Georgetown’s Dr. Marguerite Roza on Federal ESSER Funds & the Fiscal Cliff

This week on The Learning Curve co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and DFER's Alisha Searcy interview Dr. Marguerite Roza from the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. Dr. Roza explores the complexities of education finance and its impact on American K-12 education. She outlines the three phases of school funding over the past 40 years and their effect on equity and student achievement. She highlights that only about half of the K-12 education dollars fund student instruction, with significant money absorbed by the ever-expanding education bureaucracy. Dr. Roza discusses massive federal expenditures, such as COVID relief funds, emphasizing the need for better accountability. She examines the challenges faced by urban school districts with high per-pupil spending but low graduation rates and proficiency levels. Additionally, she explores the rise of private school choice programs and their accountability measures.