A medical school is using COVID-19 relief funds to give back to its students in time for the holidays.
The Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta made the announcement on Wednesday in an email from school president Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice. In it, she said that all of the school's more than 750 students would be receiving a $6,300 payment.
These payments are intended to help Morehouse students cover education-related expenses and are planned to be distributed by December 15.
"I am happy to announce that Morehouse School of Medicine will provide a financial gift of $6,300 to assist each of our currently enrolled, degree-seeking students with additional academic, financial, and mental health support costs such as childcare, food, transportation, housing and healthcare needs," the email from Rice read.
The money for these payments is being pulled from coronavirus relief funds provided to Morehouse by the Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act—or, the CARES Act—which was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by former President Donald Trump in March 2020.
Among the initial provisions of the CARES Act was $14 billion to help universities and their students, known as the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF). HEERF received a $21.2 billion increase in January and a further $39.6 billion in March as part of President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan.
Throughout all of these allocations for schools, Morehouse received roughly $56 million in aid.
In September 2020, Morehouse School of Medicine was given a sum of $26.3 million by Michael Bloomberg's Bloomberg Philanthropies organization to help pay off student debt. The money was distributed to students enrolled in aid programs, with each one getting roughly $100,000.
Earlier, in June 2020, the school received a $40 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services as a means to address the considerable impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on African American communities.
Originally founded in 1975, the Morehouse School of Medicine was initially part of Morehouse College but became independent in 1981. It remains one of the few medical schools in the U.S. to be considered a "Historically Black College of University," or HBCU.
"I think [the school] made a better use of taxpayer dollars by giving it directly to the intended beneficiaries than the less productive uses chosen by other institutions," educational policy expert Jay Greene told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Even if it would have been more appropriate for taxpayers not to have provided those funds at all."
Newsweek reached out to the Morehouse School of Medicine for comment.
