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Judge grants an injunction, but Michigan education funds likely remain in limbo

BES Photos

A federal judge in California on Wednesday granted Attorney General Dana Nessel a preliminary injunction against the US Department of Education.

Michigan was one of eight state plaintiffs on a case against the Department of Education.

The US Department of Education under Betsy Devos wants to distribute CARES Act funding to private schools based on student enrollment numbers, arguing that the language in the act is “ambiguous.”

In his order granting the injunction, Judge James Donato said the CARES Act clearly states that funding to private schools should only be based on the number of children from low-income families. He called the department’s argument “‘interpretive jiggery-pokery’ in the extreme.”

Attorney General Dana Nessel said under Education Secretary Betsy Devos’ interpretation, over $16-million in funds would go Michigan private schools that otherwise would have gone to public schools.

“Allowing Devos to rewrite the CARES act formula is absolutely not in the public interest,” she said. “In fact, it’s very detrimental to the public interest to low-income students in public schools."

Judge Donato’s order cites evidence brought by the state of Michigan, noting that the amount of funding that would be diverted to private schools “would be the equivalent of laying off 466 teachers from public schools in Flint, Michigan.”

In a written statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Education reiterated their argument that the pandemic affected all students, and the CARES Act requires that funding should be used to help all students.

“It is simply wrong to discriminate against kids and their taxpaying parents solely because they chose a school that worked for them instead of the state-run option,” the statement continued.

The Attorney General said the education department’s attempt to divert funds into private schools fits a broader pattern of behavior from the Trump administration, showing “total disregard for just the plain letter of the law."

“There’s no nuance to it,” she said. “It’s a blatant violation of the law. This is part of a larger story of having a federal administration and federal government that has no regard for the law and is quick to violate it and is disinterested in the consequences.”

Nessel said the $16-million cannot be distributed to private schools while a final decision in the case is pending.

But, she said, those funds are likely to remain in limbo for public schools until a final decision is reached.

The Attorney General declined to guess how long that could take.