As schools across the country are making tough decisions about how to open safely this fall, Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have put immense pressure on schools to restart in-person classes while offering little in the way of guidance or resources to do so safely. Instead, they have spent the summer downplaying the risks schools face and exploiting the crisis to undermine public schools.

“Donald Trump has had nearly half a year to get the coronavirus response right, and the fact that we’re still debating whether or not we can safely reopen schools shows just how much his response has failed,” said State Representative Michael Brennan (D-Portland), who serves on the Maine Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee. “From threatening to cut funding to schools that don’t re-open, to their lack of an actual reopening plan, to their shameful rerouting of aid funding to wealthy private schools, it’s clear that Trump and DeVos don’t care about what’s best for our students. We need a president that puts the safety of our students and teachers above all else, which is why we must elect Joe Biden this November.”

 

BACKGROUND ON TRUMP AND DEVOS’ PUSH TO REOPEN SCHOOLS

Trump and DeVos have demanded that all schools reopen regardless of the risks, threatening those who don’t with punishment.

 

  • President Trump has repeatedly insisted that all schools around the country must reopen in the fall and threatened to cut funding to schools that don’t comply, adding pressure to schools already reeling from COVID-19.

 

  • Secretary Betsy DeVos defended Trump’s threat to defund education for schools that choose not to open because of COVID-19-related risks, claiming that schools won’t be living up to their promises.

 

Despite defunding threats, Trump and DeVos have offered no national plan or federal support to help schools reopen.

 

  • Secretary DeVos has avoided providing any form of national guidance for school reopenings, saying, “There’s not a national superintendent nor should there be, therefore there’s not a national plan for reopening.” 

 

  • DeVos also declined to say whether schools should follow CDC guidelines for school reopenings, which outlined measures designed to keep children safe, calling them “flexible.”

 

  • After abandoning COVID-19 relief negotiations with Democrats which could have led to aid to schools, Trump instead signed a series of executive orders which failed to provide any additional aid for schools to facilitate reopening.

 

While refusing to help public schools reopen, Secretary DeVos has used the pandemic to push her disastrous anti-public school agenda.

  • As schools began shutting down at the beginning of the pandemic, DeVos used the public health crisis as an “opportunity” to push her disastrous agenda undermining the nation’s public school system, calling the disruption “reaffirming” to her long held beliefs on alternative education models, which have included referring to public schools as “a dead end”, promoting taxpayer funded vouchers for private education, and supporting online charter schools.

 

  • DeVos issued guidelines that funneled coronavirus relief funds to wealthy private schools at the expense of high-poverty public school districts due, a move that could be a “substantial blow” to school districts that serve more low-income students and students of color.

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