Schools fear job cuts as emergency pandemic funding runs out

The education industry is bracing for potential job cuts and reduced raises as a major batch of coronavirus pandemic funding is set to dry up.

Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) grants, which will end in September, have been used to assist students with the mental health and test score problems that came with COVID-19, including adding positions from counselors to reading specialists.

Now, those jobs may be the first to go as federal funding runs out.

“[T]he loss of federal ESSER funding will mean that we cannot bring back the additional acceleration teachers, on-site tutors and other supports such as literacy and math programs that have been critical to the growth we’ve achieved thus far,” said Patricia Brantley, CEO of Friendship Public Charter Schools in Washington, D.C.  

Data by the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University showed between 40 percent to 50 percent of ESSER funds were spent on labor costs, including both increasing teacher salaries and adding more staffing, particularly learning specialists, tutors and counselors.

“It looks like, proportionately, there was a lot more growth within … what we call nonteaching certificated staff. So, that means somebody has a certificate granted by the state to serve in their field,” said Marguerite Roza, a research professor and director of the Edunomics Lab. “So that can be a librarian, a counselor, a social worker, a nurse, a reading coach, even a vice principal or assistant principal, things like that.”  

“We also saw a lot of growth in paraprofessionals, which are like aides in classrooms or special ed aides in special ed classes. And I don’t anticipate that we’ll see as much shrinkage in those because in some of those cases, those are replacing teachers,” Roza added. 

Through the pandemic, schools received approximately $200 million over three rounds of ESSER funds, with more money going to high-poverty schools.  

The Brookings Institute released a report in September that said after the money is gone, it will lead to a single-year reduction of more than $1,000 per student.  

“Districts have struggled to keep teachers in classrooms, to recruit enough teachers and also support staff. Some salary increases and augmenting wages have been part of what districts have used that pandemic money to support. So it is absolutely true that it will be hard for districts to sustain all of that at a time when funds are running out,” said Lindsay Dworkin, senior vice president of policy and government affairs at the Northwest Evaluation Association, an education research company. 

Some districts say that to avoid such a fate, they were very careful about how they spent the grant money.

“We intentionally did not use the funds to make staffing investments. We did fund a school nurse out of ESSER, but have moved that position to the general fund.  We did not want to provide a level of service to students that we could not sustain when the funds expired,” said Tricia Mooney, superintendent of schools at Hermiston School District 8R in Oregon.

“I know from talking to other superintendents that this has not been the case across the state. Several districts used the one-time funds to make investments in staffing and are now having to eliminate those positions,” Mooney added. 

Investments in these types of positions were made as students saw test scores plummet to a point not seen in decades, as well as jumps in mental health and behavior issues.  

The Education Week State of Teaching survey released Monday found that 94 percent of teachers pre-K to third grade believe it is more challenging now for students to listen and follow instructions, compared to five years ago. Seventy-seven percent say these young students even struggle more now with fine motor skills such as using a pencil or scissors.  

“Unfortunately, I think some of the positions that are most at risk of being cut are the positions that are needed now more than ever due to ongoing impacts: social workers, school nurses, school counselors, behavior specialists, etc. Our students are struggling with social emotional and mental wellness issues and critically need these supports to thrive academically,” Mooney said. 

While there is essentially no chance more federal money will be provided before ESSER runs out, schools have been petitioning voters to support more local taxes to go toward education and negotiating with unions for lower pay raises in order to keep the additional staffing hired during the pandemic.  

“None of these [options] are palatable, but in some states, we’re just going to see really flat or nonexistent pay raises this year, and that will be how they can make ends meet without trying to eliminate these positions,” Roza said.