Funding Fix

Dear Editor,
    In the opinion piece published July 3rd under the headline, “Another Unfair Burden Put on Texas’ Public Schools,” the author writes:
    "COVID delivered us another knockout blow. Texas Education Agency decided not to fund the last 12 weeks of the school year, despite the fact that schools immediately shifted to teaching online."
    This claim is simply not accurate. When school buildings across the state were forced to close two-thirds of the way through the 2019-20 school year, districts were faced with the possibility of a massive reduction in attendance-driven state funding. Under the usual structure, without Texas’s 5.5 million public school students in the classroom, districts would have had no means to “earn” state dollars for the remaining months of the school year. 
    Instead, districts were fully funded for the entire school year through the combination of CARES Act funding – with districts receiving 100% of their entitlement – and a bold commitment by state leaders to hold schools largely harmless for the drop-off in attendance.
    School funding has been fully preserved here in Texas, which has not been the case in some other states across the country.
    Districts are receiving their CARES Act funding through a formula grant process identical to the process used for all major federal programs. State leaders have further shown their commitment to schools by allocating Coronavirus Relief Funds, another funding stream of the CARES Act, to reimburse districts for 75% of the coronavirus expenses they incurred while schools were closed.
    Finally, a small amount of supplemental funding will flow to districts – above and beyond other funding – to ensure they can meet federal equitable service requirements during this especially challenging time.