These folks are gas lighting. In fact, private schools have access to additional pots of federal funds public schools don't. Priv. schools, and for-profit charter magmt. organizations, are eligible for PPP grants. We know they've use these funds because we have the data! https://twitter.com/MackinacCenter/status/1292818733925388288

The CARES act had a lot in it. Two important pieces were: (1) the Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund, designed for public K-12 schools, and (2) the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) designed for any and all small-ish businesses.

Public schools are eligible for ESSER revenue but not PPP

Charters are eligible for ESSER revenue AND PPP

Private schools are eligible for PPP and a small proportion of ESSER revenue.

Examples of PPP payouts to priv. schools:
* Detroit County Day received between $2 - $5 mil
* Grand Rapids Christian School received between $2 - $5 mil
* Oakland Christian school received between $350k - $1 mil
* Saginaw area Catholic School received between $350k - $1 mil

A quick ctrl+F shows more than 120 PPP grants were given to firms in Michigan with "school" in their title. Though someone should do a closer analysis when this is all said and done.

These funds were NOT available to public schools!

The ESSER fund was designed to be distributed based on the number of Title I students in the school. Some of this money was also intended to serve Title I students in private schools. (FYI, Title I students are socioeconomically disadvantaged students).

The CARES Act directed the US department of Ed to distribute ESSER funds based on the proportion of Title I students.

Sec. DeVos didn't like this way of distributing the money. So, she wrote "guidance" which distributed based on the total enrollment in priv schools.

DeVos's "guidance" directly contradicts the law itself. This is why our AG Nessel, and everybody else it seems, has sued the US department of education. The US DoE wanted a different law than the one that was passed. The litigation is to get the US DoE to follow that law!

In summary, even though private schools and for-profit charters are in a privileged position when it comes to federal funding, it's never enough. They want more! To do that, they're trying to illegal redirect dollars intended for the most vulnerable students to private schools.