Public Schools Can’t Open Safely Unless Congress Provides Fiscal Relief
Back in session this week following a two-week, July 4th recess, Congress must now pass emergency fiscal relief for states and local school districts to make it safe for students and their teachers to return to school this fall. To rescue school districts whose funding has already begun to erode as the recession has undermined state budgets, more federal dollars are necessary even to ensure that school systems can operate hybrid, in-person/online school opening plans—bringing in students on a staggered schedule two or three days each week to protect social distancing in classrooms and on buses.
President Donald Trump has demanded that all schools open full-time, five days a week for every student. A new report from the American Federation of Teachers explains why such an expectation is dangerously unrealistic, especially considering that any money appropriated in late July or early August won’t arrive soon enough for school districts to repair ventilation systems, secure temporary portable classroom space, or hire a sufficient number of teachers to divide all classes in half: “Take a look at what it would cost just to do what Trump wants: fully accommodating every child in public schools for face-to-face instruction. Assuming virus spread is tackled so that the infection rate is low enough that experts deem it safe, and assuming there are ongoing testing and contact tracing protocols, it would potentially require a half-trillion dollars to safely reopen public schools at that scale. That means 47 percent more classrooms to ensure that students are 6 feet apart. And it means as many as 47 percent more instructors, which would cost approximately $140 billion in salary and benefits. If half of those additional teachers required portable classrooms, it might cost more than $115 billion… Even if there were political will to spend that money, we have already missed the chance to make the broadest progress toward that goal, with no way to find the teachers, the classroom capacity, or the buses needed by the time fall semester starts. The call to do this is unserious and deters from what can be done, which is to provide supports for the fullest and CONTINUE READING: Public Schools Can’t Open Safely Unless Congress Provides Fiscal Relief | janresseger
