Letter To DOE
Letter To DOE
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:
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