WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration could allow families to use federal education funding elsewhere if the local public school does not open during the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. education secretary said on Thursday as the Trump administration seeks to pressure states and cities to fully resume in-person classes.
“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 their schools are going to refuse to open,” Betsy DeVos told Fox News in an interview.
DeVos, a proponent of private and religious education who has long pushed “school choice,” gave no details on the administration’s plan.
U.S. schools are scrambling to prepare for the upcoming academic year as the pandemic surges nationwide, topping 3 million confirmed cases. President Donald Trump has called on schools to reopen, but there is no federal plan to coordinate the effort.
…snip…
It was unclear how the administration planned to redirect federal education dollars. The U.S. Congress would have to approve any change in appropriations, which would likely face resistance by Democrats who control the House of Representatives.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said everyone wants to open schools “but it must be safe for the children.”
Most public schools are run and funded by local governments, with supplemental funding from the federal government. State and city budgets are hemorrhaging due to the economic slowdown during the pandemic.
…snip…
While the highly contagious and potentially fatal disease appears to be less harmful to most younger people, its full impact on youth or their ability to transmit it remains unclear.
…snip…
But DeVos argued schools can safely re-open now, something echoed by some of Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress.
“If we can work to reopen bars, restaurants, and casinos, we can work together to responsibly open our schools and day cares,” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said.
But health experts have said the restart of such economic activity has driven a wave of new cases, particularly in Texas, Florida and Arizona.
Many people are wondering, as White House reporter Brian Karem asked Twitler’s spokesliar, “Kayleigh [McEnany], if it’s safe to send people back to schools, is it safe to send Manafort back to prison?”
Of course, there was no mention of the health of teachers, janitors, lunch ladies (sorry if that’s sexist), school office workers, school bus drivers, etc.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
This is redolent of withholding even basic education from slaves. The workforce is much easier to control when they are ignorant.
They are a lot easier to control when they’re dead, too.
gotta get the economy and schools back open in order to win the election. because of course that’s a whole lot more important than people dying.
Racist Ronnie DeSanitize said, “If you can do Home Depot, if you can do Walmart, if you can do these things, we absolutely can do the schools.” Because, everyone sits for 6 hours close together at Home Depot.
and all the kids wear a mask all day long and never get within six feet of each other.
You’d have better luck herding cats than making a bunch of elementary school kids stay where they are supposed to and keep masks on.
Good point, Nonnie. What a mess!
I really worry about the kids of children in the Twitler cult. Will their parents send their kids to school in blind allegiance to their leader? They are probably the same assholes who refuse to wear masks, so they will be endangering everyone who comes in contact with their kids.
Education in the time of Covid is a conundrum. I see no good solution. Returning to school could have been routine except that our country had negative leadership when the crisis occurred. Europe has the virus under control and is returning to normal education pretty much. To quote Marlon Brando, we could have been a contender, we could’ve been somebody! Nope, not with Twitler, the divider in chief. Why 40% of the people cannot see this is beyond me!
I go to Nextdoor.com to look for different businesses when something in the house breaks or if I want to see what a noise down the street was from or whatever. I live in one of the diminishing blue areas of Floriduhhh, and I am struck by how many Twitler cult members are in my neighborhood. They don’t blame him for anything, and the excuses they make for him could be cut and pasted from a Faux News script. The same morons probably think Racist Ronnie DeSanitize is doing a bang-up job, too. I wonder if they’ll still think that if their kids get sick or if their kid’s favorite teacher dies. Jim, I feel like we are living in a nightmare, and we can’t seem to wake up.
Hopefully, Nonnie, reveille comes in November.