Despite school opening demands from allies of President Biden, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Democratic coronavirus spending plan would delay the bulk of education spending until next year and later, potentially threatening school reopening until 2023, according to a GOP analysis.
With the Biden administration already sitting on some $1 trillion in unused and previously approved COVID-19 money, the GOP is drawing additional attention to the fine print in the Democratic proposal for education, part of the huge $1.9 trillion budget for the virus.
The Congressional Budget Office said the bill sets aside “$128.6 billion for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund for preparation for, prevention of, and response to the coronavirus pandemic or for other uses allowed by other federal education programs.”
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have said that the package must be approved to get schools open now.
But that appeared to be a bluff, since the big spending won’t come for months or years.
Some Republicans who have long urged for reopenings saw those comments instead as a way to build voter support for passing the Biden spending blueprint over GOP objections.
Now, they are calling the bluff.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s office pointed out on Tuesday that nearly all of the $128.6 billion for schools won’t be distributed until after October and over the next few years. His office said 95% would come after fiscal 2022 begins in October.
“Do parents have to wait until 2023 or later to send their kids back to school?” said McCarthy spokesman Mark Bednar.
That report follows another that showed the administration is pushing for massive state spending to fight the virus despite still sitting on $1 trillion.
Secrets last week reported that schools have already received over $112 billion in tax dollars.
