Education Secretary Betsy DeVos continues to be the world’s most ruthless criminal disguised as a caravan mom. DeVos, a member of the notorious South Central rap group P.T.A., is now calling for public institutions to share funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, with private and religious schools that she loves.
“The CARES Act is a special, pandemic-related appropriation to benefit all American students, teachers and families,” DeVos wrote in a Friday letter to the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) obtained by The Hill. “There is nothing in the act suggesting Congress intended to discriminate between children based on public or nonpublic school attendance, as you seem to do. The virus affects everyone.”
DeVos is full of shit. Many Democrats have already noted that DeVos is merely trying to take cash allotted for low-income schools that have been ravished by the coronavirus to prop up wealthy schools that she champions that don’t even need the cash.
“A range of education officials say Ms. DeVos’s guidance would divert millions of dollars from disadvantaged students and force districts starved of tax revenues during an economic crisis to support even the wealthiest private schools,” the New York Times reports.
Here is what DeVos is really trying to do: First, the original legislation asks “states to divide the funding among public schools based on the number and share of low-income students they teach,” according to the Star Tribune. The way that it has gone before, public schools would use a portion of their Title I money to provide for low-income students in the area that attend local private schools.
“On April 30, however, DeVos issued new guidance telling public schools to divide the coronavirus aid based on the total number of students at local private schools, not just low-income ones,” the Star Tribune reports.
The federal education law states that the funding was intended to be used “for their poorest students to provide ‘equitable services,’ such as transportation and tutoring, according to the Times. DeVos argues that the money is not limited to that and therefore, by the powers invested in her white womanness, should be allowed to be allocated to the schools she likes. And like the Karens before her, DeVos has threatened to change the law to make her wishes come true.
“DeVos reportedly accused state education leaders of having a ‘reflex to share as little as possible with students and teachers outside of their control,’ and said she would draft a rule that would make her guidance mandatory and “resolve any issues in plenty of time for the next school year,’” the Times reports.
Last week, Democrats on the Senate and House education committees said DeVos’s interpretation was incorrect.
“This interpretation expands the amount of funding that [local educational agencies] must dedicate to providing equitable services to private school students, reduces public school students’ share of funds, defies Congressional intent, and conflicts with the statutory requirements of the CARES Act,” the lawmakers wrote.
They did not add but should’ve that Betsy DeVos is a goddamn idiot who will do anything in her power to make sure that the rich keep winning.