Criminal Betsy DeVos Funnels Coronavirus Relief Funds to Favored Private and Religious Schools

WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is using the $2 trillion coronavirus stabilization law to throw a lifeline to education sectors she has long championed, directing millions of federal dollars intended primarily for public schools and colleges to private and religious schools.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, signed in late March, included $30 billion for education institutions turned upside down by the pandemic shutdowns, about $14 billion for higher education, $13.5 billion to elementary and secondary schools, and the rest for state governments.

DeVos has used $180 million of that money to encourage states to create “microgrants” that parents of elementary and secondary school students can use to pay for educational services, including private school tuition. She has directed school districts to share millions of dollars designated for low-income students with wealthy private schools.

And she has nearly depleted the 2.5% of higher education funding, about $350 million, set aside for struggling colleges, to bolster small colleges — many of them private, religious or on the margins of higher education — regardless of need. The Wright Graduate University for the Realization of Human Potential, a private college in Wisconsin that has a website debunking claims that it is a cult, received about $495,000.

Bergin University of Canine Studies in California said its $472,850 allocation was a “godsend.”

“I think we are one of the most important educational institutions out there right now,” said its founder, Bonnie Bergin, who is credited with inventing the service dog.

House Democrats included language in a stimulus bill set for a vote Friday that would limit DeVos’ ability to use about $58 billion in additional education relief for K-12 school districts for private schools. Congress has largely rejected DeVos’ proposals to create programs that resemble private school vouchers, and public education groups say DeVos is abusing discretion granted to her under the emergency legislation to achieve a long-held agenda.