#State bureaucrats are hoarding federal funds meant for religious schools

Unelected bureaucrats in the state Education Department have dragged their feet on spending critical COVID relief funding for Catholic and other nongovernment-school kids, undermining the efforts of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the state Legislature to deliver for all our state’s schoolchildren and potentially dumping the issue onto the lap of the governor amid a leadership transition.

The funding, known as Emergency Assistance to Nonpublic Schools, was authorized months ago. First Team Trump and then Team Biden, joined by Congress, passed EANS measures to help all schools respond to COVID, especially in shouldering pandemic-related learning loss, as well as sanitization supplies, personal protective equipment, improved ventilation, physical barriers and remote-learning tech.

While public schools received far greater flexibility in how they could use funds and which schools were eligible, religious and independent schools were also supposed to receive money. Funding remains critically needed and deeply appreciated.

Given ideological bias against religious and private schools in some quarters, securing EANS was a heavy lift in Congress. In both the 2020 and 2021 fights, Schumer expended valuable political capital to push for the funds, against the wishes of some members of his own party who wanted to focus solely on public-school kids; the nonpublic school community praised him for the actions.

Unfortunately, the senator’s efforts and the efforts of state legislators to cut through the bureaucracy and get kids the support they need are being stymied. The state Education Department has opted for the usual red tape that entangles government programs. Acknowledging how slowly state government normally moves, the state budget approved in April included language allowing the state Education Department to bypass the usual onerous and time-consuming contracting rules, so that expedited contracts could be put in place and deliver services to our kids this summer and when school resumes in September.

But that green light apparently matters not to the pencil pushers at the state Education Department, who will soon face implementing a second round of EANS funding — all of which should be expended through the same expedited contracting process.

What’s more, the feds gave the states only six months to process the aid before the money reverts to the governor, who would have wider discretion as to its use. The state Education Department could have avoided the delay in implementing the first round and will certainly need to do so for the second round in the coming months. Sadly, the agency’s will to do so remains questionable.

If the state’s foot-dragging sounds familiar, it’s because just in the last couple weeks, Schumer had to step in to demand the state speed up federal rental relief payments to tenants and landlords. Surely, it must be frustrating to the majority leader to see his home state continually delay needed funding to his constituents — funding for which he fought so hard.

At this point, unless Schumer once again personally and successfully steps in to demand the money be properly administered by the State Education Department, it will be up to either outgoing Gov. Andrew Cuomo or his successor, Kathy Hochul, to do the right thing by Catholic, Jewish and other religious-school families and see that our kids get the help they deserve. The crisis in Albany has only made this predicament even more uncertain, further jeopardizing the prospect of this aid reaching its intended beneficiaries: our students.

The pandemic doesn’t discriminate. Catholic, Jewish, Protestant and independent-school kids suffered just as much as those in public schools and are entitled to the relief that elected officials have authorized. Having been let down by unelected state employees, our families are counting on Schumer and the governor to continue to ensure that all students are treated fairly and that services get to these kids without delay.

Kids should come first, not bureaucrats’ priorities.

Deegan is superintendent of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of New York.