NEW JERSEY MUST REJECT EDUCATION SECRETARY DEVOS’ ADVICE TO GIVE EMERGENCY COVID-19 FUNDS EVEN TO WEALTHY PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Education Law Center is urging New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to firmly reject a non-binding directive from U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to set aside federal emergency relief funds under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act for all private school students, even the most wealthy.
In a May 11 letter to Governor Murphy, ELC explains that Secretary DeVos’ guidance to New Jersey and other states to allocate CARES Act funds to all private school students, without regard for income level, is based on a patent misreading of the express terms of the CARES Act and the federal Title I statute, which governs the distribution of CARES Act funding to local school districts. ELC further explains that Secretary DeVos’ flawed legal interpretation would also significantly diminish the resources available to New Jersey school districts to provide effective and equitable remote learning opportunities while students are sheltering at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“This erroneous guidance lays bare Secretary DeVos’ personal agenda for reducing federal emergency CARES Act funds to public schools and redirecting as much of that funding as possible to private schools,” said David Sciarra, ELC Executive Director. “By advising that even the wealthiest students in the most expensive private schools should receive services paid for with CARES Act funds, the guidance would lead New Jersey and other states to divert millions of dollars critically needed by public school students, including access to continuing instruction while their schools are closed.”
Estimates based on 2017 census data show that New Jersey’s high poverty districts will be most impacted by following Secretary DeVos’ directive given the differences between the poverty rates of the district as a whole and those of private school students.
For example, in Jersey City, 12% of the district school-aged population attend private schools, while only 14% of those students are poor. Following DeVos’ directive would mean diverting nearly $1 million more of the CARES Act funds from Jersey City public school students, 30% of whom are poor.
Similarly, in Passaic City, an estimated 16% of students attend private schools, but only 10% of those students are poor. In Passaic public schools, 51% of students are poor. Using Secretary DeVos’ preferred approach would increase the amount of federal CARES Act funds reserved for private school students from $300,000 to $1.4 million.
ELC also underscores that rejecting Secretary DeVos’ directive is compelled by New Jersey’s constitutional obligation to “provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools” for all students. As the New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed in the landmark Abbott v. Burke rulings, public school students have a fundamental right to an education that prepares them to be informed citizens and productive members of society and that right “must remain prominent, paramount and fully protected.”
Beyond New Jersey, ELC is calling on governors and education officials to decline Secretary DeVos’ legally improper directives and ensure maximum CARES Act funds to enable school districts across the country to bring an end to the digital divide.
Press Contact:
Sharon Krengel
Policy and Outreach Director
Education Law Center
60 Park Place, Suite 300
Newark, NJ 07102
973-624-1815, ext. 24
skrengel@edlawcenter.org
Diane Ravitch's blog 
DeVos is the LAST person to be Secretary of Education. She doesn’t like people who she thinks is BELOW her STATUS on life.
DeVos does not understand the words “DEMOCRACY” and “EQUALITY.” I doubt she understands the word “Christianity” even though she went to religious schools.
DeVos is a modern day Marie Antoinette. She has no regard for the common good and no interest in helping the poorest students. Her inclination is to take from the poor and give to the rich. When she says, “Let them eat cake!” The reply must be, “Off with her head.” I am weary of billionaire bandits.
Well, she’s just following the ed reform definition of “public”- It means “publicly funded”.
That none of them considered what redefining a whole concept would mean as a practical matter is completely consistent with the incoherence of “the movement”
DeVos is actually consistent. It’s the rest of the echo chamber that are incoherent.
We just saw this up close in Ohio. Ed reformers lobbied and jammed thru a massive new voucher program with absolutely no concern at all to what that meant for the system as a whole. The one and only reason they were forced to look at what their agenda meant for the public as a whole in the state was because the moment the plan was released people analyzed it and objected. They did NO analysis while jamming it thru.
The ideological agenda has negative consequences, and those negative consequences flow exclusively to public school students. Our students are the designated sacrifice while they move toward privatization.
Private and religious schools should think hard before they take money from the fed gov’t OR from state gov’t. When the gov’t “gives’ taxpayer money away to education, there is always something that it wants in return…..more ed tech, adoption of standardized testing, common core, data collection etc. DEFORM.
DeVos is the natural and inexorable end point of ed reform theory. It can’t end any other way, if they’re consistent.
They move closer to her approach every year, and that makes sense. They’ll all end up where she is. The agenda cannot be fulfilled without a 100% voucher system.
What that means for students in existing public schools is no effort or investment in their schools because ed reformers have already decided those schools have no value.
They’re lousy advocates for students in public schools because advocating for our students is inconsistent with their goals.
As an elected BoE and retired special education teacher and registered nurse I have been asked to be on our little districts task force on reopening our schools in WEstern New York State. Can you point me to data, suggestions and shared ideas for best practices. This is new territory but more heads are better than one. Thank you for any direction!!
Agreed. Now, however, is the time to defeat the standardistos not by more whinning but with a vision for the future. That is the only way to stop the private movement. In the words of Lois Weiner: “In fighting, fiercely, attempts to further privatize the schools using technology, we should be developing an expansive agenda to make education and schools what they should be. The time is ripe to get rid of “seat time” and standardized testing as the pillars of teaching and assessment. Let’s envision what we want schools to look like, teaching to be, in these conditions.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-national-charter-schools-week-2020/
That’s the Trump Administration proclamation on charter schools. A glowing, positive review of all charter schools simply because they’re charter schools.
Now imagine anything REMOTELY this positive coming out of ed reform on public schools. It would never, ever happen.
It isn’t just an ideological echo chamber. It’s blatantly biased against public schools and the children who attend them. The US federal government is in opposition to the schools 90% of US students attend.
Ludicrous.