The formula used to determine how much funding colleges and universities got through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security CARES Act this spring favored schools enrolling full-time, low-income students, which gave a boost to some small private programs.
Public institutions β and especially community colleges β were short changed as a result, higher education leaders say. Which in turn limited the funds colleges could give directly to students hit hardest by the pandemic. Aveda Institute Manager Kalli Blackwell Peterman said the federal funds helped cover pandemic-related expenses, like technology for distance learning and health and safety equipment.
Institutions were required to use half the funds for emergency grants for students struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic. Nearly half the Minnesota schools that received money are public institutions, like the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State colleges and universities, according to a compilation of federal data by the left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress.
The remaining 34 are not-for-profits, including the University of St. Thomas, Augsburg University and Hamline University. Although community colleges tend to enroll more low-income students, they also enroll more part-time students, reducing how much they received through the formula. Community college leaders and advocates across the country have called on Congress to reconsider the formula, arguing that public institutions that rely heavily on state and federal funding need the money more than private, for-profit schools.
Cloud and the American Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Roseville, did not appear to have their spending reports available online, as required by the Department of Education. The institutions did not respond to a request for the reports. A Reformer review of reports by institutions in each sector that received the most funding β more than 30 schools in all β found wide variation in how colleges and universities split the funds between students.
