Linda McMahon Abruptly Tells States Their Time to Spend COVID Relief Has Passed

edweek.org ^ | March 28, 2025 | Brooke Schultz

[ransomnote]

Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Friday told states that their time to spend COVID relief money had suddenly come to an end—canceling extensions the department had previously granted to states to allow schools more time to spend the money on previously planned projects and services.

McMahon alerted state education chiefs in a letter dated Friday that the deadline to spend all remaining funds was that same day at 5 p.m. EST.

She said the additional time “was not justified” and that states and school districts “have had ample time to liquidate obligations.”

Because the department can reconsider its decisions, McMahon wrote in the letter obtained by Education Week, “you could not rely on the Department adhering to its original decision.”

“By failing to meet the clear deadline in the regulation, you ran the risk that the Department would deny your extension request,” McMahon said. “Extending deadlines for COVID-related grants, which are in fact taxpayer funds, years after the COVID pandemic ended is not consistent with the Department’s priorities and thus not a worthwhile exercise of its discretion.”

The decision mainly affects funds schools have budgeted—but not yet spent—from the last round of COVID relief funding of about $130 billion that Congress approved in March 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.

SNIP

The pandemic relief funds, awarded in three rounds in 2020 and 2021 and totaling roughly $200 billion, were meant to help schools cover the pandemic-related costs of shifting to online instruction, reopening school buildings, then helping students recover from learning loss. Schools could also spend the funds on a range of other expenses, from construction and renovations to mental health services.

[Chewbarkah]

Thanks! I didn’t expect you to research it for me.
It’s encouraging that some of the grift might be curtailed, if judges don’t demand the buses and contruction go forward.

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the legislation that set up this mass theft defined what was fundable is
meaninglessly broad terms, with federal bureaucrats given the power to approve anything they pleased. We’ve been governed by a criminal conspiracy for a LONG time.