Report: Biden Education Department Encouraged Schools To Use COVID Relief Funds On ‘Social Emotional Learning’

The Biden administration’s Department of Education encouraged school districts to use coronavirus relief funds on “social-emotional learning,” which advocates that school districts should host “free, antiracist therapy for White educators” among other equity proposals. 

Between the CARES Act, the COVID Relief Package of 2020, and the American Rescue Plan, Congress allocated nearly $200 billion in coronavirus relief funding for K-12 institutions. Part of the American Rescue Plan — the first coronavirus relief bill passed under the Biden administration — mandates that schools reserve 20 percent of their COVID-19 relief funds for interventions that “respond to students’ academic, social and emotional needs.” 

According to Max Eden writing for City Journal, the administration’s guidance suggests that buzz words such as “social-emotional learning” are a cover for the implementation of critical race theory. 

The Department of Education released a guidebook titled, “Roadmap to Reopening Safely and Meeting All Students’ Needs.” The guide calls on schools to use funds to have “intentional conversations related to race and social-emotional learning.” 

Examples of “social-emotional learning” according to the Abolitionist Teaching Network,  include partnering with and compensating community members “to develop and implement Abolitionist [social-emotional learning] models,” removing “all punitive or disciplinary practices that spirit murder Black, Brown, and Indigenous children,” and requiring a commitment to learning about disrupting “Whiteness and other forms of oppression.” 

Other examples included “free, antiracist therapy for White educators and support staff” and “free, radical self/collective care and therapy for Educators and Support Staff of Color.” 

The Department of Education began pushing for social-emotional learning (SEL) under the leadership of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. SEL, in the traditional sense, was built around the idea of “responsible decision-making” and other tenets of individualism. Critical race theory has shifted the idea of SEL to re-focus on so-called “abolitionist SEL.” 

City Journal reported: 

By contrast, an “abolitionist” approach to SEL contends that traditional “SEL can be a covert form of policing used to punish, criminalize, and control Black, Brown and Indigenous children and communities to adhere to White norms.” Abolitionist SEL is “not a lesson plan” but rather a “way of being that informs all aspects of teaching, learning, and relationship building with students, families, and communities.”

The Biden administration’s Education Department has made equity a centerpiece of coronavirus spending for schools. According to FutureEd, in mid-March, the Education Department released five questions for districts to consider when evaluating whether the proposed spending is an appropriate use of funds.

Questions included: 

• Will the proposed use of funds “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus?”
• Is it allowable use of funds under the CARES Act?
•  Is it reasonable and necessary?
• Does it promote equity?
• Does it support returning students to the classroom?

As Eden reported, many of these recommendations are illegal under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits school districts from discriminating against students based on race or other immutable characteristics.