House GOP Launches Probe Into Use of COVID-19 Education Funds; Why Aren’t Governors Using Millions in COVID Funds for Students? And other C-Virus related stories
House GOP launches probe into use of COVID-19 education funds:
House Republicans announced Tuesday they are investigating potential misuse of coronavirus pandemic education funds and are requesting documents from the Department of Education regarding its guidance and use of the money.
The investigation will be led by House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio).
The three Republicans believe some of the billions of dollars in emergency COVID-19 education funding was used to support “left-wing agendas” and not address COVID-related issues such as the learning loss during the pandemic.
The lawmakers sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Monday “calling for all documents, communications, and policies guiding the Department’s administration [of] COVID-19 education funds” to aid in their investigation.
“It is important for the American people and their elected lawmakers to understand how the Department administers funds intended to assist students during the pandemic and the extent to which any funds may have been misused by State Educational Agencies or Local Educational Agencies for unrelated purposes,” they said. —>READ MORE HERE
Why aren’t governors using millions in COVID funds for students?
The lingering impact of COVID school closures for 55 million American children is clear: They’re scholastically compromised, prone to higher levels of anxiety and their futures are uncertain.
Students today are 15 to 24 weeks behind where they should be for their age groups, according to new data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The consulting firm McKinsey & Co. suggests it could take decades for children to recover from COVID absences — if they ever do.
Perhaps, most worrisome of all, there is clear evidence that low-income students were the hardest hit from pandemic-era learning losses.
Back during COVID’s early days, the federal government approved $200 billion in school-age assistance across three bills in 2020 and 2021.
But a deep dive into the data around those bills reveals that huge chunks of the funds have failed to reach the kids most in need.
This is the finding of a new report by our organization, the National Opportunity Project.
After months of public records requests, back-and-forth conversations with state education officials and pouring over government documents, we identified at least $736 million in federal funding that has yet to reach K-12 schools and students through the Emergency Assistance for Nonpublic Schools (EANS) program. EANS was established in late 2020 to dole out $5.5 billion of that $200 billion to independent, private and nonpublic schools. —>READ MORE HERE
Follow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
Some people left cities during the pandemic. Here’s where populations are growing again
Sweden Did Exceptionally Well During The COVID-19 Pandemic
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
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