{"id":4017,"date":"2023-07-05T14:00:22","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4017"},"modified":"2023-07-05T14:06:07","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T14:06:07","slug":"irgs-k-12-covid-relief-audit-update-hundreds-of-millions-unallocated-with-one-year-remaining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4017","title":{"rendered":"IRG\u2019s K-12 COVID Relief Audit Update: Hundreds of Millions Unallocated with One Year Remaining"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/irgs-k-12-covid-relief-audit-update-hundreds-of-millions-unallocated-with-one-year-remaining\/\">https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/irgs-k-12-covid-relief-audit-update-hundreds-of-millions-unallocated-with-one-year-remaining\/<\/a><\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/ESSER-Audit4.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span><strong>WHAT HAPPENED <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Since its January release, the <strong>Institute for Reforming Government\u2019s (IRG) K-12 COVID Relief ESSER III Audit<\/strong> has <a href=\"https:\/\/wiseye.org\/2023\/03\/03\/newsmakers-gov-tony-evers-on-2023-25-budget-proposal\/\">driven<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/63a67abf5c64\/upfront-wisconsin-9300805?e=103ba1f194\">statewide<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bqyvdiYLWe0\">momentum<\/a> for financial transparency and made swifter action for students <a href=\"https:\/\/madison.com\/news\/local\/education\/local_schools\/the-clock-is-ticking-on-wisconsins-k-12-covid-relief-funds-how-are-schools-spending\/article_4dccac01-f9e8-52d0-b679-330d31ffb69e.html\">front-page news<\/a>. IRG was the first Wisconsin entity to track <strong>$1.49 billion of <a href=\"https:\/\/dpi.wi.gov\/arp\/esser-iii\/lea-plans\">federal relief funding<\/a> intended to pull kids back from the brink<\/strong>. Now, IRG has updated its interactive tool to include all 450 districts\u2019 approved funds through May 31, 2023, 11 months into the process. Click through to the <a href=\"https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/esser-funding-audit\/\">dashboard<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/ESSER-Report-May-31-extended.pdf\">the full report<\/a>, and t<a href=\"https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/ESSER-Report-May-31-summary.pdf\">he report summary<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>GOOD NEWS <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Approved district plans <strong>rose from $936 million to $1.00 billion (67% of $1.49 billion) since IRG\u2019s March 2 report<\/strong>. Wisconsin schools are on track to exhaust all funds by the <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1u1yT2773jefCdKgSrJKGLxBzmJ3Cfjhc1KgzaaViA6Y\/edit\">September 2024 deadline<\/a>. Additionally, <strong>budget overruns fell from $1.37 million to $898 thousand<\/strong>. IRG shone light on poor oversight by the Department of Public Instruction that allowed districts to allocate more than they actually received.<\/p>\n<p>IRG applauds many school districts\u2019 efforts for children.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>BAD NEWS <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>DPI <em>still<\/em> has not provided adequate oversight for these precious funds. As a result:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$492 million remains unallocated with only one year left<\/strong>. Most troublesome are 63 districts that have below 33% allocated, including Green Bay, Beloit, Oshkosh, Manitowoc, and Superior. 13 districts are at $0 allocated.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Construction remains the largest allocation category at 27%<\/strong>. This represents $270 million, little of which directly improves learning. Despite the Biden administration\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/oese.ed.gov\/files\/2022\/12\/ESSER-and-GEER-Use-of-Funds-FAQs-December-7-2022-Update.pdf\">strong discouragement<\/a>,\u201d it is $50 million more than the next biggest category, teachers, at 22% of current allocations. DPI had an inadequate defense of this in April\u2019s <em>Wisconsin State Journal<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/madison.com\/news\/local\/education\/local_schools\/the-clock-is-ticking-on-wisconsins-k-12-covid-relief-funds-how-are-schools-spending\/article_4dccac01-f9e8-52d0-b679-330d31ffb69e.html\">story<\/a>, which utilized IRG\u2019s audit.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mental health is still not prioritized<\/strong>, despite children\u2019s ongoing crisis. Mental health allocations sit at 7%, which amounts to just one-fourth of the building renovation total.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wisconsin schools face a fiscal cliff<\/strong>. $378 million is allocated to permanent personnel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span><strong>WHAT NEXT <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>IRG strongly urges DPI to get lagging districts to make student-focused investments. <strong>IRG will update the dashboard through the ESSER III deadline, September 2024, as districts continue to allocate. If DPI won\u2019t provide transparency, IRG will.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Have questions?<\/strong> Reach out to IRG Senior Research Director Quinton Klabon at <a href=\"https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#eebfa5aebc8b88819c83878089a981988b9c80838b809ac0819c89\"><span class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"8edfc5cedcebe8e1fce3e7e0e9c9e1f8ebfce0e3ebe0faa0e1fce9\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/a>. Follow him for education analysis on Twitter at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GhaleonQ\">@GhaleonQ<\/a>. Support Wisconsin\u2019s kids.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at https:\/\/reforminggovernment.org\/irgs-k-12-covid-relief-audit-update-hundreds-of-millions-unallocated-with-one-year-remaining\/ WHAT HAPPENED Since its January release, the Institute for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":4019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-institute-for-reforming-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4017"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4020,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017\/revisions\/4020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}