Congress sent some rather clear messages with passage of the American Rescue Plan (ARP), and the importance of education is undoubtedly top of mind.
Based on the sheer volume of school safety allocations, protecting our nation’s students is a high priority with the Biden administration and a majority in Congress.
Although many governmental entities will wait for weeks to receive these new ARP funds, the money for school districts already has reached education agencies in all 50 states. Very soon, an abundance of contracting opportunities will be available on both public and charter school campuses.
Another clear message is that Congress wanted school districts to have funding for long-overdue technology upgrades. As funding becomes available for both school safety and enhanced technology, it is interesting to note that education leaders throughout the U.S. had been preparing to launch major projects linked to technology upgrades, cybersecurity, and safety enhancements.
Technology modernization, cybersecurity, and school safety are specifically designated as projects that qualify for funding. Public entities have been a prime target for cybercriminals for some time, and old technology makes breaches much easier for attackers. The average cost of even a small cyberbreach is about half a million dollars. More significant cyberbreaches result in multimillion-dollar damages and long periods of time when networks are unusable.
Broward County Public Schools in Florida, the nation’s sixth-largest K-12 district, was breached in April with a ransomware attack, and payment of $40 million was requested. The district refused to pay the ransom, and the hackers have now published more than 25,000 files. With millions in new funding about to become available to school districts, many technology and safety related projects are being launched.