The Trump-McMahon Department of Education (ED) has identified and addressed yet more waste and fraud left over from the era of COVID-19 lockdowns and the Biden administration's "COVID relief" projects. The misuse and squandering of taxpayer funds during the pandemic was obscene.
ED issued an April 10 press release discussing several new victories in holding fraudsters accountable, though the amount of taxpayer money lost in just these three instances is sobering. "The Trump Administration continues to tackle fraud, waste, and abuse across federal elementary and secondary education and higher education programs that have squandered taxpayer dollars as part of the President’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud," ED declared.
ED "has been a leader in cracking down on fraud and has uncovered tens of millions of dollars in fraud and mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic education relief funds," it added. The department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) is working hard to restore "integrity" and "accountab[ility]" to the federal education apparatus, the press release assured Americans.
The ED release detailed three new key actions. For instance, one OIG inspection uncovered the fact that the Puerto Rico Department of Education used almost $4 million of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds improperly. The Puerto Rico ED wasted the money on services not delivered as required. The funds also did not contribute to the academic progress of students, as the goal was.
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Another OIG investigation found fraud amounting to $3.4 million. A contractor, a Boone County (W.V.) schools maintenance director, and the latter's parents together falsified documents and overbilled on janitorial and custodial products. Only a very small amount of the products in question ever reached the Boone County Board of Education. In some cases, no products showed up at all.
Third, ED reported:
An OIG audit found the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction improperly approved ineligible nonpublic schools’ applications providing over $20 million in American Rescue Plan Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools (ARP EANS) funded services and assistance to 184 ineligible nonpublic schools.
Unfortunately, many of the educators and union bosses who benefited from COVID-19 fraud have yet to face consequences for what they did. American Federation of Teachers union boss Randi Weingarten kept schools closed way too long during the COVID-19 lockdowns, as she lobbied for more money to “reopen.” After receiving about $180 billion for schools through various COVID bailouts, Weingarten and her ilk did not spend a significant chunk of the money or didn’t spend it on reopening, according to the New York Post.
The tragedy is that the scope of COVID-era fraud is so vast — partly because the Biden-Harris administration encouraged fraud and waste — that the Trump administration has an absolutely Herculean task in addressing it. But every investigation and audit is one more step toward justice and reform.
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