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Congress considers COVID relief bill – your voice of support is needed!
Over the next two-to-three weeks, Congress will consider a third wave of COVID-19 funding relief that will total $1.9 trillion and likely include:
- $130 billion in additional funding for K-12 schools, which can be used for a multitude of purposes including cleaning/sanitizing schools, PPE and professional learning, and
- $7 billion for devices, hotspots, and Internet access services to connect the upwards of 12 million students who lack Internet connectivity in their homes (termed the Homework Gap).
As you know, this funding is urgently needed to allow schools to reopen and to ensure that students who remain at home (because their schools continue to be remote-learning or hybrid-learning only or they have medical issues which prevent their return to in-person schooling) are able to access their classes. We need your help to get this bill across the finish line.
The House of Representatives is expected to take up and pass this legislative package as soon as Friday, February 26th. By early March, we expect the bill to move to the Senate, where it is expected to go right to the floor. While Senate passage will only require 50 votes because this package is being done using an arcane legislative vehicle called budget reconciliation, it can still be amended.
We are concerned that some Senators may attempt to make changes to the education provisions, including eliminating significant portions of the funding or conditioning school district receipt of funds on physical school reopening. Learning Forward would strongly prefer that the current package pass “as is” without any controversial amendments.
What You Can Do Right Now
Call, e-mail, text, tweet, or message your Senators and Representatives and tell them to support students and educators by approving without further amendment $130 billion for general K-12 COVID relief and $7 billion for the homework gap in the forthcoming Budget Reconciliation Bill.
E-mail to Senators and Representatives
Dear ___:
I write today in support of the education funding provisions contained within the Budget Reconciliation bill that Congress is considering. I request that you not support any amendment to the bill’s $130 billion for K-12 COVID-19 relief or $7 billion for Homework Gap support that would reduce funding for those provisions or impose conditions on schools and school districts spending those dollars. America’s students, teachers and parents desperately need access to these funds immediately and without strings.
As a K-12 educator in [NAME OF SCHOOL OR DISTRICT], I have seen firsthand how devastating the past year’s COVID-19 school building closures have been and continue to be for our community. In order for schools to reopen and stay open safely, it is critical that they have additional needed financial resources. These resources will allow schools and districts to meet critical instructional needs, including professional learning, that will help ameliorate the learning loss from which so many of our students are suffering. The $130 billion in K-12 funding included within the Budget Reconciliation bill before you is necessary to allow schools to return to normal, particularly with the financial downturn in our state and region as a result of the pandemic.
Additionally, I recognize that many students and teachers will not be able to return to their school buildings as quickly as we would like because they live in high transmission areas or have health conditions that make in-person teaching and learning too risky. In order for those students and teachers to participate in remote learning, they must have home Internet access and far too many still do not. In fact, recent studies indicate that millions of students and thousands of teachers – many of them low-income, people of color, or residing in rural and remote areas – lack home Internet access, a computer appropriate for remote learning, or both. The Budget Reconciliation bill’s inclusion of $7 billion to bridge the “Homework Gap” is urgently needed now to allow students and teachers to participate in teaching and learning. It is also needed in the future to ensure that students have the same level of home Internet connectivity as their wealthier peers in order to conduct online research, communicate with their teachers, apply for college and employment, apply for government services, and so much more.
Thank you for your time and attention to this most urgent matter.
Sincerely,
_________
Talking Points
Over the next two-to-three weeks, Congress will be considering a third wave of COVID-19 funding relief that will total $1.9 trillion and likely include:
- $130 billion in additional funding for K-12 schools, which can be used for a multitude of purposes including cleaning/sanitizing schools, PPE, and professional learning, and
- $7 billion for devices, hotspots, and Internet access services to connect the upwards of 12 million students who lack Internet connectivity in their homes (termed the Homework Gap).
I support immediate passage of Budget Reconciliation bill without any changes to the education funding provisions.
I urge members of Congress to oppose amendments that would:
- Reduce the amount of funding available for K-12 COVID-19 relief or Homework Gap support.
- Attach conditions on schools or school districts spending the money.
The Need for $130 billion for K-12 Education Relief:
- K-12 schools rely on state and local funding for the vast majority of their budgets.
- 26 states have sustained revenue declines in the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic; 5 states have seen their revenues fall by 10% or more.
- According to the Washington Post: “Across all states, cuts to education spending make up almost all of the job losses. On the local level, public education accounted for just over half of job losses.”
- For schools to reopen safely and continue to operate they will need federal funds to replace the loss of state and local revenues.
- The proposed $130 billion in K-12 COVID-19 relief would provide broad-based support to K-12 schools, including:
- Coordinated COVID-19 response
- Addressing learning loss
- Professional learning
- Supplies to sanitize and clean schools
- Providing meals to low-income students
- Providing mental health services
- Summer and supplemental after school learning
- School facility repairs to reduce risk of virus transmission
The Need for $7 billion for Homework Gap Support:
- Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the homework gap was experienced by up to 16 million K-12 students who couldn’t finish their schoolwork from home because they lacked internet access or an appropriate computing device. According to Pew Research:
- 37% of rural Americans do not have broadband internet access at home
- 35% of students from households with annual incomes below $30,000 do not have access to high-speed internet at home
- 25% of African-American households and 23% of Hispanic households with school-age children do not have access to high-speed internet at home
- Since the pandemic began, some progress has been made on bridging the homework gap but much work remains to be done. According to Common Sense Media:
- “Up to 12 million K–12 students remain under-connected going into 2021 due to limitations of poor broadband mapping data, current infrastructure and supply chains, insufficient marketing and adoption support, and inadequate funding.”
- Permanently closing this gap will require between $6 billion and $11 billion in the first year and between $4 billion and $8 billion annually thereafter, to address affordability and adoption gaps.
- Closing the digital divide for teachers will cost approximately $1 billion in its first year.”
- The Budget Reconciliation bill would:
- Provide $7 billion to public and private schools and public libraries to purchase Internet access and connected devices (including hotspots, routers, modems and computers) for students, educators and library patrons who lack home Internet access, a connected device, or both.
- Schools and libraries would be reimbursed for 100% of the costs associated with the eligible services and equipment. The FCC, which would administer the program, is empowered to determine whether requests for discount are reasonable, thereby preventing gold-plated requests.
- This funding would flow to and be distributed via the existing E-Rate program mechanism, but would operate separate and apart from the existing E-Rate program.
For questions, please contact Learning Forward’s Chief Policy Officer Melinda George. Melinda can be reached at Melinda.george@learningforward.org.
