This week, State Auditor Elaine Howle released a report examining the use of more than $24 billion in the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund, which were provided to California local educational agencies (LEAs) to help support students due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report is critical of the oversight of these funds provided by the California Department of Education (CDE) and states concerns that LEAs may not expend all resources before the various spending deadlines are reached.
Resulting news reports have echoed these concerns. We believe that a more thorough understanding of the environment in which LEAs are operating provides a different perspective.
The audit cites roughly 5% of LEAs did not submit a quarterly spending report by the stated deadline, with improvements in that percentage when the CDE was able to hire staff to perform outreach. LEAs have been tasked with not only the education of California’s students in the middle of a global pandemic, but also the literal health and safety of those same students and their employees. All the while being asked to adapt to everchanging health guidance and mandates, adopt numerous spending plans, and address critical staffing shortages. With that as the backdrop, we think it is laudable that nearly all LEAs were able to meet this particular reporting deadline and that the CDE was able to overcome their own staffing shortage to provide assistance.
When interviewed about their spending patterns, LEAs asserted that they had prioritized spending funds from other sources whose deadlines were earlier than those for ESSER and GEER. Others noted that a delayed return to in-person learning—potentially due to wildfires, inadequate staffing, an increase in community COVID-19 spread, etc.—meant that some corresponding expenditures were also delayed. We believe this is sound budgeting practice—something to lift up, not dissuade.
Finally, the report extrapolates that if current spending patterns continue, as much as $160 million of the $24 billion (or 0.67%) would be left unspent. Depending upon the specific funding source, LEAs have more than three years remaining to use these federal resources in a thoughtful manner. In our 46-year history, we have never doubted that LEAs will spend the resources provided to them in the best way they can to support the education of their students.
At every opportunity—and again now—we express our respect and gratitude for the work that educators are doing to support California’s students.