Georgia schools not using most of federal relief money on recovering from learning loss, study shows

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga — Editor’s note: Channel 2 initially reported that the Cobb County School District has committed 29-percent of its federal Covid relief money to helping students recover from learning losses during the pandemic. In fact, Cobb has committed 34-percent.

A Channel 2 investigation has found that very few Georgia school systems plan to spend at least half their federal COVID relief money to help students recover from learning losses, and DeKalb school officials told the state that the district would spend just above the 20% minimum required by Washington in the 2021 American Rescue Plan. DeKalb’s expected spending is the least among the metro area’s larger school districts.

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“Most districts in Georgia report that they’re going to spend between 20% and 50% of this extra money on getting kids back on grade level,” says Professor Ben Scafidi, who heads the Education Economics Lab at Kennesaw State University.

Investigative reporter Richard Belcher asked Scafidi if that is enough to address widespread student learning losses already documented in Georgia and elsewhere by standardized tests. “Not nearly enough,” Scafidi responded.

He pointed us to a report on COVID relief spending prepared by state auditors in late 2021. Only 24 of Georgia’s 180 school districts planned to spend 50% or more of their federal money to address learning losses. That means 156 districts -- the overwhelming majority -- at least initially intended to spend less than half on learning losses. Twenty-six districts reported that they planned to spend the federal minimum of 20%.

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“I don’t know why there’s not sufficient urgency, and what’s really sad is they know the learning loss, and they have the money,” Scafidi told Channel 2.

His concern is echoed by Dr. Marguerite Roza, Director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She told us, “In most districts that 20% is nowhere near enough to be dedicated to remediating the learning gaps. And most districts will have to spend much more than 20% of that money to get kids back on track.”

Among larger school districts in metro Atlanta, DeKalb told the state it planned to spend less than others we checked. Fulton said 66%, Gwinnett 51%, the City of Atlanta 39% and Cobb 34%. DeKalb said it would spend 22% on learning recovery.

DeKalb sent a statement saying it has an “unwavering commitment to helping students overcome learning loss” and has created a special committee to identify learning loss opportunities. The statement makes no reference to a spending goal for DeKalb’s federal money.

Channel 2 began investigating DeKalb’s use of the COVID emergency funds last spring. We discovered that DeKalb spent a little more than $86 million on employee retention bonuses. Less than half that amount -- about $38 million -- went toward learning recovery, virtually all for student computers.

Scafidi acknowledges that DeKalb has had trouble with teacher turnover.

“Teacher bonuses is probably not a bad strategy for them, but I think it’s an important question to ask: Were their teacher bonuses excessive?” Scafidi told Belcher.

State records show DeKalb’s teacher retention rate rose from 82% to 91% between 2020 and 2021, perhaps a bump from the bonuses which went to teachers and other DeKalb Schools employees, including crossing guards and substitute teachers. The retention rate dropped to 85% in the 2022 school year ending June 30.

Our investigation found that DeKalb’s spending on bonuses far exceeded what other large metro area districts spent.

Regarding the bonuses, the district emailed: “We recognize that while retention numbers are not comparatively higher, there is no way of knowing the impact on our staffing levels without those financial investments in our employees.”

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