Ongoing investigation suggests Dept of Ed. may have spent COVID-19 relief funding on 'left-wing agendas'

The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Committee on Education and the Workforce (Committee), and Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic announced yesterday it is continuing its investigation into the misuse of COVID-19 relief funds, alleging the Department of Education (DOEd) allowed funds to be spent on “left-wing agendas.” 

The lawmakers say the DOEd must provide all documents, communications, and policies guiding its use of COVID-19 emergency funds for primary, secondary, and post-secondary education.

This update from the Committee follows an ongoing investigation that was launched in September 2022, when House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer and Committee (then called Committee on Education and Labor) Ranking Member Dr. Virginia Foxx called for an investigation into the DOEd for “reportedly allowing Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and related COVID relief funds to pay for racially biased and other leftist programs.”

In a September 2022 letter to DOEd Secretary Miguel Cardona, conservative lawmakers summarized the details and purposes of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds: 

Congress set aside $13.2 billion in the CARES Act and $54.3 billion in the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act of 2021 for the ESSER Fund.4 Congress directed the Department of Education to award these funds to states for the purpose of ‘providing local educational agencies … with emergency relief funds to address the impact that COVID-19 has had, and continues to have, on elementary and secondary schools across the Nation.’ Under [American Rescue Plan], Democrats provided yet another $122 billion to ‘help safely reopen and sustain the same operation of schools and address the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Nation’s students.’

[RELATED: REPORT: The faculty DEI statement is ‘The New Loyalty Oath’]

In the latest letter to the Secretary, heads of the three committees write that rather than ESSER funds going to “help students recover from learning losses, some states and school districts that kept schools closed appear to have spent ESSER funds to push favored social agendas.” 

“For example, Newburyport Public Schools in Newburyport, Massachusetts, spent at least $56,800 in ESSER funds to hire a consultant who coached a high school principal to use a racial slur in front of other faculty members,” the committees cite. 

The letter also notes funding discrepancies in California. 

The California Department of Education’s Final ARP ESSER State Plan indicates that California will spend $1.5 billion to provide professional development resources for school staff in ‘specified high-need topics,’ including ‘restorative practices…and implicit bias training.’ Additionally, California will spend an unspecified amount of money to ‘increase educator training and resources’ in subjects like ‘anti-bias strategies, environmental literacy…ethnic studies, and LGBTQ+ cultural competency.’

Schools in New York and Illinois also make the list.  

The push to advance leftist ideologies at the expense of taxpayers is the new norm in American education, especially among the nation’s colleges. 

For example, $15 million of taxpayer dollars were spent to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory (CRT) in the State University System of Florida.

Similarly, DEI spending ran amok in South Carolina, where state colleges and universities reportedly spent $7.8 million on DEI initiatives.  

[RELATED: University of North Carolina eliminates DEI statements for faculty, students]

Collleges and universities in Texas and Iowa have also made headlines for their DEI debacles. 

But just as Governor Ron DeSantis cracked down on tax dollars funding leftist programming in Florida’s higher educational institutes, as previously reported, so too is the Committee calling for more accountability for taxpayers nationwide. 

“Not a dollar more,” one of its latest Tweets reads.

The Biden administration crushed families with pandemic spending and inflation.

Now we hear that funds intended for the pandemic response were used to further the Left’s agenda?

Not a dollar more. We demand @SecCardona answer for his Department’s misuse of taxpayer money. https://t.co/LoPUimZV80

— House Committee on Education & the Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte) April 4, 2023

A DOEd spokesperson responded to Campus Reform saying it has received the latest letter and will review it. The Committee was also contacted but has not yet responded. This article will be updated accordingly. 

Follow Jared Gould on Twitter