Schools Got a Record $190 Billion in Pandemic Aid. Did It Work?

Two new studies suggest that the largest single federal investment in U.S. schools improved student test scores, but only modestly.

For the last three years, U.S. schools have been in an unusual position: They had lots of money to spend.

The federal government invested $190 billion in pandemic aid for schools; the largest chunk, $122 billion, came in 2021 to help students recover. Altogether, it was the largest one-time federal investment in American education, but it came with a major question: Would it work?

Two separate studies, released on Wednesday, suggest that the money helped, but not as much as it could have.

“The money did contribute to the recovery,” said Thomas J. Kane, an economist at Harvard University, who helped lead one of the studies. “Could the money have had a bigger impact? Yes.”

The studies — one from researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth, and the other from the University of Washington — reached similar conclusions based on test results from the 2022-23 school year for third- through eighth-grade students in about 30 states. For every $1,000 in federal aid spent, districts saw a small improvement in math and reading scores.

The Biden administration celebrated the results as proof that the federal government’s investment in March 2021, when the pandemic was still active and some schools remained closed, helped put students back on track. “This new data makes clear that the president’s investment in education helped millions of students regain ground faster,” said Neera Tanden, President Biden’s domestic policy adviser.