Via The New York Times: Coronavirus Live News and Updates - The New York Times.
President Trump, openly flouting the advice of his own federal health experts, threatened to cut off federal aid to schools that refuse to fully reopen this fall.
He assailed guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommend a slew of costly preventive measures necessary to bring the nation’s children back to class.
In a pair of tweets on Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump ramped up pressure on state leaders to get children back in brick and mortar buildings, a crucial step to jump-starting the economy.
Mr. Trump has no control over the vast majority of school district budgets, which are raised by local property and sales taxes. And he has little control over federal funding already appropriated by Congress. But the Education Department can withhold emergency relief funding that school districts say they desperately need to fund staff, programming and the public health measures recommended by the C.D.C.
“I disagree with@CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools. While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!” Mr. Trump wrote.
Mr. Trump also tweeted that he believed that schools’ hesitance to reopen was politically motivated, invoking European countries that have already reopened their schools. But most of those countries did so after getting the virus under control and reducing new infections to a minimum. In much of the United States, virus infections are soaring and patients are quickly filling up hospital beds. Some cities and areas, in response to surging cases, have slowed reopening or imposed new antivirus precautions.
“In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!” he wrote.
Mr. Trump’s funding threat carries real weight. When it passed its $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus law, Congress gave enormous latitude to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to decide how to parcel out tens of millions of dollars in relief to school districts. Ms. DeVos said Tuesday that only 1 percent of the $13.5 billion in stimulus funding allocated to K-12 school districts had been claimed. And the Education Department doles out billions in funding to states for a range of programs funded in the federal budget, including those that serve low-income and special education students.
Those districts are now desperate for funds as they try to find ways to open classrooms with far fewer students and staff in each, to maintain social distancing, to test students and staff for the coronavirus, and to provide masks and other protective gear. Education groups have estimated that they need at least $200 billion in additional funding to reopen next school year.
