Rep. Burchett introduces bill to prevent school grants from being distributed based on political ideology

U.S. Congressman Tim Burchett (TN-02) introduced H.R. 7309, the Building Lasting Opportunities for Community K-12 (BLOCK) Act. 

The BLOCK Act would replace the U.S. Department of Education’s formula grants with a system that would require the Department of Education to provide each state with a block grant in the amount they received the previous year. This system would prevent the U.S. Department of Education from using formulas to direct more grant funding toward schools with policies that fall in line with the Biden administration’s political agenda.  

“I come from a family of career educators. I know schools’ top priority should be what’s best for the students, not meeting some ridiculous diversity quota,” said Rep Burchett. “If the Department of Education is providing grants to schools, it shouldn’t be able to discriminate which schools it funds based on the race of the teachers.”  

According to the Department of Education’s Raise the Bar Policy Brief, the Department awarded funds from 15 grant programs with priorities focused on educator diversity in FY 2023. The website states, “These programs awarded nearly $450 million to 263 grantees, 92 percent of which were to grantees that addressed specific priorities related to educator diversity.” 

The full text of the BLOCK Act can be found here