OKLAHOMA CITY — State Superintendent of Education Joy Hofmeister has formally offered up her preferences on how the state should spend $39.9 million in federal relief funds from the U.S. Department of Education. The state Department of Education released its written proposal last Thursday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Hofmeister previously indicated to reporters after the state school board’s April meeting that her department sees the block grant as a chance to build up infrastructure in order to provide greater educational equity across school districts and communities.
As per the proposal, the state Department of Education would identify school districts hit particularly hard by COVID-19 and provide them with microgrant funds to purchase wireless hotspots and devices, such as laptops and tablets, through its already existing grant management system.
“Oklahoma has the opportunity to close the widening gap between students with greater continuity of learning – those with home internet access – and those who do not have such resources,” Hofmeister wrote in a letter to the governor.
A portion of the money also would be used to address students’ mental health needs in connection with the ongoing pandemic. Already home to one of the country’s highest rates of adverse childhood experiences, officials with the education department acknowledged that Oklahoma’s public school students are at an elevated risk to experience or witness domestic violence, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide because of pandemic-induced isolation.
Under the state Department of Education’s proposal, school districts could apply for some of the micro-grant funding to address those issues through telehealth sessions or other means.
Gov. Kevin Stitt has publicly stated his interest in using the money to expand access to Advanced Placement classes in rural areas and backfilling funding for a tax-credit scholarship program that provides tax credits for those who make donations for private school scholarships or to provide limited grants for public schools.
This block grant is separate from the $161 million awarded to the state Department of Education that was also included in the CARES Act.
Under the terms of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, governors in each state, along with Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, have the authority to award emergency subgrants to school districts, post-secondary institutions and education organizations left scrambling in the wake of COVID-19.
Under the terms of the program, the U.S. Department of Education must have a proposal in hand from the state before the actual funds are awarded. Gov. Stitt’s office has until June 1 to submit its final proposal.