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Education Dive
Trump threatens to withhold funds if schools don't reopen
Roger Riddell
July 9, 2020
Dive Brief:
President Donald Trump, in a series of tweets Wednesday, suggested that
federal funding would be withheld from schools that don't fully reopen
in the fall, in addition to criticizing reopening guidelines from the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for their cost and
unfeasibility.
In a statement responding to the remarks, House Appropriations
Committee Communications Director Evan Hollander clarified that
Congress makes funding decisions for federal education programs and
that Trump "has no authority to cut off funding for these students,"
Bloomberg reports.
In a Wednesday briefing at the U.S. Department of Education, Vice
President Mike Pence and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
maintained pressure on schools nationwide to open in the fall, with
DeVos citing plans for a hybrid model and staggered scheduling in
Fairfax County, Virginia, as an example of "false paradigms." She
reiterated that "it's not a matter of if schools will open, but how."
Pence also announced that the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention will issue new reopening guidelines next week, Time reports.
Dive Insight:
The heavy pressure from the Trump administration for schools to fully
reopen nationwide notably runs counter to the traditional Republican
stance favoring local control of school decisions, as well as guidance
from Dr. Anthony Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases, local health experts and the existing guidance
from the CDC.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo also weighed in Wednesday on the
administration's pressure to reopen schools, stating that the president
lacks legal authority to force reopenings, adding that decisions in his
state will be made on an individual district level and based on how
safe it is to do so.
While research suggests children and teens are less likely to be
infected with coronavirus, administrators' concerns have also centered
around those with preexisting conditions who may be at higher risk, as
well as the potential for spread to and from faculty, staff and family
members. Last week, more than 40 principals in the San Francisco Bay
Area were exposed to coronavirus during an in-person meeting to discuss
reopening plans, highlighting concerns.
According to Politico, DeVos reportedly chastised governors regarding
those risks during a Tuesday call, saying, "Education leaders need to
examine real data and weigh risk. … Risk is involved in everything we
do, from learning to ride a bike to riding a rocket into space and
everything in between."
Educators zeroed in on the "space" portion of the comment on Twitter,
noting the extensive safety protocols put in place for astronauts.
The battle over reopening schools is still likely to be decided at the
local level, given the amount of control Congress and individual states
have in the matter. Worth further consideration is high parental
anxiety expressed in recent polls, with one USA Today/Ipsos poll
finding around 60% of parents would rather continue home learning in
fall than send their students back to school. In the same poll, around
20% of teachers said they would be unlikely to return. Data from the
American Enterprise Institute also shows 18% of teachers and 27% of
principals are high-risk on the basis of age alone, an issue that
raises the possibility of shortages amid a return.
Implementing safety measures like social distancing in a full reopening
is also a bit more complicated, as there isn't enough space in most
classrooms for 20-30 students to be seated 6 feet apart. Students,
particularly younger learners, are also unlikely to keep masks on or
refrain from touching each other.
But these concerns are also being weighed with factors like
socialization and collaboration, which are difficult to pull off or
lost altogether during online learning. Efforts to salvage as much of
spring as possible via distance learning were rocky overall, as the
transition required teachers and students to embrace an entirely new
model they weren't prepared for practically overnight, and many
students lacked access to home internet and devices.
Schools have had time to work out some of these concerns and provide
additional professional development opportunities, improving the odds
online or hybrid approaches could see better results in fall. But
maintaining access to things like home internet for low-income students
will remain a challenge without additional funding — or, in the case of
some rural districts, investment in additional local infrastructure.
The argument from educators isn't that their students are ultimately
better off learning online versus in-person — neither side is arguing
that point — but that the return to school must have plenty of safety
measures in place. And as other countries have shown, pulling off such
a return successfully is no small feat.
"I think you’d be hard pressed to find any superintendent or district
leader who doesn’t want to reopen," Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate
executive director for policy and advocacy at AASA, The School
Superintendents Association, told Education Dive Tuesday. "It’s the
responsibility of doing so safely for staff and students that makes it
less likely to reopen at 100% enrollment."
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