Education Department faces FOIA lawsuit over alleged scheme to pay students for election activity

The watchdog Protect the Public's Trust filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Education Department for allegedly not responding to a Freedom of Information Act request for documents about the agency's decision to allow federal work-study program funds to be used to pay students participating in election-related activities. 

The watchdog filed the lawsuit after a year and a half after it first attempted to obtain documents from the Education Department about the work-study program, which provides part-time jobs for undergraduate and graduate students with financial need.

In April 2022, the Education Department said that federal work-study funds could not be used by any agency other than a post-secondary education "institution, for work involving partisan or nonpartisan political activity, including party-affiliated voter registration activities." 

Last month, however, the federal agency said that federal work-study funds "may be used for employment by a Federal, State, local, or Tribal public agency for civic engagement work that is not associated with a particular interest or group," including "broad-based get-out-the-vote activities, voter registration, providing voter assistance at a polling place or through a voter hotline, or serving as a poll worker."

While the new proposal does not appear to directly allow federal work-study money to be used in partisan political activities, critics have said it violates federal law.

"It is a violation of the Hatch Act as well as the Anti-Deficiency Act. It is an outrageous abuse of power," Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Hans A. von Spakovsky told Fox News Digital earlier this month. 

"The Biden administration is weaponizing the federal government to aid its own re-election efforts. Using tax dollars to pay overwhelmingly liberal college students to register and turn out voters is only the latest scandal," Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead said.

The watchdog's director, Michael Chamberlain, said the lack of response followed by a new decision is a "bad look" for the department. 

"Trust in government is at an all-time low. If it’s going to be restored, citizens must be certain that the bureaucracy works for them, and not for political purposes," he said. 

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