Government Watchdog Report Shows DeVos Delayed Students From Receiving Stimulus Money
Last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report evaluating the federal government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The watchdog’s report showed that the implementation of the coronavirus relief law, known as the CARES Act, from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education was less than satisfactory.
Congress allocated nearly $14 billion in the CARES Act to go to colleges and universities to provide emergency relief after campuses were forced to shutter due to social distancing. Half of the money appropriated was to be sent to students in the form of emergency grant aid.
The GAO found that the Department’s “evolving communication may have delayed schools’ distribution of funds to students.” Five of the seven higher education associations that the GAO talked to said this created difficulties in distributing aid to students.
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Two weeks after colleges and universities submitted paperwork to receive the money, the Department introduced new information about student eligibility. These changes caused major blowback against the Department and Secretary DeVos, as it blocked undocumented students from receiving the aid money. This resulted in multiple lawsuits and has even led to two injunctions being issued.
One association told the GAO that “some schools had already developed their plans for how to distribute the funds prior to the release of Education’s (guidance), so they had to start their planning process over in response to the new information provided on student CONTINUE READING: Government Watchdog Report Shows DeVos Delayed Students From Receiving Stimulus Money
