DeVos Under Fire for Federal Coronavirus Relief Guidance
June 3, 2020
An impassioned op-ed in Newsweek criticizes Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for directing “public schools to share with private and religious schools more of the funding available to them through the CARES Act.” Under the Secretary’s guidance, these federal funds should be allocated according to the enrollment “of all students—public and non-public—without regard to poverty, low achievement, or residence in a participating Title I [federal aid for low-income students] public school attendance area.” According to the authors, this directive “flies in the face of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).