Carvalho asks Florida to apply for federal funds to meet ‘moral imperative’ in schools
Miami-Dade County Public Schools has sent a letter to Florida’s education commissioner asking him to request the billions of dollars in federal funds that are available to help school districts address the needs of students during the pandemic.
The school district of Miami-Dade County is still waiting for $800 million in funds for its traditional public schools, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Wednesday during a news conference at the district’s headquarters in Miami.
He said the district has spent more than $160 million to meet the needs of its students, with the hope that the money would be reimbursed through the federal funds.
“We are depending on those funds to address the academic regression of our students, to address their social and emotional needs and mental well-being, to continue to improve the infrastructure of our schools to deal with this pandemic,” Carvalho said.
Florida is the only state in the U.S. that has not applied for the third round of funding from the $7 billion allocation that is meant to help schools meet the needs of its families during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first two-thirds of that funding was allocated in March, but if Florida doesn’t submit a plan showing how it intends to use the federal relief aid, it could leave $2.3 billion on the table.
Even though the window to apply for the funds has closed, federal officials assured the district that the state could still apply for the money, Carvalho said.
The letter, signed by Carvalho and sent to Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, is asking for the education department to “release not less than 90 percent of its total American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief [ARP ESSER] allocation” to school districts.
Based on federal guidelines, “the allocation to M-DCPS would be approximately $1.052 billion, inclusive of charter schools,” according to the letter.
“The academic regression is real. The social and emotional distress demonstrated by our students is very obvious. And the moral imperative of upgrading physical facilities in our schools is ongoing. So we need that money to be expedited,” Carvalho said. “And we believe that we can wait no longer. That is why we are strongly urging the commissioner of education to file the state’s application to the federal government” to begin the process of getting the needed funds.
The deadline to spend the portion of the money provided through the “ESSER II” fund is Sept. 30, 2023. The deadline to spend the “ESSER III” fund is Sept. 30, 2024.
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 8:22 PM.
