While many state leaders, agencies, and employees remain in limbo while Mississippi lawmakers wait to settle a government budget, education leaders were sent into a frenzy when word came down from the federal level that more than $137 million in funding would immediately be frozen.
Newly minted U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon told state education agencies on March 28 that COVID-19 relief funds, which were originally slated to be available through March 31, 2026, would be halted immediately. For Mississippi, that meant $137,221,346 in funding was no longer available, money that the state department of education, districts, and schools had already accounted for.
In McMahon’s announcement, she said, “Extending deadlines for COVID-related grants, which are in fact taxpayer funds, years after the COVID pandemic ended is not consistent with the Department’s priorities and thus not a worthwhile exercise of its discretion.”
A response from the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE), penned by state superintendent of education Dr. Lance Evans, decried the move and urged McMahon to reconsider. Evans cited a litany of programs, projects, and legal obligations that will not be able to be met without the funding and would lead to major consequences across the state.
Evans pointed to a number of essential services and supports that would be decimated without the anticipated funding, including:
Earlier this week, Lt. Gov.
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