Texas Colleges, Universities Get $2B In Federal Stimulus Money. Half Must Go Directly To Struggling Students. Patch 1 hr ago
Texas colleges and universities will get an additional $2 billion in the latest round of federal coronavirus stimulus funding half of which must be used for financial grants to students struggling due to the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday.
The federal government also announced that undocumented and international students can now receive those emergency funds, too, rolling back a Trump administration rule that allowed schools to distribute grants only to students who qualified for federal financial aid, which excluded non-U.S. citizens.
Central Texas higher education institutions and students are set to receive more than $250 million from the latest federal pandemic relief package.
The money is part of $36 billion from the American Rescue Plan, signed by President Joe Biden in March, allotted to help colleges and universities respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
Of the money provided to institutions, roughly half must go directly to student relief, the Department of Education announced Tuesday. That assistance will now be available to all students, a change from a Trump administration rule that left undocumented and international students out of pandemic relief. Wrongful Trump restrictions have been removed so that Dreamers now qualify just like other students, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said in a statement. Good news for our Dreamers, who have faced so much uncertainty, and for all students and higher education leaders, who have encountered so many pandemic challenges.
Marissa Martinez, The Texas Tribune
May 11, 2021
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Sarah Thompson photographs her sons, Lincoln, 14, and Preston, 16, right, before they leave home for their first day of school at Boerne High School.Lisa Krantz /Staff photographer
When Texas schools returned to in-person education last fall, the spread of the coronavirus “gradually but substantially accelerated,” leading to at least 43,000 additional cases and 800 additional deaths statewide, according to a study released Monday.
The study was done by University of Kentucky researchers for the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and tracked weekly average COVID-19 cases in the eight weeks before and eight weeks after the state’s school districts sent students back to school in the fall.
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When Texas schools returned to in-person education last fall, the spread of the coronavirus “gradually but substantially accelerated,” leading to at least 43,000 additional cases and 800 additional deaths statewide, according to a study released Monday.
The study was done by University of Kentucky researchers for the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and tracked weekly average COVID-19 cases in the eight weeks before and eight weeks after the state’s school districts sent students back to school in the fall.
The researchers said the additional cases they tracked after students began returning to schools represented 12% of the state’s total cases during the eight weeks after reopening and 17% of deaths.