Press Release
February 12, 2021
The American Rescue Plan’s Education Provisions
As part of the American Rescue Plan, House Democrats have proposed $170 billion for myriad education-related provisions, including funding for secondary and higher education. AAF’s Data and Policy Analyst Tom Lee examines these provisions and assesses their cost.
His central points:
- States will receive an additional $130 billion in relief funding to disburse to K-12 school districts in addition to the sums allocated in previous pandemic-relief bills;
- The American Rescue Plan requires states and local governments to keep their own education expenditures stable so that they do not use the federal dollars to offset their own spending;
- Colleges and universities will receive up to $40 billion in addition to the $14 billion allocated under previous bills; and
- The American Rescue Plan does not contain any student debt forgiveness; payments on student loans are currently deferred until September 2021.
