Education official announces last-ditch spending strategy for federal COVID-19 funds

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — With roughly $1.5 million in pandemic-era education funding set to expire next month, Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen announced a plan Tuesday to route those federal dollars directly to classrooms across Montana.

The spending strategy, crafted in partnership with the nonprofit crowdsourcing platform DonorsChoose, will let educators apply for up to $500 worth of assistance in purchasing materials for math- and reading-based projects. According to the Office of Public Instruction, applications will be vetted by DonorsChoose and open to all K-12 public school teachers in the state. Based on similar initiatives in other states, OPI said Arntzen is optimistic the remaining funds will be exhausted by the Sept. 30 federal spending deadline.

“Dollars closest to the classroom lead to greater academic achievement for our students,” Arntzen said in a statement Tuesday. “These precious federal tax dollars will help purchase teaching and learning materials, supplies, and technology to support math and reading.”

The $1.5 million in question is what’s left of the $19 million the 2021 Legislature set aside for OPI to address pandemic-induced learning loss statewide — itself a small slice of the $382 million Congress handed to Montana lawmakers in its third Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) package. Arntzen’s attempt to finish spending the money mirrors efforts in Arizona, Colorado, Utah and five other states that have also partnered with DonorsChoose over the past two years to fully utilize their ESSER funds.

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According to OPI’s latest data, Montana has another roughly $100 million in unspent third-round ESSER funds, the bulk of it from direct distributions to individual districts. Barring a federal deadline extension, any funds not dedicated by Sept. 30 must be returned to the U.S. Department of Education.

In reference to its partnership with DonorsChoose, OPI spokesperson Brian O’Leary explained to Montana Free Press that local educators won’t have direct access to the funds under the office’s new plan. Rather, teachers will have to submit a proposed project to DonorsChoose via the nonprofit’s online platform including a list of classroom materials needed for that project. According to DonorsChoose, the $500 ESSER-backed grants include shipping, taxes and fees, and participating educators are encouraged to keep their requests to roughly $390 worth of materials in order for the grants to fully cover their projects. Proposals that exceed the $500 maximum will not qualify.

If a project is approved, ESSER funds will be used to cover the cost of materials, which will be shipped directly to the teacher’s school. Local administrators will have access to records related to each project within their district, and OPI will receive copies from DonorsChoose of teacher-generated reports on how the materials impact student learning. Based on spending requirements established by state lawmakers in 2021, all projects must specifically address learning loss in reading or math to be eligible.

DonorsChoose is already a familiar platform for hundreds of Montana teachers, having directed more than $3 million worth of resources and materials to individual classrooms around the state over the past two decades. Roughly 700 educators currently have accounts with the nonprofit, allowing them to seek funding for books, erasers, water bottles and other student supplies they might otherwise be left to pay for out of their own pockets. Typically such projects are supported by individual contributions made through the public DonorsChoose portal, with teachers selecting specific items from lists generated by partner vendors including Amazon Business, Best Buy and Scholastic.

In some cases, local districts have adopted tailored policies around such crowdsource-style fundraising. For example, Bozeman Public Schools’ fundraising policy outlines specific procedures for the approval of crowdsourcing proposals and delivery of crowdsourced funds. Board trustees last month expanded that policy to include a section specific to non-monetary “wish-list” fundraising, noting that it has become a “growing area of resource procurement” among district staff. Business Director Mike Waterman told MTFP the district wants to remain open to such donations while ensuring that fundraising proposals are consistent with district infrastructure, curricula and needs.

Missoula’s Target Range School adopted its own policy specific to DonorsChoose last year, which Superintendent Jeff Crews said was designed to ensure that projects crowdsourced through the portal align with the district’s instructional goals. Crews added that Target Range teachers have used the nonprofit to support classroom needs in the past. But while he acknowledges that any financial support his district or its teachers can get “certainly helps,” he believes the need for such a procurement source raises more fundamental questions about how Montana currently funds its public education system.

“The hard part for me is that this is not the conversation we should be having,” Crews said. “The conversation we should be having is that if we’re having to go to DonorsChoose, get the community to purchase things for us, supplies for us, then something’s wrong with the funding system we have in Montana.”

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This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.