A new report published by the Mackinac Center details how public schools in Michigan spent the $6 billion in federal relief they received during the COVID-19 pandemic. It analyzed data reported directly by school districts to assess how they spent these extra funds. The findings suggest that there are significant limits to what policymakers can achieve by dropping loads of cash on school districts during an emergency.

Perhaps the most important lesson from these findings is how little impact extraordinary funding has. Federal policymakers aimed, in the words of the U.S. Department of Education, to use these funds to “reopen schools safely, maximize in-person instructional time, and address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students, educators, and families.”

Despite this intent, districts seemed to have had little use for this cash during the COVID emergency. Michigan public schools spent less than 1% of the funds in the 2019-20 school year. They spent only 15% of the $6 billion the next year when pandemic disruptions were still common, with some schools subjecting students to quarantine requirements and some operating remotely. This means most of the funding Congress sent Michigan schools during the pandemic will be spent well after the emergency.

The new Mackinac Center report also puts this relief in the context of overall school spending. Starting in the school year the pandemic began (2019-20) and the following two years (2020-21 and 2021-22), schools spent $2.6 billion in relief funds. But they spent $86 billion from all sources. So, the COVID relief amounted to just 3% of what schools spent. How big of an impact could that possibly have?

Another important lesson for infusing public schools with cash during an emergency is that districts tend to stick with what they know. It may not be easy for districts to quickly spend money in new ways, such as hiring an army of tutors, creating an afterschool recovery program or expanding virtual instruction offerings. The Michigan spending data supports this idea.

School districts spent the bulk of the extra funds on what they normally spend most of their money on: paying employees. About half of the pandemic relief went to hire new workers or give existing ones pay raises. Districts hired about 5,800 people over the three years, a 3% increase in their ranks.

Most new employees did not help with any pressing needs during the pandemic: 85% of them were hired in the 2021-2022 school year. Perhaps these employees will address the learning losses caused by undue school closures, but they did not have an impact during the pandemic emergency itself.

A considerable portion of the extra spending on compensation went to pay raises for existing employees. Schools spent $1.2 billion in relief funds on compensation. A sizable chunk, perhaps half, must have gone to increase pay for current workers. Again, most of this spending occurred after the pandemic was over, so this extra pay did not help many school employees at the height of the emergency. Post-pandemic pay raises are unlikely to have accomplished policymakers’ intent.

Michigan school districts still have about half of these federal funds to spend, either this school year or next. The needs addressed with this additional spending will be even further removed from the emergency policymakers meant to address. They should remember these lessons from the COVID emergency if they are ever tempted to pump schools full of relief funds again. Before elected officials throw cash at a problem, they should ensure there are problems that cash can fix.

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