It makes sense that school districts across the country are careful about spending money. Dollars are hard to find, and school administrators are rightfully in the habit of planning and justifying every expenditure.

But when school districts have spent, on average, only 15 cents of every federal dollar they’ve received in emergency relief as a deadline to use it or lose it approaches in September 2024, it may be time for urgency to overtake caution.

The money I’m talking about is the most recent outlay of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, commonly known as ESSER funds. This $122 billion of pandemic relief money, made available in March 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan to help reopen schools, addresses mental health and gets kids caught up on learning they had lost. This money is a rare opportunity to not only help kids bridge the learning loss gap, but also help them vault forward.

Most California districts, particularly larger ones, are outperforming those in the rest of the country in spending the federal relief funds, but not all. San Diego, for example, has spent only 11.3% of its most recent outlay, and several smaller districts have spent none of it.

Many districts so far have spent this money on programs like tutoring and improving neglected infrastructure. While those are worthy outlays, it would be a shame to not think outside the box and boost learning in unconventional yet needed areas in a way that would pay dividends for years.

Science education, particularly at the elementary level, is one such area. Despite the attention spent at the secondary level on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), science teaching in many U.S. schools has been an afterthought. On average, elementary school students get just 18 minutes of science education a day, and fewer than 4 in 10 elementary schools have science labs or facilities. Two out of 3 elementary school teachers say they don’t feel prepared to teach science.

Like Out Teach, the organization I lead, some California organizations, including the collaborative California Schoolyard Forest System, have pushed for outdoor learning spaces. Some, but not all, have taken the important second step of building an associated science education program to go with those spaces. Districts are understandably wary of spending one-time funds on initiatives that would require ongoing costs such as staffing. But there are other ways to engage young minds in science and to train teachers how to do that with this money.

Read the full article about EdSource by Jeanne McCarty at EdSource.