HELENA, Mont. — With about $1.5 million in pandemic-era education funding set to expire next month, Education Secretary Elsie Arntzen announced a plan Tuesday to direct those federal funds directly to classrooms across Montana.

The spending strategy, developed in partnership with the nonprofit crowdsourcing platform DonorsChoose, allows educators to apply for up to $500 in support to purchase materials for math and reading-based projects. According to the Office of Public Instruction, applications are reviewed by DonorsChoose and are open to all public school teachers in grades K-12 in the state. Based on similar initiatives in other states, Arntzen is optimistic that the remaining funds will be used up by the Sept. 30 federal spending deadline, OPI said.

“Money closest to instruction leads to better academic achievement for our students,” Arntzen said in a statement Tuesday. “These valuable federal tax dollars will help purchase teaching and learning materials, supplies and technology to support math and reading.”

The $1.5 million at issue is the remainder of the $19 million the legislature allocated for OPI in 2021 to address pandemic-related learning loss across the state — itself a small portion of the $382 million Congress awarded Montana lawmakers in its third Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) package. Arntzen’s attempt to spend the money in full mirrors efforts in Arizona, Colorado, Utah and five other states that have also worked with DonorsChoose over the past two years to fully utilize their ESSER funds.

According to the latest data from OPI, Montana still has about $100 million in unspent third-round ESSER funds, most of which come from direct payments to individual districts. Unless the federal deadline is extended, any unallocated funds by Sept. 30 must be returned to the U.S. Department of Education.

Regarding the partnership with DonorsChoose, OPI spokesman Brian O’Leary told the Montana Free Press that local educators will not have direct access to the funds under the office’s new plan. Rather, teachers must submit a project proposal to DonorsChoose through the nonprofit’s online platform, including a list of classroom materials needed for the project. According to DonorsChoose, the $500 grants supported by ESSER include shipping, taxes and fees, and participating educators are encouraged to limit their requests to about $390 worth of materials so that the grants fully cover their projects. Proposals that exceed the $500 maximum will not be considered.

If a project is approved, ESSER funds are used to cover the cost of materials, which are sent directly to the teacher’s school. Local administrators have access to records related to each project in their district, and OPI receives copies of reports from DonorsChoose that teachers complete on how the materials impact student learning. Based on spending requirements set by state lawmakers in 2021, all projects must specifically address learning loss in reading or math to be eligible.

DonorsChoose is already a familiar platform for hundreds of Montana teachers. Over the past two decades, it has distributed over $3 million worth of resources and materials to individual classrooms across the state. About 700 educators currently have accounts with the nonprofit, allowing them to request funding for books, erasers, water bottles and other student supplies they would otherwise have to pay for out of pocket. Typically, such projects are supported by individual contributions through the public DonorsChoose portal, with teachers selecting specific items from lists created by partner vendors such as Amazon Business, Best Buy and Scholastic.

In some cases, local districts have implemented customized policies for such crowdsourced fundraising. Bozeman Public Schools’ fundraising policy, for example, establishes specific procedures for approving crowdsourced proposals and allocating crowdsourced funds. Board of trustees last month expanded that policy to include a section specifically addressing non-monetary “wish list” fundraising, noting that it has become a “growing area of ​​resourcing” among district staff. Business Director Mike Waterman told MTFP the district wants to remain open to such donations while ensuring that the fundraising proposals are consistent with the district’s infrastructure, curriculum and needs.

Target Range School in Missoula last year implemented its own policy specifically for DonorsChoose, which Superintendent Jeff Crews said is designed to ensure that projects crowdsourced through the portal align with the school district’s instructional goals. Crews added that Target Range teachers have used the nonprofit in the past to support instructional needs. While he admits that any financial support his school district or teachers can get “certainly helps,” he believes the need for such a procurement source raises more fundamental questions about how Montana currently funds its public education system.

“The difficult thing for me is that this is not the conversation we should be having,” Crews said. “The conversation we should be having is that there is something wrong with our funding system in Montana if we have to turn to DonorsChoose to get the community to buy things and supplies for us.”