'I am panicked and stressed,' said Sen. Patty Murray (D). 'We're going to be entering September and people are just going to lose it.'
Nobody on Capitol Hill agrees on how much to give schools, either. The White House is proposing $70 billion for K-12 schools but only for schools that fully reopen and hold in-person classes. House Democrats passed a bill in May that included $100 billion for K-12 schools. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , not to be outdone by House Democrats, on Tuesday previewed a Republican bill that provides $105 billion for schools.
Well, I will tell you, I am stressed. Because every parent I’m talking to is stressed. They are worried, “How am I going to do this? I am barely making it. My child care has gone away. It’s going to cost more. I’m trying to do my job and work at home and educate my kids.” These are the costs and challenges they’re trying to deal with, and at the same time, the number of people who are paying into daycare has dropped dramatically because people are staying home or they’ve lost their job or their businesses shut down. And [daycares] are all tuition-paid, so they don’t have the resources. We need to make sure that they’re there. Everybody talking about opening up businesses again and sending everybody back to work, you can’t do that and leave a child at home alone.
So, to answer your first question, I am panicked and stressed that we are not dealing with this in a timely fashion. We’re going to be entering September and people are just going to lose it. I introduced my bill two weeks ago and finally I’m getting people asking me about it and understanding that this has a huge impact. I will tell you, parents usually aren’t whiners when they’re working. And the reason is they don’t want to say, “This is really hard for me,” because they think, well, I won’t keep my job if my employer thinks I’m having trouble here. So people don’t speak up enough about the issues they are addressing at home.
Can you reassure parents and teachers that Congress will get schools the money they need and in time?
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