Tuesday afternoon, the state 
of Michigan announced during a 
press conference they will be filing 
a court-action lawsuit against the 
federal government and U.S. Sec-
retary of Education Betsy DeVos 
for the distribution of funding 
from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, 
and Economic Security Act. 
Along with several other states, 
Michigan Attorney General Dana 
Nessel is leading the lawsuit 
against Devos, citing concerns 
that a new rule favors affluent pri-
vate schools over public schools 
serving low-income students. 
Nessel said The Department of 
Education’s July 1 rule gives pub-
lic school districts two options for 
distributing CARES Act funds.
“Districts can allocate funds 
based on the total number of stu-
dents enrolled in an eligible pri-
vate school, regardless of income 
level, or allocate funds only for 
Title I schools, leaving no CARES 
Act funds available for non-Title I 
public schools,” Nessel said.
Title I schools receive over $14 
billion of federal funding per year 
to help low-income students reach 
education goals.
In a June 25 press release, 
DeVos said the department’s new 
rule recognized that CARES Act 
programs are not Title I programs. 
“There is no reasonable explan-
ation for debating the use of feder-
al funding to serve both public and 
private K-12 students when feder-
al funding, including CARES Act 
funding, flows to both public and 
private higher education institu-
tions,” DeVos said.
However, Nessel noted at the 
press conference that the rule 
could divert necessary funding 
from public schools.
“Public schools in Michigan are 
at risk of losing millions and mil-
lions of dollars in federal funds to 
their private school neighbors,” 
Nessel 
said. 
“Resources 
that 
Congress intended to be allocat-

ed based on low-income student 
enrollment — which is typically 
much higher in public schools 
— could instead be redirected to 
much more affluent public schools 
because of Secretary DeVos’s 
actions.”
Nessel said while the CARES 
Act states districts must provide 
private schools with equitable ser-
vices in the same manner as under 
Title I, Title I only applies to aca-
demically at-risk students.
“Secretary DeVos’s rule and 
guidance ignores plain language 
in the CARES Act and instead dir-
ects local education agencies to 
choose between two options for 
allocating CARES Act funds, nei-
ther of which actually exists in the 
CARES Act,” Nessel said.
State Superintendent Michael 
Rice also noted neither of the 
methods for allocating funds 
under DeVos’s rule align with the 
CARES Act. 
“It puts local school districts 
and local school district leader-
ship in a very uncomfortable pos-
ition, having to choose between 
the plain act language on the one 
hand, and the guidance from the 
U.S. Secretary on the other,” Rice 
said.
Following 
DeVos’s 
rule, 
non-public schools in Michigan 
would receive $16 million more 
than if they followed the funding 
allocations under Title I — money 
Rice said would be drawn away 
from public schools.
“This is enough to buy 63,694 
Chromebooks for students at $259 
per Chromebook, or to buy per-
sonal protective equipment for 
33,944 students at $486 per stu-
dent annually,” Rice said. 
Gov. 
Gretchen 
Whitmer 
noted the CARES Act funding is 
designed to help those most affect-
ed by the COVID-19 pandemic, 
including low-income commun-
ities and communities of color.
“Schools in these areas deserve 
a government that will support 
them throughout this crisis,” 
Whitmer said. “The DeVos rule 
strips dollars away from schools 
in need of that critical funding. 
She doesn’t share our priorities for 
protecting and improving public 
education, and that’s why today’s 

2

Thursday, July 9, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS

State of Michigan 
sues Betsy Devos

On June 29, the Board of 
Regents approved a budget 
for fiscal year 2020-2021 that 
includes a 1.9 percent increase 
in tuition for the Ann Arbor 
campus and a 5.6 percent 
increase in financial aid for Ann 
Arbor students, even as many 
universities across Michigan 
and the United States opted to 
freeze tuition increase due to the 
COVID-19 pandemic. Regents 
Paul Brown (D) and Jordan 
Acker (D), who voted against 
the first budget presented last 
Thursday, both voted in favor of 
the new proposal. Acker stated 
that his decision came down to 
promises in the new budget not 
present in the first proposal.
“(The budget) has new pledges 
to eliminate some uncertainty,” 
Acker said. “There’s funding for 
students whose situations have 
changed from COVID. There’s 
no tuition increase for families 
in Michigan whose income is 
under $120,000, and it does 
have a 1.9 percent increase on 
(the 
University’s) 
wealthiest 
students. The one thing that 
I will point out is I do share 
Regent Ryder-Diggs’ concerns 
about statistics when it comes 
to student aid.”
However, 
Acker 
did 
not 
mention 
how 
out-of-state 
students will be impacted by 

the tuition increase.
The budget narrative the 
University published and that 
was provided to the Board of 
Regents in advance of Monday’s 
meeting 
mentions 
extensive 
aid opportunities for in-state 
students. 
However, 
it 
only 
mentions aid for their out-of-
state peers twice.
 “The budget also includes 
aid for nonresident families 
with need,” the narrative reads. 
“... nonresident tuition rates 
compare favorably to private 
peers.” 
University 
spokeswoman 
Kim Broekhuizen told The Daily 
most out-of-state students will 
see an increase in costs, though 
about 45 percent of out-of-state 
undergrads receive need-based 
grant aid and/or scholarship 
aid, which can be need-based 
or merit-based. This aid totaled 
roughly $185,000,000.
Broekhuizen said the new 
in-state commitments do not 
change the calculation of aid for 
out-of-state students.
However, 
there 
are 
not 
separate budgets for in-state 
and 
out-of-state 
students. 
The 
budget 
authorizes 
$400,000,000 
of 
“reserves” 
to be used to meet financial 
need, but the University has 
not committed to meeting the 
full financial need of out-of-
state students as it does with 
Michigan residents, so it is 
unclear how these reserves will 
be used to help needy out-of-
state students. 

Approved budget 
raises concerns

Read more at michigandaily.com

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Out-of-state students 
discuss the impact of 
1.9% tuition increase

Attorney General Dana 
Nessel leads lawsuit over 
COVID-19 funding

