As September comes to a close, public schools across the country are finding themselves at the edge of a federal funding cliff.

Ali Rogan explains.

In the throes of the pandemic Congress passed three acts totaling nearly

190 billion dollars in aid for the elementary and secondary school

emergency relief or Esser Fund. The money was meant to tackle education problems

brought on by the pandemic including learning loss, chronic absenteeism, and

worsening mental health. The last of the funds will run out in just a few days and

some districts will need to slash jobs, increase class sizes, and cut programs.

We spoke with principals in Georgia and Ohio. I hate to see the funds go because one of the

things that we use the funds for that I think nobody really pushes anymore is

enrichment. We were able to kind of give back to our community in a sense by having those offering those camps. We had photography robotics. We were able to hire some tutors to come in and be

here during the school day so we would we would pull kids to meet with them to get

them caught up. It was a breath of fresh year for

education for educators to have access to funds to do some of the things that

we can't really do without funding. Unfortunately, what it comes down to is that you

have to figure out what has to go.

And so you prioritize things and you go from there.

For more on what schools have planned, we're joined by Marguerite Rosa, the director of Georgetown University's

Egenomics Lab, a research center that studies education finance policy.

Marguerite, thank you so much for being here. We heard from a few

principals about how their schools spent the money, but give us a sense of

what schools around the country have been using these funds for? Well the money came in the form of a

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