The Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University released its latest findings last month. The report, titled "Will Academic Recovery Stall When the Federal Relief Funds Dry Up?"  also draws attention to the fiscal cliff many districts face in the year ahead as they weigh expenditures against desired achievement.

School districts are required to earmark whatever is left of their post-COVID American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds by Sept. 30. The liquidation deadline is Dec. 31. ESSER, established in 2021, allocated $122 billion over three phases to help schools with learning recovery efforts.

Most of the ESSER money was spent on labor—more teachers, classroom aids, counselors, reading coaches, tutors, subject area specialists, and administrators, but it was not applied to raise pay rates for existing teachers, Edunomics Lab Director Marguerite Roza told The Epoch Times on July 10.

While one device (laptop or tablet) per child became an industry standard largely funded by federal money, equipment purchases did not make up a significant portion of expenditures, Ms. Roza said. She and her team of researchers interviewed school administrators and analyzed data at the federal and state levels dating back 20 years, including information from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which runs The Nation's Report Card website. Many comparisons cited involved shorter time frames, and the findings were largely focused on the pandemic era.

"The priorities and the value these investments brought varied by state," Ms. Roza told The Epoch Times on July 10.

"Some states were able to eke out more value."

At the national level, math scores declined sharply between 2013 and 2022, with 30 states reporting that students were more than half of a grade level behind before scores began rising slightly between 2022 and 2023, according to the report.