In March 2021, President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP) into law, which the White House touted as “a bridge to an equitable economic recovery” from the COVID pandemic by “delivering direct relief to the American people” and small businesses. But a recent report found that a federal government agency that works with libraries and museums used $15 million of ARP funds for programs aimed at children that promote “anti-racism” and “equity, diversity, and inclusion,” among other programs for the general public.
Some of the grants aimed at children included a $49,632 field trip for third-graders to “remove racist artwork from a historic carousel, as a tool for anti-racism education,” $43,400 to train Minneapolis Institute of Arts guides to use “an anti-racist lens,” $50,000 for a science and art center in Harrisburg, Pa. to offer “equity, diversity, and inclusion-focused STEM … programs for pre-K through 12th-grade students,” and $50,000 for the Brooklyn Museum to create an “intensive arts education curricula” that “addresses history and art through an anti-racist lens.”
Other programs that were funded include $49,750 for Historic New England in Boston to hire a fellow to create an initiative “documenting the impacts of the Black Lives Matter movement ... ” as well as $50,000 for the Anchorage Museum in Alaska to hire a “programmatic staff member to collaborate with and support communities of color and LGBTQ communities, as well as a curator to work with communities on climate change and climate justice.”
In addition to these controversial grant allocations, ARP money was also used to directly fund the most divisive issue in America: abortion. In March, despite GOP efforts, Democrats were able to stave off the Hyde Amendment from applying to ARP funds, which meant that $50 million was allocated to cover abortion, including businesses like Planned Parenthood, the U.S. leader in carrying out abortions.
The revelations of questionable spending come after numerous experts, including a former Obama Treasury advisor, warned that the ARP would contribute to rising inflation. The current outlook for the U.S. economy is grim, with reports showing that inflation, which was already at historic highs, continued to rise through the month of June.
Reports of wasteful spending in the ARP have dogged the stimulus package from the beginning. As written about by Forbes and other outlets, the stimulus was supposed to be centered on providing funds to fight COVID and give financial help to families and small businesses, but instead included grants like $200 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, $270 million for the National Endowment of the Arts and the Humanities, and $1.5 billion for Amtrak, among multiple other government agency earmarks.
Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council, was appalled by how the grants are being used at taxpayer expense. “The spending on education during the pandemic has been one of the most egregious abuses of the taxpayer in recent memory,” she told The Washington Stand. “The fact that billions of dollars sent to states for schools remain unspent show that there was no need for the emergency relief packages like ARP. The examples of libraries and museums adding woke programming at taxpayer expense just adds insult to injury.”
“The programming designed in libraries and museums is often packaged as curricular material for K-12 schools — meaning more identity politics and less learning for America’s children,” she concluded.
Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.
