What the American Rescue Plan Means for Education & Equity

The American Rescue Plan Act includes unprecedented resources to bolster education funding and safeguards to prevent states from redirecting public investment away from communities that are under-resourced.

The law takes several important steps toward addressing the negative impacts of the pandemic and making the United States’ school systems more equitable:

• Allocates $165 billion for America’s schools, colleges, and universities;
• Includes Maintenance of Effort and Maintenance of Equity provisions that protect underserved students from disproportionate budget cuts;
• Allocates $7.1 billion to connect the roughly 16 million K-12 students who currently lack high-quality home internet and/or devices, enabling remote learning for students across the country;
• Increases nutrition assistance for students and their families through September 2021, and authorizes the Pandemic EBT program to operate this summer, the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, and during any school year and subsequent summer in which a public health emergency is declared; and
• Provides vital aid to support early childhood education, invests in the Child Care and Development Block Grant, and increases and expands the Child Tax Credit.