evidence: - Instructional staff support spending: $330 (45.2% less than national average) [...] Maine allotted $329 million of its CARES Act relief funds to schools in 2020. Districts were spending the funds on personal protective equipment, desks, added staff, and air ionization systems. A report released by an education nonprofit and the state Chamber of Commerce in October said the state needed to boost funding, particularly for its economically disadvantaged students. It said the state had an increase in the number of students from low-income households since the 2008 recession, and that the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic would surely add to their ranks. [...] Legislation passed last year in Massachusetts, the Student Opportunity Act, was set to add $1.5 billion to public school funding over seven years. But the economic blows of the coronavirus pandemic put the funding in question. An advocacy group of Massachusetts businesses recently recommended the state change its funding formula after finding that nearly $500 million of needs-blind state aid was going to the state's wealthiest one-fifth of school districts.