In the span of a week, two federal judges pressed pause on Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ spring rule to allow a larger portion of federal stimulus dollars targeting public schools to be allocated to private institutions. After the passage of the CARES Act in March,...
According to the Catholic News Agency, “Federal coronavirus aid to private schools is now enforceable by law.” This notice comes after “concerns that Catholic and other non-public schools were being excluded from sufficient epidemic relief funds to support protective equipment for students and teachers, cleaning,...
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...
Up to $523 million in emergency education funding is now available for Pennsylvania’s public schools, charter schools, and education agencies through the CARES Act. “At least 90% of the money, or $471 million, is to be awarded to traditional public schools and charter schools. Each...
According to Education Week, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will soon be releasing a proposed rule to resolve the “dispute over how much coronavirus aid private school students should receive.” In a letter to a group representing state education leaders, DeVos announced the soon-to-be...
Senator Lamar Alexander—the chairman of the U.S. Senate Education Committee and co-author of the Every Student Succeeds Act—“has a different interpretation than the head of the U.S. Department of Education of how much federal coronavirus aid should be available to private school students.” In her...
Democratic lawmakers in Congress did not hold back in expressing their opposition to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s guidance about federal COVID-19 relief for K-12 schools, calling it “way out of bounds” and urging her to abandon it. In a letter sent to DeVos,...
Recently, “dozens of groups sent a new request to Congress” that calls for “at least $250 billion in new federal aid for K-12 schools and higher education as part of a broader push to shore up state and local government funding.” The request also urges Congress to...
In Virginia, Superintendent of Public Instruction James Lane recently announced that public schools in the Old Dominion will soon be able to access $238.6 million in federal funding under the recently passed CARES Act. “Ninety percent of the funding, totaling more than $214.7 million, will pass...
A recent blog post outlines the information that states and districts receiving emergency coronavirus relief funding must report. Within 60 days of receiving funding, state education departments must “tell the U.S. Department of Education their budgets for their ‘reserve’ of the money,” including “dollar-by-dollar details...
