Hardworking families across America are downright fed up, and they have every right to be. For more than a year, students have been stuck at home and have been robbed of the valuable time they could have been spending alongside their peers and teachers in the classroom. What’s even more infuriating is that the American people have heard nothing but contradictions from the Biden Administration concerning the safe reopening of schools. While the mainstream media and political pundits inside Washington spin endless stories on safely reopening schools – often skewing the truth to fit their own narrative – the facts have been abandoned yet again. For this week’s newsletter, I’m going to set the record straight, provide you with the information that’s been left out, and expose the truth. You deserve to know.

A “Mistake In Communications”

Earlier this week, Joe Biden held a televised town hall on CNN where he covered a wide range of issues – one being safely reopening schools. In this town hall, he openly admitted that his administration miscommunicated its approach to get students safely back in the classroom. You would think that this miscommunication would have been immediately corrected so that the American people would get the truth, but as of now we have seen little to no action in doing so. As you may recall, I touched on the issue of this blatant lapse in leadership in my newsletter to you last week. Here’s an excerpt:

“On Tuesday, Jen Psaki, the White House Press Secretary announced that the Biden Administration’s goal as of now is to have students return to classrooms for “at least one day a week” in his first 100 days in office. But Psaki commented that the goal of having in-person classes one day a week was simply a, “…bar we are trying to leap over.”

In fact, his Administration decided to double-down on that goal – not even realizing that they’ve misled countless families that are crying out for help. What was not admitted publicly, with pure accountability and transparency in mind, was that this approach was more so of an appeal to powerful teachers’ unions and not to parents and students. Think about that for a second. What does that tell you about this Administration’s priorities? Are families and students being put first? No. What about the teachers who have been so vocal about having their students return to the classroom safely? No. This is purely a ploy to score political points and appease far-left allies while leaving America’s families in the dark.

Where Will All The Money Go?

The second part of the story lies within the halls of Congress. The $1.9 trillion so-called “relief package” that’s being rammed through both the House and Senate is not providing immediate, targeted relief to schools. In fact, it’s delaying the bulk of funding until beyond 2023. This is another important fact that’s being obscured behind partisan talking points. Not to mention, over $1 trillion of previously appropriated funds from last year’s relief packages has yet to be spent. As the saying goes, “the devil is in the details”. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that this $1.9 trillion so-called “relief package” allocates, “$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.” Another key fact: that $128.6 billion will not be sent out until after October of this year or even later.

Now, you tell me, does this respect hardworking families, students and teachers? If you answered no, you’re right. Do Washington Democrats really believe that parents should wait until two years from now to send their children back to school? Well, based off their plan, and the fine print in their behemoth of a “relief package”, it’s rather evident. Republicans in Congress, since the very beginning of the pandemic, have had a rock-solid focus of helping the millions of families caught in the middle of this shameful debacle. But we’re not the only ones who are vocal. Parents, state legislators, teachers, and countless other groups have pushed back and are demanding that action be taken immediately – not suppressed by breathless talking points that only bury the facts even more.

Shifting The Blame

As you may expect, the mainstream media decided to weigh in and they’ve made false claims about Republicans criticizing the Biden Administration’s lack of a response. In an article posted in Politico this week, there was a misleading claim that Republicans have made, “no commitment to meaningfully engage on policy proposals” to reopen schools. What a joke. But let’s unpack this further. The truth is that we have. Just last week in the Education and Labor Committee, Republicans offered five commonsense proposals to reopen schools safely and they were all blocked by committee Democrats. Here’s a synopsis:

Representative Rick Allen (R-GA) proposed an amendment requiring K-12 school districts to offer in-person instruction if they receive COVID relief funds.

Representative Greg Murphy (R-NC) proposed an amendment requiring schools to serve high-risk students if they receive COVID relief funds.

Representative Michelle Steel (R-CA) offered an amendment requiring schools reopen if teachers have had access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Representative Mary Miller (R-IL) offered an amendment putting COVID relief funds into education savings accounts for parents to use to pay for education if their children’s public schools are closed.

Representative Bob Good (R-VA) offered an amendment to increase transparency of school reopening negotiations between school districts and teachers’ unions.

All these amendments were blocked by committee Democrats. Yet, Republicans are the ones who are being accused of not “meaningfully engaging”? The mainstream media should sit this one out if they really are that disillusioned.

The Bottom Line

While Joe Biden and his Administration are frantically searching for the newest messaging tactic that will recalibrate an already bungled approach, the reality is that the facts of this whole situation do not lie. What the American people have seen to date is nothing more than an abdication of leadership from the White House in such a critical time for the country. Mixed messages, faulty policy priorities, a hack job of a so-called “relief package”, and a lack of following the science of safely reopening schools just goes to show that this Administration has no idea what it’s doing. I’ll offer a piece of advice to Joe Biden: If your goal is to get students back safely into the classroom and help countless parents in this country, give them the facts, own up to your own failures and actually work with Republicans to achieve progress. As of now, those two things have not happened, and I suspect you won’t hear about that at all from him.

In Congress, Republicans have made our position clear countless times: delays in education are hurting our nation’s future leaders. The more that time is wasted, the more that students and families suffer. We’ve worked tirelessly to reiterate this point to our Democrat colleagues, but they’ve chosen not to heed our calls. We stand at the ready with policy proposals that will solve this issue and alleviate the stress felt by so many hardworking families during this time. But most importantly, we don’t look down at talking points to make our case, we look to the facts and the evidence that has been made clear. This is not a partisan issue in the slightest, and its one that we see as a critical issue of our time.

Despite the obstruction, the mixed messages, and the disillusionment that has clouded Washington as of late, Republicans won’t back down in our work until all students can safely return to the classroom. Their future success depends on it, and we will not let silence and inaction prevail.

Have a blessed weekend.

Sincerely,