Fraction of Biden's $128B education relief plan would go toward schools in 2021, CBO estimates

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President Biden's COVID-19 relief package would put $128 billion toward helping K-12 public schools deal with the coronavirus pandemic, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that just $6 billion would flow to schools in 2021.

The CBO estimates that the number would increase to $32 billion in 2022 and 2023, respectively. The rest of the money would be paid out through 2028, according to a cost estimate released Monday.

The comparatively small outlay for fiscal year 2021, which runs through Sept. 30, 2021, is expected because previously allocated money has not yet been spent.

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Congress previously approved $31 billion for education relief in the March CARES Act and an additional $82 billion for education relief in the December Consolidated Appropriations Act.

"Because most of those funds remain to be spent, CBO anticipates that the bulk of spending of funds provided in the reconciliation recommendations would occur after 2021," the CBO said.

Students work on their laptop computers at St. Joseph Catholic School in La Puente, California on November 16, 2020. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

The $128.5 billion in Biden's American Rescue Plan would mainly flow as grants to state and local education agencies to distribute.

A White House official clarified that the Biden administration will not allocate funding based on CBO projections and said the president is committed to providing schools with the resources they need to safely reopen and fully serve their students, including more funding to cover COVID-19-related costs, budget shortfalls and financial certainty.

The official added that Biden's proposal is based on a careful assessment of urgent needs for the 2021 school year and into the next and the administration believes, based on this analysis, that the funds would be used much faster than CBO assumes.

Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and head of policy at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, first pointed out the estimated spending levels in a Tuesday tweet, which prompted speculation from some pundits and politicos on social media, including Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs. 

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"Teacher unions are holding children's futures hostage in order to bankrupt American taxpayers. And our government is facilitating this corrupt scheme," Biggs tweeted.

Corey DeAngelis, director of school choice at the Reason Foundation, told Fox News that the reason the funds are spread through 2028 could either be because "the administration expects that public schools will not be ready to fully reopen for a few years" or because it "expects the funding will be used for expenses that are not directly related to physically reopening school buildings in 2021 or even 2022."

"If the administration believes that schools can reopen for in-person instruction in 2022, the current budget suggests that they believe that can happen with about $38 billion in additional funding," he said. "But if that's the case then why allocate another $90 billion in future years?"

Chicago Teachers Union members and supporters join a car caravan outside Chicago Public Schools (CPS) headquarters while a Chicago Board of Education meeting takes place inside in Chicago, IL on July 22, 2020. Photo by Max Herman/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

He added that the funding beyond 2021 and 2022 "could be used for additional staffing and technology to offset learning losses in future years," but he thinks "the public generally believes that the funding is supposed to be used for opening schools for in-person instruction."

DeAngelis also noted that the $128 billion is "nearly the same amount that the U.S. dedicated to the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II ... in addition to the largely unspent $13 billion in CARES Act funding and $50 billion from the 2nd stimulus bill that went to K-12 education. "

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Teachers unions have been demanding more funding for schools to safely reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with many suggesting that if schools improve outdated HVAC systems and make teachers a priority for vaccines, a safe return to normalcy could be possible.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week released guidance for a safe return to in-person learning that said vaccines are not a prerequisite for reopening.

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Biden said in a statement at the time that for schools to meet the CDC's new guidelines, they "will need more teachers and support staff to ensure smaller class sizes, more buses and bus drivers to transport our kids safely, more spaces to conduct in-person instruction, and more protective equipment, school cleaning services, and physical alterations to reduce the risk of spread of the virus."

"These needs cost money. But the cost of keeping our children, families, and educators safe is nothing when compared with the cost of inaction," he said.