State colleges to get virus relief funds

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  • Gates are closed in front of Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium at the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman. Ledger file photo by Michael Duncan
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OKLAHOMA CITY – The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday it would distribute $14 billion immediately to institutes of advanced education across the country. The funding includes $6.28 billion in emergency cash grants to students who are struggling financially because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Public and private colleges, universities, and vocational schools in Oklahoma will receive more than $100 million of the relief funds, ledgers reflect. Roughly half of the money is earmarked to go directly to students.

The money is derived from the CARES stimulus measure that Congress passed last month and President Trump signed.

“We don’t want unmet financial needs due to the coronavirus to derail students’ learning,” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Thursday.

It wasn’t immediately clear when students will receive the funds, and it will be up to colleges to distribute the money to students as they see fit. The money can be used for course materials, technology, food, housing, health care, childcare and similar expenses, the Education Department said.

The federal government also has suspended federal student loan payments and set the interest rate on these loans to zero through September.

Institutions could use the remaining funds for costs associated with significant changes to the delivery of instruction, federal officials said.

The funds were derived from the $2.2 trillion CARES Act stimulus bill, the largest relief package in U.S. history.

Allocations for schools were weighted significantly by the number of students who are eligible for Pell grants, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Education. The federal government also considered a school’s population and the number of students who were not enrolled in full- time online classes before the pandemic.

Secretary DeVos also provided student loan relief to tens of millions of borrowers by setting all federally held student loan interest rates to zero percent and allowing borrowers to defer payments for 60 days without interest; the CARES Act extends those benefits to six months. The Education Department also stopped all federal wage garnishments and collection actions for borrowers with federally held loans in default.

OKLAHOMA RECIPIENTS

• Cameron University in Lawton will receive $3,498,279 of the stimulus money. Half of it, $1,749,140, is to be earmarked for emergency financial aid grants to students, records indicate.

• Great Plains Technology Center in Lawton is to receive $353,682 in stimulus funds, of which half, $176,841, is designated for financially strapped students. School districts served by GPTC include Big Pasture, Bishop, Cache, Chattanooga, Davidson, Elgin, Fletcher, Flower Mound, Frederick, Geronimo, Grandfield, Indiahoma, Lawton, Snyder, Sterling and Tipton.

“We have not received official word from the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technical Education on amounts each technology center will receive, nor what the specific requirements for spending maybe,” Teresa Abram, marketing and communications coordinator at Great Plains, said Friday. “We simply do not know what we may or may not be receiving until we receive official notification.”

• Western Oklahoma State College at Altus is slated to receive $635,791. Half of that, $317,896, is reserved for students.

• Red River Technology Center, in Duncan, will receive $156,175, of which $78,088 (half ) is for student grants. School districts served by RRTC are Bray-Doyle, Central, Comanche, Duncan, Empire, Grandview, Marlow, Ryan, Temple, Terral, Velma-Alma, Walters and Waurika.

• Southwest Technology Center, in Altus, will get $113,543; half of that, or $56,772, is designated for student grants. SWTC serves the Altus, Blair, Duke, Eldorado, Granite, Navajo and Olustee school districts.

• Caddo Kiowa Technology Center, at Fort Cobb, will receive $169,573; half of that, $84,787, is to be used for student assistance. School districts served by CKTC are Anadarko, Binger-Oney, Boone-Apache, Carnegie, Cement, Cyril, Fort Cobb-Broxton, Gracemont, Hinton, Hydro-Eakly, Lookeba-Sickles, Mountain View-Gotebo, and Verden.

• Western Technology Center was allocated $240,715, of which half, $120,358, is designated for student financial assistance. WTC has campuses in Hobart, Burns Flat and three other cities. School districts served by the career technology institution include Arapaho-Butler, Burns Flat-Dill City, Hobart and Lone Wolf.

• Canadian Valley Technology Center will receive $601,347; half of that, $300,674, is for student assistance. CVTC has three campuses, including Chickasha. School districts it serves include Amber Pocasset, Chickasha, Ninnekah and Rush Springs.

• The University of Science and Arts Oklahoma, at Chickasha, is expected to receive $1,020,519, of which half, $510,260, is for students.

• The University of Oklahoma will receive $17,935,530 – the greatest amount of any single institution in the state. About $8.97 million of that is earmarked for direct student grants.

• Oklahoma State University will get the second most with $16,765,725, with $8.38 million going to students.