07-13-2020, 04:30 PM
(07-13-2020, 04:12 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: So schools have become a big topic recently as we're edging closer to August and September.
Trump and DeVos have made this an election issue by claiming that it is an election issue to keep them closed. This of course hurts their attempts to try to withhold funding. As anyone who actually paid attention to the Ukraine scandal knows, the executive cannot withhold (or impound) funds appropriated by Congress without their approval. Even delaying funds requires a reason related to the policy enacted by Congress to be submitted to Congress for approval.
Either way, by going with the "its about my election chances" route rather than nuanced arguments based on education policy, they've ruined any chance of actually delaying any funds.
This could have been solved by either competency (which both Trump and DeVos lack) or an understanding of education (which again both of them lack). Regardless, both went on to call for all schools to open in person or risk federal funding, despite them not being able to do that.
Someone decided that putting Betsy DeVos in front of TV cameras to defend this bad idea was a good idea. She went on CNN and, when asked why the Dept of Edu has not submitted guidelines, Devos said that this has to be done at the local level because the needs of districts vary. Dana Bash responded by pointing out that, while this is a fair point, DeVos is the one who is demanding that all schools in the nation open, despite the varying local needs, saying "you can't have it both ways".
She then made it over to Fox News where Chris Wallace pushed back on her attempt to use Germany and other countries who have reopened schools as a reason why the US should reopen. Wallace pointed out that those nations do not have anywhere near as many new cases as the US
"Is it really fair, is it reasonable to compare the situation in countries that have 20 new cases in a day with a country that has 68,000 new cases in a day?"
DeVos responded, "Well, we're talking about schools and other countries' experiences with reopening schools. And it has been shown to be very successful", possibly not realizing that she sounded like a complete idiot.
Wallace replied, "But schools happen in an environment. If there's 30 cases in a country, that's very different than a place where it's out of control and there are 70,000 new cases in a day."
He then pushed DeVos on why she is claiming that they would take away funding, explaining that they 1) can't and 2) that would just hurt the ability of schools to open up as soon as possible.
She repeated the threat to remove funding to which Wallace said, "Well, you can't do that".
The fact that Betsy DeVos is embarrassingly unqualified for her job, lacking any actual experience in education or student loans, will actually end up saving schools. If she had even a basic understand of special education law, she could have helped lead an argument against online education, suggesting that it violated the FAPE by not teaching students in the LRE (least restrictive environment). Fortunately, she did not make that argument.
Unfortunately, though, not every school system has competent people leading it. In Florida, the governor has made the claim that schools are safe to open because Home Depot is open. Of course, Home Depot doesn't usually have small spaces with 35 people closely together talking for an hour.
As usual, the federal government has abdicated a leadership role responding to Covid 19.
As pointed out, it’s completely illogical and hypocritical to claim the schools need to decide what to do locally, but then mandate they all open from a federal level. Stupid response from stupid people based purely upon the coming election.
