischer told lawmakers the "hopeful news" is the U.S. Department of Education is requiring schools to spend at least 20 percent of the third and final tranche of money from the American Rescue Plan Act on evidence-based interventions to address learning loss, she said.

"They're going to get about a billion [dollars] collectively out of that," Fischer said, noting it's the biggest reservoir of federal education stabilization funds.

In a joint news release, Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján said Thursday the federal Department of Education had approved the state's Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief plan, resulting in the release of the final $327 million of the $979 million New Mexico is receiving.

"The pandemic forced many New Mexico students to lose valuable school time and caused social and emotional challenges for our students and teachers," Heinrich said in a statement.

"The American Rescue Plan provides unprecedented resources to help us overcome these challenges," he added. "New Mexico's plan will not only ensure that our students can safely return to school full-time in the fall, but will also provide our most vulnerable students with the in- and out-of-school supports they need to succeed, including innovative and evidence-based tutoring and after-school programming designed to help all our students thrive."

According to Fischer's report, Legislative Finance Committee staffers have already prepared a list of the most effective evidence-based interventions to help districts and charter schools "plan for the best use of that ARPA funding."

"Our team has gone ahead and sent out a memo to the superintendents and the leaders of the charter schools to help potentially guide them to different tutoring and extended learning time programs that schools might stand up," she said. "Both have evidence and research behind them showing they have an effect in catching kids up but also that they're cost effective given that schools have other things they want to spend this money on."

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.