Lily Altavena, Detroit Free Press

Dozens of school districts across Michigan are spending COVID relief funds to rehab aging school buildings, some of which lack air conditioning.

Private schools across the state benefitted from federal COVID relief funding, while they also had access to taxpayer money that public school districts did not: Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. Many private schools received both COVID relief funding and PPP loans, according to an analysis by the Detroit Free Press in collaboration with Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan.

Michigan schools are flush with $6 billion in federal funds to help districts recover from the pandemic. While much will go toward core priorities like tutoring and health safety, there’s a wide definition of what helps “student well-being.”