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    The Western Journal
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    Republican members of the House Committees on Oversight and Reform and Education and Labor sent a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona requesting documents related to the approval of COVID-19 relief fund plans for several states. The letter expresses concern that funds intended to help schools reopen safely and address learning loss are instead being used to advance left-leaning ideologies. It requests information on how the Department approved plans allowing states to spend funds on subjects like critical race theory, diversity training, and progressive programs.

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    Letter to the secretary of education from GOP House reps

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    Letter to DOE

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    Republican members of the House Committees on Oversight and Reform and Education and Labor sent a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona requesting documents related to the approval of COVID-19 relief fund plans for several states. The letter expresses concern that funds intended to help schools reopen safely and address learning loss are instead being used to advance left-leaning ideologies. It requests information on how the Department approved plans allowing states to spend funds on subjects like critical race theory, diversity training, and progressive programs.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    10K views5 pages

    Letter To DOE

    Uploaded by

    The Western Journal
    Republican members of the House Committees on Oversight and Reform and Education and Labor sent a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona requesting documents related to the approval of COVID-19 relief fund plans for several states. The letter expresses concern that funds intended to help schools reopen safely and address learning loss are instead being used to advance left-leaning ideologies. It requests information on how the Department approved plans allowing states to spend funds on subjects like critical race theory, diversity training, and progressive programs.

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    of 5

    September 14, 2022

    The Honorable Miguel Cardona


    Secretary
    U.S. Department of Education
    400 Maryland Ave, SW
    Washington, DC 20202

    Dear Secretary Cardona:

    Committees on Oversight and Reform and Education and Labor Republicans are
    investigating the use of COVID-19 relief dollars appropriated for virus mitigation and the safe
    reopening of schools. Based on recent reports, the Department of Education is allowing
    Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and related COVID relief funds
    to pay for racially biased and other progressive leftist programs. Specifically, Congress created
    the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund to enable schools to
    safely reopen and address learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those taxpayer
    dollars, however, are being used to indoctrinate children in core tenets of leftist ideology.1 To
    better understand how the Department of Education has allowed states to spend COVID-19 relief
    funds, we insist that you provide all relevant documents and information.

    The American Rescue Plan (ARP)—a Democrat spending bill—provided more than $120
    billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to enable schools
    to safely reopen and address learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. With regard to
    the funds in ARP, Senator Warnock of Georgia said, “This is one moment in which it’s very
    clear that public policy is quite literally a matter of life and death … more than $4 billion to the
    state of Georgia’s K-12 schools to ensure students, teachers, and staff stay safe and healthy, and
    to address learning loss.”2 Now it is being reported that those “life and death” funds are being
    used to push left leaning ideologies in public schools rather than to fix the significant academic
    gaps caused by COVID school closures.3

    To recap, 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

    1
    Jessica Chasmar, COVID-19 relief funds to push CRT in schools, FOX NEWS, (Apr. 28, 2022). See also Adam
    Andrzewjeski, Blue States Spent Covid Funds on Controversial Race Teachings, REAL CLEAR POLICY, (Jun. 1,
    2022).
    2
    Id.
    3
    Id.
    4
    Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, U.S. DEPT. OF ED., (Jun. 3, 2022).
    across the Nation.”5 Under ARP, 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.”6

    The learning loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has been a global disaster.7 During
    the 2020-2021 school year, passing math rates declined by 14.2 percent on average overall, but
    the decline was 10.1 percent smaller for districts who were doing more in-person instruction.8
    Low-income students faced the highest number of weeks of remote learning, which led to higher
    learning loss overall, expanding the education gap between wealthy and low-income students.9
    Overwhelmingly, school shutdowns occurred in states and localities led by Democrats who
    chose to keep schools closed much longer than was necessary, often at the behest of teachers
    unions.

