The nation’s second-largest school district is anticipating a one-time windfall of up to about $5.2 billion in COVID-19 relief aid from the state and federal government to help students recover from learning losses and to deal with the trauma they’ve experienced over the course of the pandemic.
Given the unique opportunity, leaders in the Los Angeles Unified School District ought to dream big and reimagine an education system that works for all students, some board members say.
At the same time, a coalition of local community and civil rights organizations is calling on district officials to ensure that any recovery plan is equitable, with input from students of color and their families, many of whom have felt the brunt of the pandemic’s impact.
So far, the district has received or is expecting to receive a total of nearly $2.6 billion in aid. About another $2.6 billion in federal funds could be headed their way through the American Rescue Act Plan, according to LAUSD officials. Assuming that last piece of funding comes through, the district is looking at an infusion of about $5.2 billion — a bit over two-thirds of the district’s projected operating budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year.
Plans for how to spend the funds are still being finalized, but preliminary figures presented by district staff this week indicate the money might be used in the following ways:
- $190 million to $270 million for so-called “safety net” expenses, including COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, vaccinations, computer devices, Internet access and technology support;
- $235 million to $295 million on health and safety measures to reopen schools, such as paying for custodial staff to regularly clean and disinfect campuses, the purchase of personal protective equipment and transportation expenses;
- $275 million to $335 million on mental health services, including the hiring of psychiatric social workers as well as staff to provide special education services; and
- $990 million to roughly $1.2 billion on instructional expenses to provide, for example, hybrid instruction and online learning technology, an extended school year, more reading specialists and tutors, professional development for teachers and summer school, child care and enrichment activities.
“I do think we have an opportunity to transform the future of L.A. Unified with this money,” board member Nick Melvoin, who chairs the committee where most of the district’s budgetary discussions are held, said in an interview Thursday, March 25.
He noted that some of the funds will go toward reimbursing the district for expenses it took on early in the pandemic to support students and their families. That said, he believes there remains “a real opportunity to think differently” about how to support schools.
Similar sentiments were expressed during a meeting this week, where several school board members suggested seizing the moment to make bold changes to the education system in Los Angeles.
Board member Jackie Goldberg said while the district must be mindful not to spend one-time dollars on ongoing expenses, she’d like some of the funds to go toward new initiatives and “wild and crazy” ideas that teachers and administrators may have for transforming education.
“We very rarely, if ever, will have this amount of money again over (a) three-year period, and it’s the time to say ‘Let’s take some risks,’” Goldberg said.
Alison Yoshimoto-Towery, the district’s chief academic officer, agreed this moment could be an opportunity to think about education differently.
“This is an opportunity not just for more, but also for different,” she said. “Because more of the same may not result in the kinds of outcomes that we want to see. So taking this opportunity to … maybe just start from a fresh lens and say, you know, ‘What was working in our system? What wasn’t? For whom was it working? For whom wasn’t it working? And how do we need to use this opportunity to reset?’”
On Wednesday, one day after the board discussion, the Communities for Los Angeles Student Success (CLASS) Coalition, which represents about a dozen organizations that advocate on behalf of students of color and their families, penned a letter to district officials, urging them to make sure that decisions related to school reopenings and the path toward recovery for students are equitable ones and to engage with the families most impacted by the pandemic to identify solutions.
Coalition members say they don’t want schools to revert to the old ways of doing things because it “wasn’t working” before.
“As part of the CLASS Coalition, we urge LAUSD to center the voices of those most impacted at the forefront for short- and long-term learning recovery plans,” said Azucena Hernandez, co-director of community transformation for Promesa Boyle Heights. “Let’s take into account the social-emotional needs of students and their families by hearing directly from them what quality learning and trauma informed care looks like, and let’s make restorative and equitable changes to move towards healing and innovative recovery as a school district.”
On the matter of equity, the school board this week also discussed a new student-centered funding formula and model to determine how much money each school receives and whether decisions on how that money is spent will fall to the individual school sites or be determined by central office staff.
The framework for the formula could be built off the district’s existing Student Equity Needs Index, a list of factors used to determine how much funding a school should receive for a student based on that child’s particular needs and challenges.
For example, more funding would be allocated to a student who is in the foster care system, facing homelessness, learning English, chronically absent or is entering the sixth or ninth grade with lower proficiency scores, among other factors. Each factor is given a weight to determine how much more funding beyond the base amount would be allocated for a student based on which factors apply to them.
The board will continue to have regular discussions about the budget and funding formula and is not expected to adopt a final spending plan for the 2021-22 fiscal year until June. A new student-centered funding formula is not expected to take effect before the 2022-23 fiscal year.
