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Memphis schools have access again to more than $55 million in federal funding after the U.S. Department of Education reversed course and unfroze millions of pandemic relief funds last week.
Tito Langston, Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ assistant superintendent of operations, and a Metro Nashville Public Schools spokesperson confirmed to Chalkbeat Tennessee that the Tennessee Department of Education informed school districts of the federal reversal on June 27.
“Receiving the full $55.6 million allows us to move forward with planned projects and expenditures that had been placed on hold,” Langston said. “It significantly strengthens our financial position and enables us to maintain a healthy fund balance going into next year.”
The decision frees up millions for schools across Tennessee.
States originally had until March 2026 to spend a final round of COVID relief money. But Education Secretary Linda McMahon informed states on March 28 that they had run out of time to spend the money.
The freeze on those funds impacted MSCS finances, as the district had intended to use them to upgrade roofs and fund long-awaited heating and cooling repairs in school buildings. District leaders were also forced to rethink the upcoming school year budget, while other Tennessee districts like Nashville’s were left holding the bill on expenditures they thought would be reimbursed.
The decision to unfreeze the funds is a welcome infusion back into the Memphis schools’ budget as leaders consider an overarching — and likely very expensive — facilities plan to address years of deferred maintenance that have ballooned to a $1 billion price tag for the district.
Langston says district leaders can now access funds “already tied to eligible, documented expenses,” most notably capital projects they hoped to complete by the end of the school year.
The Tennessee Department of Education has not responded to a Chalkbeat Tennessee request for comment about the change and its notifications to school districts.
Other Tennessee districts had outstanding funds and reimbursement requests affected by the funding halt in March, though MSCS’ balance was one of the largest in the state.
Metro Nashville Public Schools had around $9 million in funds that had been allocated but not yet reimbursed when the federal government froze the funds in March. The district had already spent about $7 million of that amount and were left without reimbursement.
“We appreciate the USDOE revisiting this matter and look forward to following the guidelines necessary to seek reimbursement for these programs and services that have already been implemented and supported students,” said Sean Braisted, communications chief for MNPS.
The U.S. Department of Education’s reversal followed a lawsuit filed by New York and more than a dozen other Democratic state attorneys general.
In May, a federal judge ordered the federal government to honor a spending extension and restore the relief funding to 16 states and Washington D.C.
The federal government fought the injunction, but a federal appeals court on June 20 denied a request to stay the injunction.
However, because Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti did not challenge the loss of funding, Tennessee schools did not receive relief from the ruling.
The result was an uneven funding pattern for states, which McMahon acknowledged in a June 26 letter informing them of the funding reversal.
“The original intent of the policy announced on March 28 was to treat all states consistently with regards to safeguarding and refocusing their remaining COVID-era grant funding on students,” McMahon wrote. “The ongoing litigation has created basic fairness and uniformity problems — many states, such as yours, have continued to be covered by the March 28 policy, while the plaintiffs in the New York litigation have not been subject to that policy due to events in the litigation.”
Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.
Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.
