“The separate rulings by
federal judges in California and the state of Washington are clear: When it
passed the CARES Act, Congress intended for colleges and universities to
provide emergency grants to all students in need of assistance. Indeed,
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos indicated
April 9 that she agreed, saying that colleges should ‘prioritize those most
in need.’
However, the Department of
Education has instead for weeks offered
confusing and conflicting, and now incorrect, guidance about how institutions
can distribute more than $6 billion in COVID-19 emergency grant dollars to
needy students. Rather than appealing these
court rulings, the department should immediately change its wrongheaded policy
to make it clear that schools are permitted to use the funding to help any
student struggling to pay for housing, food, child care, or other expenses due
to the pandemic. Much of the funding already has gone out, and schools have
moved quickly to distribute grants under the ambiguous terms set out by the
department. But it’s not too late to give institutions maximum flexibility to
ensure that the remaining grant money goes to any student who needs it.”