Joe Biden’s COVID Bill Victory Lap is a Slap in the Face to Americans Who Deserve Comprehensive Relief

President Biden will address the nation Thursday to discuss the COVID crisis. He is expected to tout his nearly two trillion-dollar spending bill and other efforts by his administration as the country continues fighting through the pandemic.

One of the top issues that has taken center stage during Biden’s presidency is the urgency of reopening schools. Studies have shown students are suffering from the downsides of online learning, yet Joe Biden has repeatedly ignored the science and moved the goalposts on a timeline to get teachers and students back in the classroom at the behest of the teachers unions. 

Now, Democrats are trying to make up for President Biden’s failures by allocating $130 billion in COVID relief to schools. However, many Republicans argue it is a broad, lump sum of money that does little to ensure schools are reopened as quickly as possible.

“They jammed through a bill that even liberal economists and editorial boards say is not well targeted to this stage of the fight. More than a third of its spending, including more than 90% of the K-12 school funding, would not even go out this fiscal year.” –Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell

“Let’s target the money, but this idea that Washington should be giving out $100-plus billion of new money to schools and not even requiring them to reopen — that’s an insult to those children who are demanding they go back to school.” – House Republican Whip Steve Scalise

According to a report from Fox Business, President Biden’s coronavirus aid allocates nearly $130 billion to schools, while piles of relief money from previous packages remain unspent.

“But state departments of education already have between $53 billion and $63 billion in unspent federal funds from the two respective relief packages passed by Congress in March and December, according to an analysis of U.S. Department of Education data by the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank.” –Fox Business

And of that $130 billion included in the latest package, only $6 billion will be appropriated for spending before October. The rest won’t be spent until fiscal years 2022 through 2028.

Meanwhile, experts are warning we must reopen schools now. In a USA Today op-ed, several doctors reiterated the dangers of keeping schools shut down and argued that the CDC’s stringent guidelines for reopening schools are a misinterpretation of the science.

“The recent school reopening guidance released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is an example of fears influencing and resulting in misinterpretation of science and harmful policy.

“Keeping schools closed or even partially closed, based on what we know now is unwarranted, is harming children, and has become a human rights issue.” –USA Today

Bottom line: Instead of giving himself a pat on the back, President Biden should buck the teachers unions and focus on implementing comprehensive solutions that reopen schools as quickly as possible.