Driving Towards Equity

Policy Brief

January 25, 2022

How does YOUR state measure up? Speeding ahead? Slowly moving forward? Momentarily stalled? Find out below!

AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY DC

Early in January, the U.S. Department of Education approved applications for funds under the American Rescue Plan (ARP) for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Wanting to know more about each state’s intention to equitably use these funds to serve all students in post-pandemic academic recovery, ERN carefully analyzed all 51 applications—and utilized a traffic light system (red, yellow, green) to illustrate our take on each state’s plans.

We are publishing these analyses of state plans to help guide stakeholders and advocates so that they can:

  • Work with state department of education officials to make revisions to their ARP plans;
  • Advocate for changes to aspects of state plans that undermine educational equity, while highlighting and promoting exemplars;
  • Engage community networks to influence the continued development and implementation of local ARP plans;
  • Pursue increased transparency and stakeholder engagement around state and local spending plans and resulting outcomes; and
  • Encourage continued and improved data collection, reporting, and data driven decision making

View the full National Report here.

Additional state analyses are also available for:

You can also read ERN’s interview with National Parents Union President Keri Rodrigues on both her concerns and the opportunities she sees for advocates here.