St. Paul Schools' Federal Funding Drops As Pandemic Aid Expires

ST. PAUL, MN — Saint Paul Public Schools is getting a lot less federal money than it did just a couple years ago, and the district says pandemic relief funding running out is why.

Federal dollars covered close to a quarter of the district's total budget in 2022-23 and 2023-24. In the district's newly adopted budget for next school year, that share has fallen to about 5 percent.

In real numbers, federal aid dropped from $44.5 million to $38.4 million between this year's budget and next year's, a loss of about $6.1 million, even though the district's overall budget grew.

The money came from the American Rescue Plan, a federal COVID relief package that sent extra funding to schools nationwide in the years after the pandemic.

That funding was always meant to be temporary, and it has now run out for districts across the country, not just in St. Paul.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story compared federal funding levels using data from the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, which included temporary COVID relief funding through the American Rescue Plan. That funding has since expired. This version has been updated to reflect Saint Paul Public Schools' current, adopted budget for the 2026-27 school year.