As public school districts in Tucson were spending millions to get online devices and internet connection to thousands of low-income families, the small business loans were awarded as part of the federal COVID-relief package. Numerous charter schools that were awarded COVID-relief funding for public schools also received these loans, unavailable to district schools. Some private schools also received the loans although public school districts were required to relinquish millions from their own COVID-relief funding to these very same private schools. This story was especially important because it was one more example of the inequities that exist between private and charter schools and the district schools, which serve far higher numbers of children with special needs and students from low-income families.
— Danyelle Khmara
While private and charter schools are dealing with similar virus-related expenses as public district schools, charter and private schools have access to relief funds, like Paycheck Protection Program loans, that aren’t available to districts.
Tucson-area private and charter schools have collected millions in federal coronavirus relief loans not available to public district schools despite the fact that a number of them also qualified for emergency stimulus funding.
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The Paycheck Protection Program loans, meant to help small businesses avoid layoffs during the COVID-19 crisis, don’t have to be paid back as long as the funds are used for payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent and utilities, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
However, charter schools don’t have the level of financial impact that many small businesses do because they continued to receive taxpayer funding throughout the crisis, said Dave Wells, research director with the Grand Canyon Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
“Since the schools were already held financially harmless, they weren’t really in a position where they expected they were going to lay off people anyway,” Wells said.
Contact reporter Danyelle Khmara at dkhmara@tucson.com or 573-4223. On Twitter: @DanyelleKhmara
Danyelle Khmara
Reporter
