CITY SUES TRUMP WHITE HOUSE
OVER EDUCATION FUND SHIFT
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | JULY 24-JULY 30, 2020 19
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
New York City is going to
court to challenge President
Trump’s plan to withhold
federal funding from school
districts in need during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The city’s Department of
Education has joined a nationwide
lawsuit against the
federal Department of Education
and Education Secretary
Betsy DeVos seeking to stop a
new rule that would allow the
federal government to divert
funding available to schools
through the CARES Act.
According to Mayor Bill de
Blasio, the city stands to lose
at least $53 million due to a
rule that the city maintains is
in violation of the CARES Act,
the Administrative Procedure
Act and the Constitution.
“President Trump has already
botched his response to
the COVID-19 pandemic, and
now he is threatening to take
millions of dollars in aid away
from vulnerable students in
our public schools,” said de
Blasio in a July 17 announcement.
“His cruelty knows no
bounds. A safe and successful
school reopening requires
support from all levels of government,
not playing politics
with our kids.”
NYC Corporation Counsel
James E. Johnson said the
new federal Education Department
rule would worsen “the
challenges and inequities our
students face right now that
have been made worse by the
pandemic.”
The city’s Department of
Education was slated to receive
$717 million in relief through
the CARES Act. The act mandates
distribution of the funds
through a long-standing Title
I formula in which private and
public schools receive funding
in proportion to the number
of low-income students in a
school district.
But the Education Department
rule change would give
states and school districts
a choice of either allocating
CARES Act funds based on
their number of low-income
students — but the funds
must only be used for schools
that specifically qualify for
Title I funds.
The city estimates that
would deprive its Department
of Education of an estimated
$100 million in funding earmarked
for more than 250
public schools and related
student services — including
transportation, facility maintenance
and food services.
A second option would allow
for distribution of CARES
Act funds without going by
the Title I formula recognizing
students regardless of
income status or residency.
The city argues that would
siphon away $53 million in
funding from public to private
schools.
“As the largest school district
in the nation, we need
more — not less — funding
from our country’s leaders
whose job it is to support public
institutions rather than
privatization that benefits the
privileged few,” said Schools
Chancellor Richard Carranza.
“Safe reopening requires
all the resources we can get,
and we call on the Trump Administration
to stop playing
politics with our children.”
The other parties to the
lawsuit against the U.S. Education
Department and DeVos
include the states of Hawaii,
Maryland, Michigan and
Pennsylvania; the city of Chicago;
the Cleveland Municipal
School District Board of Education;
and the San Francisco
Unified School District. The
attorneys general of California
and Michigan filed the
lawsuit on July 17 at the U.S.
District Court for the Northern
District of California, in
San Francisco.
School funding through
the CARES Act has also been
upheld as the Trump administration
attempts due to new
Education Department rules
that, according to New York
State Attorney General Letitia
James, aim to deprive foreign
students from receiving help.
James is one of a coalition
of 19 attorneys general that
have called upon the U.S. Education
Department to release
the funds immediately.
“Not only did the president
try and use student visas
to implement his xenophobic
agenda, but now he’s holding
emergency funds hostage in
an effort to squeeze these students
out,” James said in a
Friday statement. “Without a
doubt, this rule undermines
the fundamental purpose of
the CARES Act and exacerbates
the economic harms
our students are facing because
of COVID-19. Congress
clearly allocated these
funds to help all students
struggling economically as
a result of the coronavirus,
including international students,
so our coalition will
use every tool at our disposal
to fight this illegal and manufactured
rule that targets
immigrants.”
On Friday, Governor Andrew
Cuomo also took issue
during a conference call with
reporters over the remarks
from the president’s press
secretary that “the science
should not stand in the way”
of schools reopening this fall.
“No, the science governs.
The science wins,” Cuomo
said in response, telling reporters
he feared a second
wave of COVID-19 cases in
New York — sparked by the
massive increase of infections
across the United States — is
inevitable.
“They the Trump administration
are continuing in
the misguided path they have
taken from day one,” Cuomo
added. “They’ve denied the
virus; the virus won. They’ve
denied science; science won.
They denied the need to take
the necessary precautions
recommended by every health
official, and the virus won.
They continue on a losing
strategy, and the people of this
country pay the price.”
Reach reporter Robert Pozarycki
by e-mail at rpozarycki@
qns.com or by phone at
(718) 260-4549.
File Photo
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