Education Secretary Betsy Devos announced Tuesday that her department will award $359.8 million in federal grants for 21 states and territories that have assisted students affected by recent natural disasters, even as much of a $800 million grant issued earlier this year has not been spent yet.
In April, the department awarded Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and four states nearly $800 million in federal funding for schools affected by hurricanes and wildfires, but “almost none” of those funds have yet been requested, according to Politico. The Puerto Rico Department of Education specifically received $589 million of the grant but has not used any of it, while Texas has spent a small portion of its earlier $89.4 million grant, according to Jason Botel, principal deputy assistant secretary in the Education Department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The department awarded the largest chunk of the most recent grant, labeled the Temporary Emergency Impact Aid for Displaced Students program, to Texas, totaling $174 million and aiming to help educate students who were displaced by Hurricane Harvey. It did not allot any to Puerto Rico, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Puerto Rico Education Secretary Julia Keleher told Politico that her department is experiencing complications, such as finding qualified bidders for technology repairs, and said her department is “erring on the side of not spending money on anything, but having a strategy and following procuring processes.”
Hurricane Maria displaced 27,000 Puerto Rican students in the fall of 2017, according to the Miami Herald. Politico also noted that many Puerto Rican schools lacked drinking water or electricity after the storm and were “only partly operational.”
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath estimated in October that the schools affected by the storm would require $1.64 billion over the next two years, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Some states far away from the disaster areas also received grant money, including Iowa, which received $594,000, and Pennsylvania, which received almost $13.9 million.
DeVos said in a statement that “The impact of natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires goes beyond the disaster area. The effects are felt nationwide, especially in those communities that take in displaced students and families,” adding that “this additional funding will ensure schools serving displaced students are able to meet their unique needs under such difficult circumstances.”
The department also awarded some of the most recent grant money to states that received students who were affected by the 2017 California wildfires, although it did not award funding to the several California schools that were damaged by the fires.
