COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina is expected to receive $1.996 billion from the federal government’s Coronavirus Relief Fund. That money will reimburse state and local governments for COVID-19 related expenses.
The state is also receiving $48 million for the emergency education relief fund. That money is dispersed by the governor to the Department of Education and higher education institutions.
"We must make sure that this money is spent wisely, spent in a way that people understand it, is spent on things that are needed and that none of it is wasted,” says Governor Henry McMaster.
He stressed, during Thursday’s meeting, that there needs to be accountability with the money.
“When this is over and we have done our work, people will want to know…what did our government do.”
A major portion of the meeting focused on reimbursing education institutions.
The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) is expecting to receive $216 million from the CARES Act. They also plan to keep some form of E-learning in the future.
They are also planning on spending an additional $50 million on summer reading and math camps.
In addition to the camps, Superintendent Molly Spearman says they anticipate adding six instructional days for students ahead of the school year.
"If you look at all grades K-8, it would be around 175 Million dollars to bring those students in for extra instructional day,” says Spearman. “That would give us time to assess where they are and to do the extra, not only academic instruction, but working with them on emotional issues they have incurred due to COVID-19.”
SCDE anticipates needing $10 million for cleaning supplies and $2 million for mental health services.
However, they will not know how much they will need to spend on broadband improvements.
The South Carolina Department of Administration says it could get very costly to supply broadband internet for the entire state.
"To get that infrastructure built into the backbone of the state, that is about 80 million,” says Marcia Adams. “Much more expensive to get it to everyone's house in the state, that could be hundreds of millions.”
"If any one thing that could change things in our state it would be to be able to communicate better and deliver better instruction to all students,” says Spearman. “If every household in this state had access to some form of broadband."
Along with education, the group spoke about the financial impact on local government.
They will be tasked with creating plans for the money they are expected to receive.
Todd Glover, with the SC Municipal Association, highlighted that they will have some challenges with cleaning public spaces.
"One of the main things is cleaning public facilities going forward, especially parks," says Glover. "We want to make sure that playground equipment for children is safe. How do we keep monitoring that going forward, with children playing?"
The full AccelerateSC task force is expected to meet on Tuesday after spending this week in their different sub-committees.
The goal is to find ways to safely reopen the state, to jump start the economy.