NY Times: DeVos Sends Relief Funds to Preferred Private, Religious Schools

Part of the $2 trillion coronavirus stabilization law included money meant to help public schools and colleges stay afloat. But the newspaper reports DeVos has been sending the money to private and religious schools she favors.

The CARES Act included $30 billion to go toward schools facing financial hardship amid the pandemic. The amount was broken down to send $14 billion to higher education and about $13.5 billion to  elementary and secondary schools, and the remainder to state governments.

DeVos used $180 million of the funds to tell states to set up “microgrants” that parents can tap into to pay for educational services, including private school tuition, according to the New York Times.

She also has told school districts to share millions of dollars designated for low-income students with wealthy private schools, according to the newspaper. 

From the higher education fund, she has sent about $350 million to private, religious colleges that may not even face a financial crunch. 

The department was supposed to prioritize schools that did not receive at least $500,000 from other categories of higher education funding. Instead, DeVos sent small schools $500,000 each.

Bergin University of Canine Studies in California told the newspaper its $472,850 allocation was a “godsend.”

“I think we are one of the most important educational institutions out there right now,” said the school’s founder Bonnie Bergin, who invented the service dog.

House Democrats are trying to limit DeVos’s ability to give $58 billion in additional relief funds for K-12 school districts to private schools. School budgets across the country are facing giant deficits. Their restriction is included in the next stimulus bill set for a vote today. 

Public education groups say DeVos is abusing her power to achieve her personal goals. DeVos has advocated for making taxpayer funds available for private school tuition. 

A spokesman for Republican members of the House Education Committee defended DeVos in a statement, “While there are likely multiple ways the secretary could have interpreted this broadly written law, the language the appropriators wrote gave her the flexibility to implement it as she has done.”

• DeVos Unveils Guidelines for Sexual Misconduct Complaints at School
• Mnuchin Requests Private Schools Return PPP Loans