Notes on K-12 Taxpayer Funds: Additional Covid Era spending edition
As time runs out on the use federal COVID-19 relief funding, Wisconsin school districts are in a peculiar spot: The funds have eased, but also complicated, districts’ financial positions.
The funds have been a lifeline for financially strapped schools, but they come with expiration dates. School districts have looming deadlines by which they have to use the money, and when the money runs out, districts may be barreling toward fiscal cliffs, trying to find ways to sustain staff and services with insufficient funds.
Public schools across Wisconsin received nearly $2.4 billion in three rounds of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER funds, which are meant to help schools recover and emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.
