WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Education approved Missouri’s American Rescue Plan Elementary and the Secondary School Emergency Relief plan and distributed remaining funds. Missouri gets $1.9 billion. Approval of the education plan will result in the release of the final $654 million. “As students, parents and teachers across the country were faced with the unprecedented challenge of conducting school during a global pandemic, President Biden and Democrats in Congress came together this year to pass the American Rescue Plan with historic relief for our nation’s public schools,” U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, who represents Ray County, said. “With the Department of Education’s approval of Missouri’s plan, our state will now have federal resources needed to not only address the learning loss and emotional turbulence students have been burdened with since March of 2020, but to build back better than before by making substantial investments to reduce the digital divide and shore up…