Washington, D.C. - Today, Congressman Tom Emmer (MN-06) led a letter with Congressman Pete Stauber (MN-08), Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach (MN-07), and Congressman Jim Hagedorn (MN-01) to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen calling into question the use of COVID-19 relief funding for “equity audit” services in the Sartell-St. Stephen School District (ISD 748).

According to reports, ISD 748 entered into an $80,000 contract with Equity Alliance Minnesota to use COVID-19 relief funding for services aimed at helping teachers and staff “understand how culture, power, and race impact self and others.”

Subsequent to that contract, Sartell-St. Stephen students were reportedly forced to participate in an “equity survey,” which made some of them feel confused and uncomfortable. As one fourth grader recounted during a July 19, 2021, school board meeting, she and her classmates were prohibited by their teacher from repeating the contents of the survey to their parents, and were discouraged from asking their parents questions raised in the survey they did not understand. 

"As a father, I am deeply troubled by the reports coming from the Sixth District. It is never appropriate for our students to feel like they cannot share information with their parents or guardians. Even worse, our students should never be instructed to withhold things from them," said Emmer. 

Emmer continued, "The federal government authorized trillions of dollars in COVID relief spending to help businesses and families combat the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The use of taxpayer dollars to fund an audit of this nature seems extraneous at best, which is why we are asking Secretary Yellen for information about what the Treasury Department is doing to ensure these funds are used in accordance with the intent of the laws that provided them."

Read the letter here. 

Congressman Emmer is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for the House Committee on Financial Services. 

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