COVID Relief Funds for CA Colleges are Expiring. Now What?
Adam Echelman
May 3, 2024
In March 2020, colleges were on the verge of a crisis. Students were dropping out en masse, and California’s public colleges and universities predicted they might lose billions of dollars within the year.
Enter the federal government. In three installments over the following year, Congress gave more than $8 billion to California’s public colleges and universities as part of a national rescue plan. For the California State University system, the stimulus money accounted for roughly a quarter of its annual revenue.
Suddenly, colleges and universities were scrambling to spend the money as quickly as possible, despite limited or inconsistent federal and state guidance. Experts worried the relief money was too much, too fast. Campuses failed to take full advantage of the money, according to a 2021 state audit, and they made decisions that “prioritized students differently.”
