Feds cite new priorities in revoking $1.9 million grant to Rochester schools
Slowly, but surely the realization the new administration means business in scrutinizing previous policies and cutting programs that do not align has begun to hit home. Rochester public school officials found out the hard way recently, the Post Bulletin notes, when a $1.9 million grant was revoked in a letter from the U.S. Department of Education.
“The department has undertaken a review of grants and determined that the grant specified above provides funding for programs that reflect the prior Administration’s priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current administration,” the letter from the department said.
The letter went on to say that Rochester Public Schools’ programs supported by the grant “violate the letter or purpose of Federal civil rights law; conflict with the Department’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education; undermine the well-being of the students these programs are intended to help; or constitute an inappropriate use of federal funds.”
The grant funded mental health training for the Schools-Based Mental Health Scholars program in conjunction with the social work program at Winona State University. It includes tuition, pay for substitutes, and more as candidates work toward a degree. Suffice it to say the development did not sit well with Superintendent Kent Pekel, who fired off a letter of his own to the community.
“The $1.9 million federal grant to RPS was designed to address the profound mental health crisis that is affecting students in every community and from every background across the United States today,” Pekel said. “Toward that end, the federal funds are helping to fill a gap that Rochester Public Schools cannot fill on its own: enabling talented people who are already working in our school system to earn the licenses and degrees that they need to provide students with counseling and other forms of mental health support. “
The Department of Education notification did not specify further which of the potential conflicts outlined by the feds led to the grant cancellation. But Pekel’s letter defending the race-based requirements of the Biden administration grant probably explains it.
The federal grant to Rochester Public Schools includes an appropriate and common-sense emphasis on helping people of color and Indigenous people earn the degrees they need to provide mental health services in our schools. Two-thirds of the participants in the project to date are from those backgrounds, while one-third are white. As such, while the grant seeks to increase the number of mental health professionals in our school system who are underrepresented when compared to the demographic composition of the student body we serve, it does not exclude people from other backgrounds and life experiences from participating.
Six participants will receive their degrees this spring, but the fate of an additional twelve individuals scheduled to join the program remains tentative at best. Still, the district intends to make a last-ditch appeal to federal officials just the same.
Rochester Public Schools plans to file a request for reconsideration of the termination of this grant, and I am hopeful that staff at the U.S. Department of Education will recognize that it is in our nation’s interest to pursue innovative strategies to strengthen the mental health of our young people.
A successful outcome seems highly unlikely, however, until school districts and higher education across the country come to grips with the fact that DOE will no longer tolerate race-based programs under the law.