Shameful Spending of Education Recovery Money Continues in Ouachita Parish

In the aftermath of COVID-19, Congress approved nearly $190 billion in education funding to help students across America recover from the devastating learning losses they suffered during the pandemic. 

A 2021 report from the national consulting firm McKinsey & Co. estimated American students lost an average of five months of math and four months of reading during the shutdown. In 2022, the National Center for Education Statistics released student performance data that showed the largest drop in reading scores since 1990 and the first ever drop in average math scores nationwide since we started measuring it.

Despite the serious and long-lasting consequences that extended school closures had on student achievement, many public-school districts are throwing the recovery money into pet projects that have nothing to do with helping students recover from the pandemic.

Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of our series on questionable COVID recovery spending.

In one of the most stunning examples of abuse so far, the Ouachita Parish School Board allocated over $4 million to bonus checks for school system employees and $2 million to build a new multi-purpose building at a local high school, while at the same time dedicating less than $300,000 to expand summer learning opportunities for students and $0 for extended school instruction time in 2021.

The Ouachita Paris School Board serves over 18,000 students, the majority of whom are considered economically disadvantaged. 

Since COVID-19, OPSB has been allocated $79.6 million of the $3 billion in federal education recovery funds that Congress approved for Louisiana thru the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the December 2020 COVID package, and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

During the 2021-2022 academic year, when students were returning to school for the first time in months, OPSB allocated nearly 50% of the districts’ education recovery dollars—more than $10 million—to outdoor pavilions, multi-use buildings and other infrastructure projects that had been dreamed up long before the pandemic.

Ouachita Parish School Board shameful spending highlights from 2021 and 2022 allocation of federal education recovery funds.

While these may or may not be worthwhile projects, it is fair to ask the question: are new buildings and employee pay raises really the best way to address the massive learning losses that students suffered while they were stuck at home behind screens during COVID? Of course not, and student performance data shows it.

Data from 2021 LEAP scores now show that a stunning 66% of the OPSB students in grades 3- 12 were not proficient in reading and/ or math.

While this is the biggest area of concern and, indeed, the main reason that Congress approved the federal education recovery funds in the first place, OPSB only allocated about 1/ 3 of its budget to in-school tutoring, before and after school programs, and other initiatives that directly addressed student learning losses.

As the OPSB prepares to allocate the remainder of its unspent funds, approximately $52 million, it is imperative that parents, legislators and policymakers speak up and play an active role in school board meetings to ensure that the remaining funds are dedicated to programs that have a direct impact on student achievement. 

With millions of children across Louisiana still struggling to recover from the pandemic, we cannot afford to waste another penny on pet projects.