Awesome Executive Order to fund students directly if their schools don’t reopen

President Trump signed an Executive Order to fund students directly if their schools don’t reopen for in-person instruction. That is awesome.

The unnecessary deprivation of education is child abuse. The children have basically lost a year of proper instruction, and there is no sign of this changing anytime soon.

If they could, parents would permanently flee these union-led schools.

Key points of the Executive Order:

…our Nation has identified effective measures to facilitate the safe resumption of in-person learning, and the Federal Government has provided more than $13 billion to states and school districts to implement those measures.

The prolonged deprivation of in-person learning opportunities has produced undeniably dire consequences for the children of this country.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that school attendance is negatively correlated with a child’s risk of depression and various types of abuse.  States have seen substantial declines in reports of child maltreatment while school buildings have been closed, indicating that allegations are going unreported.  These reductions are driven in part by social isolation from the schoolteachers and support staff with whom students typically interact and who have an obligation to report suspected child maltreatment.  The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has also found that school closures have a “substantial impact on food security and physical activity for children and families.”  Additionally, a recent survey of educators found student absences from school, including virtual learning, have nearly doubled during the pandemic, and as AAP has noted, chronic absenteeism is associated with alcohol and drug use, teenage pregnancy, juvenile delinquency, and suicide attempts.

School closures are especially difficult for families with children with special needs…

…Low-income and minority children are also disproportionately affected by school closures…

…A failure to quickly resume in-person learning options is likely to have long-term economic effects on children and their families.  …

…Students whose families pay tuition for their education are also facing significant hardships due to the economic disruptions caused by the pandemic.  Scores of private schools, including approximately 100 Catholic schools, have permanently closed since the onset of COVID-19, and more than half of our Nation’s private schools are believed to have lost enrollment due to the pandemic…

…I am committed to ensuring that all children of our great Nation have access to the educational resources they need to obtain a high-quality education and to improving students’ safety and well-being, including by empowering families with emergency learning scholarships…

The President concludes:

…The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall take steps, consistent with law, to allow funds available through the Community Services Block Grant program to be used by grantees and eligible entities to provide emergency learning scholarships to disadvantaged families for use by any child without access to in-person learning.  These scholarships may be used for:

(i)    tuition and fees for a private or parochial school;

(ii)   homeschool, microschool, or learning-pod costs;

(iii)  special education and related services, including therapies; or

(iv)   tutoring or remedial education.

This is overdue.

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