logo

Has Texas yet to spend $19 billion in federal relief funding intended for the state’s schools?

Tuesday, April 13, 2021
By Austin Tannenbaum
YES

Congress allocated a combined $19.2 billion to Texas schools in three relief bills for pandemic-related needs like personal protective equipment, school supplies and improved ventilation systems in school buildings. As of April 13, 2021, Texas has not disbursed any of these funds to its schools.

Texas used $1.3 billion from the first bill “to fill other holes in the state budget,” according to the Texas Tribune.

The state legislature is now considering how to spend $5.5 billion received in the second bill, according to Raise Your Hand Texas, a nonprofit focusing on support for public education.

In the latest bill, enacted in March, Texas received an estimated $12.4 billion contingent on investing $1 billion of its own state revenue in higher education. The Texas government applied to waive this requirement, delaying the disbursement of the federal funds to Texas schools.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
FACT BRIEF BY
facebook
twitter
email
email