NAACP SUES U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY OVER COVID-19 SCHOOL MONEY

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent

Photo Caption: Pictured above is NAACP President and CEO, Derrick Johnson. A lawsuit, formally filed by the NAACP, claims the share going to private schools should have its basis on the number of Title I students attending those schools.The NAACP contends, spelling out that hundreds of millions of dollars in CARES Act funds would immediately divert from public schools to affluent private schools.(Courtesy photo/The Atlanta Voice)

The coronavirus pandemic has focused the nation’s attention on the essential role public schools play in families and communities’ lives.

The NAACP said it’s also exposed severe racial inequalities that continue to plague the country’s education system and disadvantaged students of color.

Rather than addressing those problems, NAACP President Derrick Johnson declared that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos “exploited the pandemic to promote her personal agenda of funneling taxpayer dollars to private schools and taking resources away from the schools and the students who need it most.”

“We simply can’t let this happen. So, we’re taking her to court,” Johnson announced.

The NAACP formally filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., accusing DeVos of illegally changing the rules for allocating $13.2 billion in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) money to benefit wealthy private k-12 schools.

“Recently, Secretary DeVos issued regulations that would force public school districts to divert federal emergency relief funds from public schools and send them to private schools.

By one estimate, over $1 billion would be lost to private schools under the rule,” Johnson declared. “So, the NAACP filed.

“So, the NAACP filed a lawsuit along with public school families and school districts across the country, challenging this unfair, unequal, and unjust rule. We’ll fight this as hard as it takes – for as long as it takes – to protect our students, schools, and communities.”

The NAACP’s lawsuit suggests that the CARES Act, which was signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year, says explicitly that local school departments are to distribute the fund based on the number of Title I, or lowwealth students, in a particular school. Congress allowed CARES funds to go to institutions that depend on tuition and donations because lawmakers said they recognized that some students from low-income families attend private schools.