Nearly a half-billion dollars in federal aid could be coming to Georgia schools by mid-May to supplement their costs for educating students during a pandemic.
Normally it would seem a hefty sum, but if the economy stumbles into recession, then school districts say they will still have to cut deeply unless Washington sends more. And they’ll be doing that while trying to maneuver through the obstacles created by the coronavirus this semester.
[…] The half-billion dollars will be helpful but won’t be near enough, said Stephen Owens, an analyst with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, a left-leaning advocacy group that calculated last week that the state could be facing at least a $4 billion budget shortfall through the next fiscal year, which starts in July.