On June 30, the Department of Education wrote to the Texas Education Agency and Commissioner of Education Mike Morath about the agency’s plans for the state’s federal COVID-19 relief for education.
As we and other education advocates have noted, TEA released the bulk of remaining federal aid to schools in June but reserved some of the funding to reimburse itself for the cost of the “hold harmless” funding provision.
The Department of Education’s letter reminds Texas officials that the “purpose of the ESSER II funds is to provide additional resources to states” for recovery in school districts, not to “supplant the state’s commitment to education funding.”