    Instead of using ESSER funds to address these dramatic learning losses, some states are
    spending taxpayer dollars to push progressive left causes. For example, California used ESSER
    funds for training in “environmental literacy,” “ethnic studies,” and “LGBTQ+ cultural
    competency.”10 New York used part of the $9 billion it received to provide staff development on
    “culturally responsive sustaining instruction” and “privilege” and to recognize “equity
    warriors.”11 Illinois received $5.1 billion, which it partially used to emphasize “equity and
    diversity” and make “equity driven investments.”12 At least ten other state plans included
    proposals to use the ESSER funds to implement racially biased curriculum and programs based
    on Critical Race Theory.13

    To better understand the approval process for the ESSER grants, or awards for similar
    uses, please provide the following information by September 28, 2022:

    1. All documents and communications related to the approval of the State of


    California’s Plan for ARP ESSER funds.
    2. All documents and communications related to the approval of the State of New
    York’s Plan for ARP ESSER funds.
    3. All documents and communications related to the approval of the State of Illinois’
    Plan for ARP ESSER funds.
    4. All documents and communications related to the approval of the State of Michigan’s
    Plan for ARP ESSER funds.

    5
    Id.
    6
    Id.
    7
    Covid learning loss has been a global disaster, The Economist, (Jul. 7 2022).
    8
    Clare Halloran, Rebecca Jack, James Okun & Emily Oster, Pandemic Schooling Mode and Student Test Scores:
    Evidence from US States, NAT’L BUREAU OF ECON. RESEARCH (2021)
    9
    David Leonhardt, ‘Not Good for Learning’, THE N.Y. TIMES (May 5, 2022).
    10
    California State Plan for American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, U.S.
    DEPT. OF ED., (Apr. 21, 2021).
    11
    New York State Education Department American Rescue Plan (ARP) Elementary and Secondary School
    Emergency Relief (ESSER), NEW YORK STATE ED. DEPT., (Jul. 13, 2021).
    12
    Illinois State Plan for the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief Fund, U.S. DEPT.
    OF ED., (Apr. 21, 2021).
    13
    Supra n. 1.
    5. All documents and communications related to the approval of the State of New
    Jersey’s Plan for ARP ESSER funds.
    6. All documents and communications related to the use of ESSER funds to facilitate
    the training or teaching on subjects related to Critical Race Theory, diversity, equity,
    and inclusion, and/or other racially biased training and/or programs.

    To ask any follow-up or related questions, please contact Committee on Oversight and
    Reform Republican staff at (202) 225-5074. The Committee on Oversight and Reform is the
    principal oversight committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and has broad authority to
    investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X and the Committee on Education and
    Labor has jurisdiction over matters of education under such rule. Thank you in advance for your
    cooperation with this inquiry.

    Sincerely,

    _______________________________ _______________________________
    James Comer Virginia Foxx
    Ranking Member Ranking Member
    Committee on Oversight and Reform Committee on Education and Labor

    _______________________________ _______________________________
    Jim Jordan Glenn “GT” Thompson
    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    _______________________________ _______________________________
    Jody Hice Tim Walberg
    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    _______________________________ _______________________________
    Glenn Grothman Elise M. Stefanik
    Member of Congress Member of Congress
    _______________________________ _______________________________
    Michael Cloud Rick. W. Allen
    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    _______________________________ _______________________________
    Bob Gibbs Jim Banks
    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    _______________________________ _______________________________
    Ralph Norman Russ Fulcher
    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    _______________________________ _______________________________
    Pete Sessions Burgess Owens
    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    _______________________________ _______________________________
    Fred Keller Bob Good
    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    _______________________________ _______________________________
    Andy Biggs Lisa McClain
    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    _______________________________ _______________________________
    Andrew S. Clyde Diana Harshbarger
    Member of Congress Member of Congress
    _______________________________ _______________________________
    Nancy Mace Mary E. Miller
    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    _______________________________ _______________________________
    C. Scott Franklin Scott Fitzgerald
    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    _______________________________ _______________________________
    Pat Fallon Michelle Steel
    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    _______________________________ _______________________________
    Mike Flood Brad Finstad
    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    cc: The Honorable Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairman


    House Committee on Oversight and Reform

    The Honorable Robert C. Scott, Chairman


    Committee on Education and Labor

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