A story so interesting that we had to report it twice last week involved federal education money from the huge $122 billion American Rescue Plan after the covid-19 pandemic.
The Biden administration had showered money on public school districts. A part of the plan that wound up playing a dramatic role over the last few weeks said the districts had to spend their own money first, and then they would be reimbursed by the feds.
After a few deadline extensions, districts had to show they spent the money on approved projects by early 2026. Once spent, districts then could ask for reimbursement.
That all changed on March 28, when the Department of Education went back on the promise to pay for work for which reimbursements have not yet been filed.
That is fundamentally unfair, even if Education Secretary Linda McMahon said it was unreasonable for schools to rely on earlier decisions. Because what state or school district should believe that the federal government will keep its word about money?
So Managing Editor Matt Williamson wrote a story about how this decision would affect local school districts. I edited the story but didn’t raise any questions.
But the story said incorrectly that school districts had to repay money to the federal government. In truth, the districts never got the money; they just were not going to be reimbursed for what they had spent if they had not yet applied for repayment.
This was news because the McComb School District was going to lose $9.6 million in federal reimbursements, while South Pike would lose about $1.1 million. Most other local districts were going to miss out on far smaller amounts.
The story resulted in an email on Wednesday morning from South Pike superintendent Dr. Angela Lowery. It was one of the nicest, “Hey, you got it very wrong” messages that I’ve ever received.
“The wording makes it sound as if schools have misappropriated funds and must now pay back to the federal government, which is not the case,” Lowery wrote. She also copied a social media post from Dr. Bradley Brumfield, the Walthall County superintendent of education, who did a good job of explaining it.
His best point was that school districts should not be accused of poor planning because they were playing by the rules, only to have those rules changed in the middle of the game.
Matt wrote another story for Thursday’s paper, and Lowery sent a note Friday thanking us. “I just read it and it was great!” she wrote.
I regret the errors in the first story, but it is a complicated topic. For example, how often does the government require anybody to spend their own money before reimbursing them?
In writing about this, my next question was, for what projects did McComb and South Pike lose their reimbursements?
I could not reach Lowery on Friday, so I don’t have an answer for South Pike.
I did talk to McComb officials, and it looks like part of the lost reimbursement is for the air conditioning upgrades throughout the district, and a window replacement program at McComb High School. The district apparently did not apply for reimbursement before March 28.
But it appears that more than half of McComb’s $9.6 million reimbursement loss is for a new building under construction at Summit Elementary School. It’s nowhere near finished, so the district cannot seek any federal money yet.
I’m told that there’s been no work on the building lately. Maybe it’s because we had some rain this week? Or maybe it’s because the district and the builder halted the project since the financing for it is now in question?
The Trump administration made a mistake by reversing the government reimbursement promises. Surely they did it to cut spending, but this is something that should have waited till next year. Otherwise local taxpayers around the country will be stuck with large bills.
That, in fact, is a reason to hope that the president will reverse this decision. Looking online for background information, I found a chart of how much reimbursement money each state is losing.
Along with Mississippi, Trump-supporting states on the hook for large amounts include Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. Lawmakers need to be lobbying the White House on this one.
