DeVos Sued for Cutting Off Poor Students From U.S. Virus Aid (1)

A group of community colleges in California sued U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos for cutting more than half of the students enrolled in the spring semester from benefiting from the federal government’s coronavirus relief package, including so-called Dreamers and undocumented immigrants.

The colleges asked a federal judge in San Francisco on Monday to declare DeVos’s requirements for students to get aid unlawful because they violate Congress’s intent to let the colleges distribute the money to the students with few strings attached.

Betsy DeVos

Photographer: Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/Bloomberg

The Cares Act, passed by Congress in late March, provides $12.5 billion for colleges, half of which is supposed to provide emergency relief to students, according to the suit. But DeVos’s decision to deny aid to people including those attending high school while taking college courses, those who defaulted on a student loan and those who don’t meet academic standards, would cut off 800,000 of the 1.5 million students in the system, the colleges said.

“Those rendered ineligible are estimated to include: more than 150,000 economically disadvantaged students; more than 26,000 students with disabilities; over 12,000 veterans and 1,750 active duty service members; approximately 100,000 students training for essential work in health services; and over 80,000 students training to be first responders,” the colleges said in the lawsuit.

The Department of Education said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

“As to this issue more broadly, there is no persuasive legal support for the proposition that Congress intended the CARES Act to create an entitlement for DACA recipients and others who are otherwise ineligible for federal public benefits,” department spokeswoman Angela Morabito said in an emailed statement.

Read More: U.S. Is Sued Over Student Loan Wage Garnishments Amid Crisis

(Updates with Department of Education comment in sixth paragraph)

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Robert Burnson in San Francisco at rburnson@bloomberg.net

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David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net

Joe Schneider, Peter Blumberg

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