An Arkansas legislative panel on Tuesday called for the Legislative Council to rescind its approval last month of $500 million in spending authority for the state Department of Education to disperse funds under the federal American Rescue Plan’s Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Fund.
With no audible dissenters, the Legislative Council’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Subcommittee approved a motion by Senate President Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, to recommend that the council on Thursday vote to expunge its approval of that spending authority June 17.
Afterward, Hickey said his aim is for Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s administration and educators to try to develop a plan to use the federal funds to finance a recruitment and retention bonus program in the public schools for the Legislative Council to consider in the future.
The purpose of the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Funds is to help state education agencies and local school districts to safely reopen and sustain sustain safe operations of schools and to address the academic, social, emotional and mental health impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the nation’s students, the state Department of Education said in a report to lawmakers last month.
The state has received a total of $1.7 billion in three tranches of federal Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Funds tied to covid-19 to distribute to school districts, said state Department of Education Secretary Johnny Key.
About $914 million of these federal funds are allocated to school districts but haven’t been spent yet, said Greg Rogers, assistant commissioner of fiscal and administrative services at the state Department of Education.
A legislative subcommittee co-chairman, Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said he found a Dec. 16, 2021, memo from U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona stating that these federal funds can be used for retention and recruitment bonuses for teachers or staff and mental health for staff.
He said he has talked to some school district officials who thought they could only use these federal funds for capital projects.
Key said some school districts have used these federal funds for additional pay for extra duties tied to covid-19, for recruitment and retention bonuses and incentives for vaccination.
Dismang said other states’ education departments encouraged school districts to use these federal funds for retention and recruitment programs.
Key said the state Department of Education encouraged school districts to use these federal funds for recruitment and retention, and reviewed plans from school districts to do that. The school districts have a lot flexibility to use these federal funds that are distributed based on the Title 1 funding formula, he said.
Dismang said some school districts he has talked to didn’t know they could use these federal funds for retention and recruitment bonuses.
But Key said “If they didn’t, it is not because they haven’t been told, because we have been telling them.”
Dismang said “even in our own discussions, there was some lack of clarity or knowing whether or not that would be accepted or an acceptable thing to do.”
Key said school districts’ plans for using these federal funds have to be tied somewhat to covid-19.
“You just can’t go out and create bonuses,” he said. “There has to be a plan.”
Dismang said there is no question these federal funds can be used for retention and recruitment bonuses in the public schools based on the guidance from the U.S. Department of Education.
Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, said she wants information on how each school district spent its federal Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Funds if the money was not used for bonuses, “so we can send that…
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