Brown University PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Schools in the U.S. are set to receive $123 billion in federal pandemic relief funding. Across the country, parents and school administrators are engaging in spirited debates about whether to teach critical race theory. And Americans are bitterly divided in their opinions about how and when to resume in-person instruction following rising rates of vaccination against COVID-19. One might expect that given all that’s at stake, school board meetings across the U.S. would be hotbeds of discussion. But in many cases, they’re the same staid, sparsely attended affairs that they can often be.