House GOP Investigates Schools for Using COVID-19 Funds to Pad District Administration, Teach Leftist Ideology

House Republicans on the Oversight and Reform Committee and the Education and Labor Committee are looking into the misuse of COVID-19 relief funds at schools, specifically in funding divisive racial teachings like critical race theory (CRT).

Congress created the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund to ensure that schools reopened safely and addressed the learning loss suffered by students due to the pandemic. In a Sept. 14 letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona (pdf), the GOP members point out that those taxpayer dollars are being “used to indoctrinate children in core tenets of leftist ideology.”

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act of 2021 signed by President Donald Trump contributed $13.2 billion and $54.3 billion to the ESSER Fund, respectively. The American Rescue Plan (ARP), signed by President Joe Biden, provided over $120 billion.

At least 10 states developed plans for using the ESSER funds to implement “racially biased curriculum and programs based on Critical Race Theory,” the letter notes. Critical race theory categorizes people as white and nonwhite, with whites cast as oppressors with privilege and nonwhites cast as the oppressed.

In California, ESSER funds have been used for training in “LGBTQ+ cultural competency,” “ethnic studies,” and “environmental literacy,” the letter states.

In New York, $9 billion in ESSER funds were used to train staff members about “privilege,” “culturally responsive sustaining instruction,” and to recognize “equity warriors.” In Illinois, a part of the $5.1 billion in ESSER funds went to make “equity driven investments” and emphasizing “equity and diversity,” said the letter.

Learning Loss, Filling Up Administrative Positions

The letter points out that despite considerable funding, the learning loss among U.S. students has been significant. “During the 2020–2021 school year, passing math rates declined by 14.2 percent

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