Coronavirus Stimulus Package Specifically Blocks School Choice
23 Dec 2020
The 5,600-page coronavirus stimulus bill passed by Congress Monday evening specifically blocks governors from using emergency education relief funds for school choice programs.
Page 1,865 of the 5,600-page bill states under “Restrictions” for the use of the $2.75 billion allotted for the Governors Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund, created in the earlier coronavirus relief bill in March:
Funds provided under this section shall not be used … (B) to provide or support vouchers, tuition tax credit programs, education savings accounts, scholarships, scholarship programs, or tuition-assistance programs for elementary or secondary education.
Eric Boehm wrote at Reason Tuesday the new restrictions on GEER funds come “seemingly in response to the fact that several governors used the first round of GEER funding to launch or expand school choice programs.”
Coronavirus Relief Summary
On Monday, December 21, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, which includes the highly anticipated coronavirus relief package. The $900 billion relief package includes funding for stimulus checks, unemployment benefits, small businesses, vaccine distribution, health care, education, transportation, rental assistance, and agriculture. President Trump is expected to sign the legislation.
Compared to the CARES Act, the stimulus checks in this new relief package are smaller. Taxpayers making less than $75,000 can expect to see a $600 stimulus check, compared to $1,200 per person included in the CARES Act. Similarly, the relief package will provide an extension of the CARES Act unemployment insurance of $300 through March 14, 2021. Under the CARES Act, workers receiving unemployment received $600 per week.
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Dec. 22, 2020
WASHINGTON – When congressional leaders released the text of the 5,593-page coronavirus relief package on Monday, many observers noted that the bill included “$500 million for Israeli cooperation,” with a large percentage of that dedicated to missile defense systems.
This seemingly disparate allocation of funds – considering negotiators could only agree on $600 stimulus checks for individual Americans – triggered much outrage on social media, to the point where “$500,000,000 for Israel” was trending worldwide.
However, the COVID-19 stimulus deal was actually included in a broader year-end spending package. This included the 2021 Pentagon spending bill, which covers foreign aid for a number of U.S. allies besides Israel.
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Source: Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour
A group of House Republicans asked the United States Government Accountability Office (USGAO) to conduct an audit of the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economy Security (CARES) Act’s funding for education. Within the CARES Act, Congress legislated $13.3 billion to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund in order to assist school systems with reopening. Likewise, the Governors Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund gives individual governors $3 billion in “block grants” to distribute to meet the needs of students.
As of September 30, the GOP lawmakers point out, individual states have spent just 12 percent of the $13.3 billion ESSER fund and governors have spent 18 percent of the $3 Billion in aid GEER funds.