Looming deadline leaves Missouri prone to shedding $2 billion in federal training funding | Ok-12 Training
Missouri has so much money coming so quickly from federal COVID-19 relief laws that it risks losing nearly $ 2 billion to schools.
When Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven asked for support for projects to improve teacher retention last week, the members of the federal subcommittee on stimulus spending wanted to know how an important federal deadline had escaped their attention.
The American Rescue Plan Act, passed in March, is the source of the money. The U.S. Department of Education approved the state’s plan and released the last of the money in early October.
The problem is that the money cannot be spent until there is an appropriation. And unless lawmakers sign an additional budget bill and Governor Mike Parson signs before March 24th, the money will have to be paid back.
“It’s November 16th and we won’t meet until January 5th,” R-Excelsior Springs chairman Doug Richey told Vandeven at the hearing. “It is an enormous amount of work that is required to postpone such a supplementary invoice. It would have been nice if we had at least a little bit of the yellow flag. “
Most of the aid that comes to states as a result of the American Rescue Plan Act must be used by 2024 and spent by 2026. The committee worked to use the money on those schedules, Richey said.
When examining the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education records, he said a note was found with the deadline. But it was hardly a standout feature.
“I guess I’m a little baffled by the fact that this committee, that we had virtually no contact with anyone within DESE, said, ‘Hey, we really need to look at this,'” said Richey.
Part of the problem, said ministry finance officer Kari Monses, is the general assumption that there will be a special legislative session sometime in the fall.
“We probably made the wrong assumption that it would be addressed, perhaps earlier in the process,” said Monses.
When lawmakers went home in May, there were expectations that they would come back to draw new Congressional districts once population data became available. Other questions were expected to arise, such as how billions should be spent on federal aid. Groups of legislators made a variety of topics their work objective in an autumn session.
In September, Parson left the option of a special session open to respond to federal vaccine mandates.
“I would say we were confident that there would be a discussion of an addition even in the September veto session,” said Monses.
However, with belligerent Republican factions in the state Senate unable to work smoothly on procedural or political issues, the only special session that year was a brief session on the renewal of taxes, which are essential to funding Medicaid.
“I want to say that early on, it was felt by many that there would be other opportunities to look into things in special sessions,” agreed Richey.
Of the $ 1.95 billion in Missouri, $ 1.76 billion goes to local education authorities that include both school districts and charter schools, summer and afternoon programs.
The school districts will be eager to get the money, Richey said. Legislators will put pressure on the superintendents to pass an expense bill, but the timing is out of their control, he said.
The 55-page Missouri Plan, released in April, aligns with the guidelines by providing data on which groups of students had the greatest impact on learning loss, addressing needs for teacher retention and developing local plans.
The supplementary invoice for the current financial year is likely to be one of the largest and most controversial in years. In July, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the state must expand Medicaid according to instructions from a voter initiative, even though lawmakers did not allocate funds for that specific purpose.
That’s just one point that is likely to complicate the opening weeks of the upcoming session. Passing an invoice for additional expenses for a single item is not an impossible task. Legislature did so through February 11th last year when Parson signed a bill for $ 324 million in rental assistance.
The bill to meet other additional needs was only passed in May.
“We will have to approve $ 2 billion in an addendum (budget) along with other amendments,” said Richey, “in a certain controversy.”
