The federal government is about to spend millions of dollars to rescue Virginia schools. So how will all that money be spent?
Virginia is about to receive more than $4 billion from the American Rescue Plan to help recover from the pandemic.
Chad Stewart at the Commonwealth Institute says state leaders should consider investing that money in education for things like wraparound services that are offered at local community schools.
"This can look like additional food assistance, assistance signing up for broadband services, after-school programs, schools can become hubs for health services such as mental and behavioral and physical health," Stewart says. "And, all that access makes a big difference to student outcomes."
That's one of the recommendations from the Fund our Schools coalition. Rachael Deane at the Legal Aid Justice Center says another recommendation is for an Equity Fund.
"Our coalition has recommended that the General Assembly create this fund for the next several fiscal years, and then allow school divisions to draw down that money to serve some of their most under-resourced and low-income students," Deane says.
Lawmakers are expected to come back to Richmond later this summer for a special session to figure out how to spend that $4 billion, and they'll be hearing from many interest groups with a variety of funding requests.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
