Information is needed from the Department of Education on questions of potential waste and misuse of pandemic-era funds, according to Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, who is pressing for answers about how the funds that were designated to address learning loss, reopening schools safely, and mitigating the spread of COVID-19 were used.
Wenstrup, who chairs the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, sent a letter to the Department of Education to obtain data about the use of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds by state and local education agencies.
“Many critics — including concerned parents — have questioned the efficacy of the program and how much of these funds went toward helping students succeed in the classroom," Wenstrup said, according to a press release issued by the House Oversight Committee.
"This is especially concerning in light of mounting evidence that America's students are continuing to fail academically and struggling to recover from pandemic-related learning deficits," Wenstrup added, noting that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has that 13-year-olds' performance in math and reading had declined to their lowest recorded levels since 1990 and 2004.
"None of the eighth-grade students enrolled at Lebron James' I Promise School in Akron, Ohio have passed the state's standardized math test in three years," said Wenstrup. "This is unconscionable and unacceptable."
Wenstrup is seeking information to evaluate any academic benefits coming from the ESSER program while investigating reports that taxpayer money was spent on unrelated, non-academic programming or politically motivated pet projects.
"America's children continue to experience historic learning loss, higher rates of psychological distress, and decreased physical well-being as a result of COVID-19 related school closures and federal policies," the press release said. "The Select Subcommittee is concerned that instead of utilizing ESSER funds to alleviate the harm caused to children, education agencies used the funds to forward a leftist agenda."
In previous subcommittee hearings, evidence was presented that the science behind preventing the spread of COVID-19 did not justify prolonged school closures and that political leaders including teachers' union head Randi Weingarten had "exerted uncommon influence over supposedly scientific school reopening guidance," the press statement added.
Determining whether political activism played a role in misusing COVID-19 funds is also essential in addressing the academic well-being of children in the event another pandemic happens, the subcommittee said.
"Unfortunately, the fund's seemingly few restrictions, coupled with the Department's limited accounting, has meant that Congress has largely been without the information necessary for it to assess the program's benefit for students academically [if any] and ensure that funds were neither wasted nor abused," Wenstrup said.
He added that there have been "numerous credible reports of funds being expended for questionable programs and projects — not related to academic success in the classroom — including for upgrades to sports facilities and to indoctrinate children in core tenets of leftist ideology."