Page 88 - Security Today, April 2021

Consolidated Appropriations
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childcare.
This time around, there's no mention of
leaving out students who aren't legal resi- dents. Also, the funding formula will include coverage for students in all-online programs, a group excluded from help in CARES Act 1.
Other revisions included these:
• Simplification of the Federal Application for Financial Student Aide (FAFSA), from 100 -plus questions to no more than 36, including one question about race and eth-
nicity; and
• Restoration of Pell grant eligibility to incar-
cerated students, students with previous drug convictions and those who have may have failed or declined to register for the selective service.
What CARES Act 2 didn't include was an extension to the payment and collections hiatus on federal student loan payments; those are set to resume on Feb. 1, 2021. Nor were maintenance-of-effort requirements mentioned, allowing states and local govern- ments to decide to reduce funding to their colleges and universities by the same amount schools receive in GEER allocations.
Changes have been introduced to the funding formula as well for public and non- profit institutions. Seventy-five percent will be awarded based on the number of Pell recipients who weren't attending online prior to the pandemic. Twenty-three percent will be allocated based on the number of non-Pell students who weren't attending online prior to the move to remote education. And 2 per- cent will be awarded based on the number of Pell students who were attending entirely online before the shift. The change not only benefits those programs that were fully online before COVID-19 hit, but its big ben-
eficiary is expected to be public community colleges. Calculations will take into account all students, using a full-time equivalency formula; part-timers were left out of the tal- lying in round 1 of relief. American Progress estimated that CCs will receive about 36 per- cent of the total funding in Act 2 compared to about 30 percent in Act 1.
Links to the HEER Fund program are on the Department of Education website.
Governor Funding
Of the $4 billion governors received ($1 billion more than they were allocated in Act 1) to address the specific education priorities in their states, more than half of that — $2.75 billion — is intended to be spent on private schools.
A change this time around: They can't get GEER funding if they've already accepted help under the Paycheck Protection Pro- gram, administered by the Small Business Administration. Also, the money can't be spent on covering tuition for students. Qual- ifying uses for privates include:
• Personal protection equipment and saniti- zation activities, including training;
• Improving ventilation systems; • Installing physical barriers;
• COVID testing;
• Education technology;
• Transportation costs, as long as they're "reasonable";
• Leasing space to accommodate physical distancing; and
• Reworking instructional practices for remote learning.
Addressing the Homework Gap
While some organizations bemoaned the lack of Congressional focus on addressing
the "homework gap," that's an area that could get a temporary boost through other Act 2 funding streams. Currently, according to E-rate consultancy Funds for Learning, some 7 million families lack home internet access.
The Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund, part of the Federal Communications Commission, will receive $3.2 billion to cover reimbursements to service providers delivering broadband and the connected devices to take advantage of it to low- income households. Monthly discounts to families can be up to $50; and up to $75 on tribal lands. The presence of students isn't required for families to take advantage of this program, which is meant to address the needs of unemployed workers as well.
An additional allocation of $285 million will fund a pilot program to address broad- band issues in communities where histori- cally Black colleges and universities are located.
More permanently, the National Tele- communications and Information Admin- istration, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, did receive funding to run two grant programs. The larger one, with $1 billion of funding, will be directed to tribal governments for broadband deployment on tribal lands. The second, for $300 mil- lion, will support broadband infrastruc- ture to areas lacking it, especially in rural areas.
Dian Schaffhauser is a senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.
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