Never in the history of the United States has there been an extensive deposit into the education of low-income and underserved communities of color, until now. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, infuses about $125B into education. The allocation of 90% of these funds will be determined by Title I (schools with at least 40% of enrollment from low-income families). In addition, 5% will address learning gaps, $2.58B will support students with disabilities, and a whopping $800M will support homeless students. These are students who are in foster care, living with relatives, or in shelters. This is huge and if school districts use this money wisely it can go a long way in helping many students.
The
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 has given specific instructions on how
these funds can be used. They must go towards helping children from low-income
families, English learners, providing meals, purchasing educational technology
(including hardware, software, and connectivity), mental health, hiring
counselors, summer learning and after-school programs, addressing learning loss,
and hiring school staff. These are just a few of the areas this funding must support.
Holding school leaders accountable
This is the time for families to get involved and to ask questions about this influx of funding. This is the time to advocate for our children and make sure schools are held accountable and do the right thing. It will be very hard for school boards and local governments to squirm their way out of how funding is used. As a community, we must remain watchful and speak-up.
There is much to be said about this historical Act. Next, I will address how this may address the issue of equity for low-income students. I am optimistically hopeful that the equality index can move for the first time in more than a decade.
No comments:
Post a Comment