TOPLINE
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday walked back her threat from earlier this week to withhold federal funding from schools that don’t reopen for in-person classes this fall, saying that parents should withhold funding instead, following days of President Trump exerting pressure on schools to reopen.
President Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White … [+]
KEY FACTS
On Tuesday, DeVos told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that she was “very seriously” looking at withholding federal funds from schools that don’t physically reopen this fall, following Trump’s threats to cut federal funding and to push the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to change its guidelines which he called “very tough,” “impractical” and “expensive.”
When asked Thursday if she still backs the president’s proposal to pull federal funding, DeVos told Fox News’ Sandra Smith: “American investment in education is a promise to our students and families and if schools aren’t going to reopen we’re not suggesting pulling funding from education, but instead allowing families to take that money and figure out where their kids can get educated if they’re schools are going to refuse to open.”
Politico noted that DeVos’s language might indicate the administration’s intention to use school vouchers — a controversial proposal long opposed by Democrats in Congress.
The administration has limited ability to curtail appropriations approved by Congress and, as Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) explained Thursday, “DeVos doesn’t have the authority to place this condition on the funding under current law, and we have no intention of giving her such authority.”
Further, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement, “Unless Congress has given the Secretary a slush fund, she doesn’t get to unilaterally decide to change Congressional prerogatives.”
DeLauro, who chairs the House panel overseeing education funding, added that DeVos, a proponent of school choice, “has always used words like ‘choice,’ ‘freedom,’ and in this case, ‘allowing families to figure out where their kids can get educated,’ to describe her fixation with implementing systems that siphon away resources from public schools for vouchers and other privatization schemes.”
key background
The administration’s push for schools to reopen has been widely viewed as a strategy for boosting the economy before the election and some politicians, like Chair of the House Education Committee Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Virginia) have argued that Trump’s push to “prematurely reopen” schools ignores the health experts and is “dangerous.”
tangent
“Please under no circumstances take medical advice from Donald Trump or Betsy DeVos, especially when it comes to the health of your children,” Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of The National Education Association, the United States’ largest teachers’ union, said on CNN’s “New Day.” She explained that she once taught 39 sixth graders in a classroom with one window and that it was a “germ factory.” She said she knew she’d catch somebody’s cold every year. “This is different. This is a virus that kills people and Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos are making a mockery of the danger,” Garcia said. “I double doggy dare Donald Trump to sit in a class of 39 sixth graders and breathe that air without any preparation for how we are going to bring our kids back safely.”
chief critic
Presidential candidate Joe Biden has made his opinion of DeVos’ leadership crystal clear.
further reading
How the Trump administration backpedaled on its threats to cut school funding (Politico)
Trump Criticizes CDC And Threatens To Cut Funding For Schools That Refuse To Reopen (Forbes)
CDC Director Says Agency Won’t Revise School Reopening Guidelines — Despite Trump Pressure (Forbes)
