This week's Golden Horseshoe Award goes to the U.S. Department of Education
for approving pandemic relief spending plans by school districts that include
millions for upgrading athletic facilities, installing security cameras,
purchasing floor shiners and other non-pandemic related projects.

Approximately $190 billion in pandemic funding under both the Trump and Biden
administrations was allocated to schools to safely reopen and protect
teachers and students.

The public spending watchdog group Open the Books found widespread
misspending of pandemic relief funds by schools.

Creston, Iowa, for example, expanded their sports stadium and spent $231,000
to add bleachers. In Kentucky, a track was replaced using relief funds, the
watchdog found.

The Kentucky project used $1 million in federal Elementary and Secondary
School Emergency Relief funds for the track replacement.

"It's a big problem when Congress is throwing so much money at school
districts they can't even hardly spend it," Open the Books CEO and Founder
Adam Andrzejewski told The National Desk.

Boston schools also upgraded athletic fields and expanded other facilities.
The city's ESSER spending included $4 million for athletics expansion, $5.5
million in library services expansion, $3 million for science lab materials
and equipment, and an additional $20 million for facilities improvements.

Erwin, Tenn., is also considering spending millions in ESSER funds to upgrade
its athletic fields. The Unicoi County School Board recently met with local
officials to discuss the funding of the projects, reported the Johnson City
Press.

The school is looking to fund a new $3.6 million gymnasium, a new $1.5
million track, and $575,000 for new tennis courts courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.

The education site Chalkbeat found the Newark, N.J. public school system's
plans for pandemic relief funds include $6 million in new athletic fields and
gym floors; $2.4 million for the installation of security cameras; and
$536,000 for floor-polishing machines.

"Newark's schools chief has called the federal windfall a chance to make
much-needed district improvements and urged community members to 'not stay
stuck on COVID-19' as they dreamed up ways to use the money," Chalkbeat
reported.

State education departments received billions in funds through the
Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed in March
2020, which provided $13.2 billion; The Coronavirus Response and Relief
Supplemental Appropriations Act, passed in December 2020, which provided
$53.3 billion; and President Biden's American Rescue Plan, enacted in March
2021, which provided $122 billion to schools to reopen safely amid the
pandemic.

According to a report by the American Enterprise Institute, ESSER funds were
billed as support for school reopenings and pandemic recovery, but "Congress
placed few limits on what ESSER funding can be used for."

The report found initial estimates "suggest that $78 billion�$123 billion
could go toward spending not directly related to COVID-19."

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Let's go Brandon!