EXCLUSIVE — House Republicans are demanding that the Department of Education turn over all records related to learning loss during the pandemic and how schools spent $263 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds.
The group of Republican lawmakers, led by Reps. James Comer (R-KY) and Virginia Foxx (R-NC), made the request in a Thursday letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, which included demands for the department to turn over all communications involving school reopenings with outside groups, including teachers unions.
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“Study after study shows the learning losses caused by prolonged pandemic school closures are compounding and preventing students from achieving academic success,” the letter said. “Committee Republicans plan to ensure the Department is doing everything in its power to ensure states and school districts properly target funds to remedy the acute learning losses brought on by prolonged pandemic school closures.”
The group of GOP lawmakers noted that a significant amount of federal funds allocated for coronavirus relief for schools has largely gone unspent or been used for non-COVID-19-related expenses.
A Washington Examiner report earlier this month detailed how school districts across the country had used their federal coronavirus relief funds for a wide range of expenses, including diversity and equity trainings for staff, online learning infrastructure, and, in the case of one school district, new artificial turf athletic fields.
Among the documents the lawmakers are seeking are the department’s communications with third-party groups, including teachers unions, on reopening schools. Last year, it was revealed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed the leadership of the nation’s largest teachers unions to review its guidance on reopening schools before it was published.
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Comer, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, blamed “the Biden administration’s collusion with a radical teachers union” for the learning loss resulting from closed schools.
“America’s students are suffering from acute learning loss, a mental health crisis, and untold consequences from the Democrats’ prolonged school closures,” Comer said. “This crisis demands urgency but so-called emergency funds are not being used to help students who have suffered from school closures. We need Biden’s Department of Education to provide answers about why these funds are not being targeted to remedy learning losses.”
Foxx, who is the ranking member of the House Committee on Education and Labor, likewise said, “There must be true oversight to bring corrections.”
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“Over the course of the pandemic, the Biden administration and its teacher union allies have kept America’s children from their classrooms — and acute learning loss has prevailed,” she said. “Millions of dollars in funding provided to school districts have been stagnating while many students are unacceptably behind in their education development.”
The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
