Trump wants schools to reopen. Experts say COVID-19 safety measures will cost billions

WASHINGTON — If schools are to reopen safely as soon as August, which President Donald Trump has proposed, education experts say billions of dollars in federal funding will be needed in the next coronavirus relief bill. The money will help pay for personal protective equipment for teachers and students, hand washing stations and additional sanitizing and screening measures. Staggered times for attendance, meals and transportation will also be required to maintain proper social distancing, and that will raise costs, they said. Schools may need to hire additional personnel to implement those policies. The White House opposes a big rescue package directed at financially struggling states. But states did not budget for school supplies like masks and disinfectant that will be key to safe reopenings, national advocates for K-12 educators and school nurses told McClatchy. "We want to open schools, but we want to open schools in an environment that follows the guidelines," Daniel Domenech, executive director of The School Superintendents Association, said. "Not just say, let's open up in August, regardless of what's happening." An emergency bill enacted in March appropriated close to $31 billion to the Department of Education — $13.2 billion of which went to kindergarten through high school funding. Governors are asking Congress for $500 billion in emergency funding to rescue states with severe revenue shortfalls, but leading education groups say schools should receive half of that money. While they are asking for roughly $250 billion in total aid, some $50 billion of that money would be set aside for minority-serving colleges and universities. Another $25 billion would go to supporting vulnerable children, as well as low-income and minority students. Their letter to Congress requests $175 billion for local school districts and higher education institutions to help offset state revenue losses. Funding for schools at all levels should be at least equivalent to what it was the past three fiscal years, they said. Education advocates worry that anticipated state budget cuts will mean less money for schools at a time when educational institutions can't afford to cut costs and adequately respond to the coronavirus. The White House is still developing its positions on another coronavirus relief package. Democratic lawmakers have not released their proposal, but several told McClatchy they support increased funding for schools. They did not specify how much they would be willing to spend. "Democrats secured $30 billion in the CARES Act to help states and local governments with education costs and will fight for significantly more in the next bill so that schools all across the country have the resources they need to safely reopen when the time is right," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a statement to McClatchy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office declined to comment on the legislative package that is under development, but the California Democrat signaled in a Sunday evening letter to her colleagues that funding for schools would be a pillar of the party's proposal. The letter encouraged House lawmakers to "Think Big." Pelosi had previously said that state and local governments could need nearly $1 trillion for their recovery efforts. The federal government cannot pay the entire amount, she acknowledged. The anticipated battle over funding for schools will happen as states lift their stay at home orders. White House coronavirus experts have approved phased reopenings, so long as the number of new infections and deaths is on a downward trajectory. White House coronavirus task force reopening guidelines say that schools, daycares and youth camps can reopen once a state or region has experienced a decline in coronavirus cases for four consecutive weeks. Laurie Combe, the president of the National Association of School Nurses, said her organization considers August to be a target date for schools to reopen and it will be watching states with fewer cases of coronavirus that have opted to move faster. School nurses will be on the frontlines of the effort, the Texas-based health consultant said, helping to determine how students should be arranged in classrooms to maximize physical distancing while making class schedules as convenient as possible for families with multiple school-aged children. It will also fall to nurses to educate parents, teachers, students and staff about good hygiene and best practices, she said, and to monitor children for COVID-like symptoms and illness, which will add to the daily responsibilities that school nurses overseeing infirmaries already have. "There will be a certain amount of anxiety among the members of the school community, whether it be staff who have children in their classrooms, or parents who are anxious about their child's potential exposure to COVID-19," she said. "And so we are planning as if we are going to have an increased workload presenting to the clinic door." The Trump administration has yet to offer detailed recommendations for reopening schools safely that could alleviate some of that anxiety. In an email to McClatchy, an Education Department spokesperson said that "health agencies will take the lead on school reopening guidance just as they did on school closings." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not updated its interim guidance to schools since March. The last available public guidance says decisions "should be made locally" about school strategies. "Strategies are implemented at the state and local level because every locale is different and individual jurisdictions have the authority and local awareness to protect their communities," Benjamin Haynes, a CDC spokesman, told McClatchy in an email. Trump's coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said last week it is the White House's position that counties and states should decide when it is safe to reopen school districts. The president has repeatedly offered his own opinions on the reopening of schools. He said last week that teachers over the age of 60, especially those with underlying health conditions, should wait to return to work beyond the start of the new school year. Students, on the other hand, will be "fine," he said, referencing medical research that has found that children are less likely to experience severe symptoms of coronavirus. They may need to "wear masks for a while and they may be separated further than what they're used to," but schools must reopen, Trump said. "I want them to go back. We have to get our country back," he said. "I don't want to do this forever." Labor leader Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and a former New York City educator, said schools will have to make a serious effort to make sure that kids are not coughing or sneezing and spreading illness to each other and adults, who are more susceptible to the disease. Ideally, they would be able to test students every day, she said, but that kind of testing capacity does not currently exist in the United States. That is why education groups like AFT are asking Congress for additional funding. "If you want to open schools, in the absence of a vaccine and the absence of a test for every single child, every single day, you're going to have to physically distance or do other public health tools," she said. "That includes lowering class size and staggering time, and that costs money. There's no either or here. It's a both and." Democratic lawmakers told McClatchy that additional money for schools is paramount. "This funding is a top priority for the next bill. Not only will it get money to local hospitals and public health agencies, but it will help schools do everything they need to prepare to re-open," Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., told McClatchy in an email. "Re-opening schools will be a much more complicated — and more expensive — task than it normally is after a summer vacation." President Trump does not want to give additional money to states. He has said it should not fall to the federal government to backfill a financially challenged state's revenue losses. Senior economic adviser Hassett said Sunday on CNN that discussions about a fourth bill are "premature" while aid is still being distributed from the last one. Republicans on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee did not respond to requests for comment from McClatchy. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has said that a future rescue package should be narrowly tailored to the coronavirus response. Republican leaders are interested in seeing a relief package that includes incentives for businesses to reopen. The White House declined to comment on the proposed funding for schools. But an official told McClatchy in an email that the administration is "working closely to ensure all families have the ability to get back to work quickly and safely." "It's equally important that their children — of all ages — have a safe environment to return to as well, whether that be childcare or schooling," the official said. "As the unprecedented benefits in CARES continue to be implemented across the country, we will continue to advocate in support of working families to ensure they are provided with the relief they need." Domenech, a former superintendent of the Fairfax County, Va., public schools, said the additional money is needed to solve a number of logistical challenges that are critical to establishing that safe environment, including the possibility that everyone who enters and exits schools will have to have their temperature checked. He said it "would be a major disaster" to allow children to roam freely in the halls and sit next to one another in cafeterias and in classrooms. "I suspect that we're going to start seeing very soon that school officials are going to start being pressured perhaps by their governors that say, we have to open schools because the president says so," he said. ——— ©2020 McClatchy Washington Bureau Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau at www.mcclatchydc.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. PHOTO (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194):