Several Americans are demanding a surprise stimulus check to compensate for the record rise in prices before the holidays. Lawmakers are unlikely to send more stimulus checks, but some students could get stimulus money before the end of the year. Some medical students in Atlanta could get $6,300 in coronavirus stimulus checks for education related expenses.
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Last week, the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta announced that all of the school's students (more than 750) would get a payment of $6,300. The recipients would be allowed to use the money to pay for education-related expenses.
“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,” school president Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice said in an email announcement.
The school authorities are using the funds they got from the CARES Act, which was approved in March last year, to give stimulus money to the students. Under the CARES Act’s Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), $14 billion was allotted to universities and their students.
HEERF got a $21.2 billion increase in January and $39.6 billion again in March after President Biden approved the American Rescue Plan. Morehouse got about $56 million in aid from these allocations. The Morehouse School of Medicine plans to give the money to the students by December 15.
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Apart from these federal allocations, the Morehouse School of Medicine also received $26.3 million from Michael Bloomberg's Bloomberg Philanthropies organization to help pay off student debt. This money went to students registered in aid programs, with each student receiving about $100,000.
Also, in June, the school got a $40 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on African American communities. The Morehouse School of Medicine is one of the few schools in the U.S. that is considered a "Historically Black College of University," or HBCU.
Several experts lauded the Morehouse School of Medicine for directly providing the stimulus funds to the intended beneficiaries, unlike many other institutions that used the stimulus funds for less productive uses.
Other schools and universities have also been sending out aid to students. For instance, Black medical school Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee sent about $10,000 worth of grants to most of its 956 students, in November.
Bushnell University also sent a total of $642,674 to 206 students, who enrolled on or after March 13, 2020 and are in “exceptional need” of aid. On average, eligible students got $3,120 in grants, with some receiving up to $6,500.
