Bureaucrats in the New York state government are dragging their feet when it comes to distributing government coronavirus relief funding to religious schools, according to the Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of New York.

Michael Deegan wrote an editorial in the New York Post calling out state officials for “undermining the efforts of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the state legislature to deliver for all our state’s schoolchildren.”

Deegan noted that Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent resignation for sexual misconduct adds another kink in the bureaucratic supply chain.

Deegan also criticized how public schools have been given easier access to the funding:

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.

Deegan, who called the state’s education officials “pencil pushers,” notes that the feds gave school officials six months to use the money before it is redirected to the governor, who will have “wider discretion” on how the money will be used.

“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,” Deegan wrote. “Sadly, the agency’s will to do so remains questionable.”

Deegan said state officials, including Cuomo’s successor Kathy Hochul, should do what is right for religious schools so “our kids get the help they deserve.”

“The pandemic doesn’t discriminate,” Deegan concludes. “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.”

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