WASHINGTON – This week, Governor Gavin Newsom called for indoor businesses to reclose amid surging cases of the deadly coronavirus. At the same time, President Donald Trump urged all schools to reopen fully or risk not receiving any federal funding.
President Trump said any school districts that are hesitant to reopen amid a pandemic would be making a “terrible decision.” He said the person in charge of the decision not to reopen schools should be replaced.
In Congress, there’s bipartisan support for reopening schools, but both sides of the aisle show caution for safety.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said schools should reopen safely and timely. The Bakersfield Republican said Congress should be focused on figuring out what that solution is, whether that means hybrid learning such as alternating school days or a phased-in approach to get students into classrooms, while keeping them, teachers, and the parents the children return home to, safe.
“That may be that cafeterias can’t be open like before where you’re sitting, in the same manner, you had before, or maybe recess,” McCarthy said. “Just as we’re living our life a little differently, we’re going to have to do our education a little differently. Maybe it’s plexiglass around the desk of the teacher. Maybe it’s that kids are eating inside their own classrooms and we’re keeping the same students together. Maybe before or after we do the pledge of allegiance, we wash our hands.”
Some of these suggestions reflect the CDC recommendations which are being updated this week after President Trump’s tweets of disdain, calling the CDC guidelines “impractical” and “expensive." McCarthy said the CDC is changing its recommendations this week not due to the president, but on its own terms, as more is learned about the virus.
McCarthy defended the president’s threat to withhold federal funding from schools if they don’t reopen campuses in the fall, questioning what schools would use the money for if they’re not open. Lawfully, it’s unlikely the White House can cut funding without Congress’ support. Instead, McCarthy echoed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and said the government could take that school funding and redirect it to parents so they can find alternative options for education if their schools don’t reopen. McCarthy said that was a “possible” option.
“You have childcare shutdown, you have schools shut down. Parents have now become not just parents, but teachers and coaches,” McCarthy said. “Making sure that a generation does not fall behind because they are not educated.”
Critics said the administration is focused on reopening schools only to boost the economy and get parents working again while ignoring how dangerous the virus really is. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said safety should be the priority.
“As a mother and grandmother, we all—and everyone I know—want to open up the schools indeed,” Pelosi said. “The Secretary of Education indicated that in order for children to go to school, they have to take risks. It takes risks to ride a bicycle or be an astronaut, you have to take risks. We don’t want our children to take risks to go to school.”
There’s bipartisan support for more funding to schools amid the pandemic, on top of the $31 billion passed in the CARES Act from April. Despite the president urging all schools to reopen, McCarthy said some schools may not be able to do that, due to their varying situations amid the pandemic.
“There may be a chance that schools cannot at that time,” McCarthy said. “So if you’re looking to Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, or Indiana or others where we have not seen COVID reach the level that it has maybe in California, New York, or New Jersey, that becomes a different situation.”
He said the priority now is for both parties to get back to Washington to discuss and pass legislation on the issue, in-person, criticizing Democrats for working and voting remotely from home.
California’s two largest school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego Unified School District, announced Monday schools will not reopen for any in-person instruction when the year starts in August. Universities and colleges are reconsidering their options about issues like whether to make their classes online-only or close down dorms.