Caesars Palace, MLB stadium, an ice cream truck: DOGE reveals how schools spent billions in COVID-relief funds

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Schools spent hundreds of billions of COVID-relief funds on expenses that had "little" impact on students, such as Las Vegas hotel rooms and the purchase of an ice cream truck, according to the Trump administration's cost-cutting department.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk to purge wasteful government spending, revealed on Thursday that schools have spent nearly $200 billion in COVID-relief funds "with little oversight or impact on students."

Granite School District in Utah spent their COVID-relief funds on $86,000 in hotel rooms for an educational conference at Caesars Palace, a ritzy Las Vegas casino, while Santa Ana Unified in California spent $393,000 to rent out a Major League Baseball stadium, according to a report by Parents Defending Education and shared by DOGE. Granite School District has since denied "any impropriety for having our educators participate" in the Vegas conference.

The cost-cutting department also revealed that schools spent $60,000 of COVID-relief funds on swimming pool passes, while a California district used its funds to purchase an ice cream truck.

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DOGE reveals how COVID-relief funds have been spent. (Getty Images)

"All of this money was drawn with zero documentation," DOGE wrote in a post on X.

DOGE highlighted that the Trump administration is implementing more thorough requirements for dishing out the $4 billion left from the funds, requiring that all grantees must "provide receipts for every purchase before funding is released."

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While the Trump administration reworks the Department of Education's issuing of funds, the revelations about where money has been spent have sparked outrage from local leaders and education groups across the country.

Elon Musk speaks during an event with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11. (AP Images)

"Recall those school board meetings when the ruling elites of Covidstan branded mothers as selfish disruptors simply for challenging their interpretation of "The Science" and scrutinizing how they allocated ESSER Funds? Never let them forget that we were right about everything," Moms for Liberty said in response to the findings.

Will O'Neil, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, called the funds being spent on renting the MLB stadium "an absolute joke."

"This is outrageous," wrote the Republican Party of Bexar County.

Department of Education Building. (iStock)

In a statement Friday defending its use of COVID-19 funds, Granite School District said the "funding in question was used to pay for hotel rooms for 123 educators from our district to attend a three-day professional educational convention hosted by Solution Tree in Las Vegas in 2022."

"At the time, the closest available conference location was in Las Vegas, which was also the most cost-effective option being only several hours from Salt Lake City. Other locations offered at that time were much further away and would have resulted in more costs for participation," the statement continued, in part. 

"To be clear, there is no investigation into the use of these funds, which were approved by the Utah State Board of Education in full compliance with all applicable state and federal guidelines. Granite School District has NOT been contacted or questioned by any state or federal regulatory agency about the use of these funds."

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DOGE has taken specific aim at cutting spending by the Department of Education (DoEd), slashing $370 million in taxpayer dollars being spent on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) just last week.

The department terminated 70 DEI training grants within the department, including one that funded training for teachers to "engage in ongoing learning and self-reflection to confront their own biases and racism, and develop asset-based anti-racist mindsets," DOGE said.