by McKenna Horsley, Kentucky Lantern
April 1, 2025
Kentucky Education Commissioner Robbie Fletcher on Tuesday urged school superintendents to contact their lawmakers in Congress about a sudden halt in payments from federal pandemic relief funds.
His call to action comes after U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon notified state education departments on March 28 that they no longer had another year, as expected, to spend COVID funds and that the U.S. Education Department (USED) was immediately halting nearly $3 billion in COVID-relief fund reimbursements.
McMahon said the Education Department would consider extending the deadline for spending the money on “an individual project-specific basis.”
Fletcher wrote in his Tuesday letter that after the federal department changed how states could request COVID relief funds in February, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) “has not received COVID grant funding the next business day as was previously the case” and was paying “district grant recipients and asking the federal government to reimburse us.”
“At this point in time, we have asked to be reimbursed for nearly $5 million, with no response from USED,” Fletcher said.
“This latest message from USED will harm a variety of our schools and districts across the state even more. KDE and/or our school districts have already committed or spent these funds because we were promised a liquidation period ending March 2026.”
Fletcher said 19 districts asked for an extension to fully spend their COVID relief dollars totaling $84.1 million. Thirteen districts have $34 million remaining “that should be accessible to spend for the benefit of students, primarily on construction projects or bus purchases” before the original deadline of March 2026.
Shortening the fund liquidation date by a year “leaves our districts and KDE in a difficult position,” Fletcher said.
Some of the projects that are now in jeopardy include providing educational technology services to public schools, including online school registration services and e-transcript services for high school seniors. The state has also used COVID funding for programs to help students make up for learning loss outside of regular school hours.
Fletcher ended the letter encouraging superintendents and other stakeholders to contact their federal legislators, along with contact information for the offices of each member of Kentucky’s congressional delegation.
“Take the time to explain to our federal legislators how the sudden change in the liquidation deadline for COVID relief funds by the U.S. Department of Education will negatively impact our schools and districts, particularly the most vulnerable populations in the Commonwealth,” Fletcher wrote.
The pause in COVID funding reimbursements comes days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing McMahon to close the U.S. Education Department.
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