President-Elect Joe Biden released his comprehensive plan to control the pandemic and help the economy, families, students, and schools. The attached PDF has the full plan. This is the section that pertains directly to schools.
Provide schools the resources they need to reopen safely.
A critical plank of President-elect Biden’s COVID-19 plan is to safely reopen schools as soon as possible – so kids and educators can get back in class and parents can go back to work. This will require immediate, urgent action by Congress. The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for K-12 schools and institutions of higher education, and the students and parents they serve. School closures have disproportionately impacted the learning of Black and Hispanic students, as well as students with disabilities and English language learners. While the December down payment for schools and higher education institutions was a start, it is not sufficient to address the crisis. President-elect Biden is calling on Congress to provide $170 billion — supplemented by additional state and local relief resources — for K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. These resources will help schools serve all students, no matter where they are learning, and help achieve President-elect Biden’s goal to open the majority of K-8 schools within the first 100 days of his Administration.
● Provide $130 billion to help schools to safely reopen. Schools need flexible resources to safely reopen and operate and/or facilitate remote learning. The president-elect’s plan will provide $130 billion to support schools in safely reopening. These funds can be used to reduce class sizes and modify spaces so students and teachers can socially distance; improve ventilation; hire more janitors and implement mitigation measures; provide personal protective equipment; ensure every school has access to a nurse; increase transportation capacity to facilitate social distancing on the bus; hire counselors to support
students as they transition back to the classroom; close the digital divide that is exacerbating inequities during the pandemic; provide summer school or other support for students that will help make up lost learning time this year; create and expand community schools; and cover other costs needed to support safely reopening and support students. These funds will also include provisions to ensure states adequately fund education and protect students in low-income communities that have been hardest hit by COVID-19. Districts must ensure that funds are used to not only reopen schools, but also to meet students’ academic, mental health and social, and emotional needs in response to COVID-19, (e.g. through extended learning time, tutoring, and counselors), wherever they are learning. Funding can be used to prevent cuts to state pre-k programs. A portion of funding will be reserved for a COVID-19 Educational Equity Challenge Grant, which will support state, local and tribal governments in partnering with teachers, parents, and other stakeholders to advance equity- and evidence-based policies to respond to COVID-related educational challenges and give all students the support they need to succeed. In addition to this funding, schools will be able to access FEMA Disaster Relief Fund resources to get reimbursed for certain COVID-19 related expenses and will receive support to implement regular testing protocols.
● Expand the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund. The president-elect’s plan will ensure colleges have critical resources to implement public health protocols, execute distance learning plans, and provide emergency grants to students in need. This $35 billion in funding will be directed to public institutions, including community colleges, as well as, public and private Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other Minority Serving Institutions. This funding will provide millions of students up to an additional $1,700 in financial assistance from their college.
● Hardest Hit Education Fund. Provide $5 billion in funds for governors to use to support educational programs and the learning needs of students significantly impacted by COVID-19, whether K-12, higher education, or early childhood education programs.
Read the full pdf here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We should make it clear to Biden and his administration that we expect big investments in public education and not a return to the Bush-Obama doctrine. How I put that in my latest piece: https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/joe-biden-education/
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What do teachers think about adding tutoring? Not some junky unregulated thing that gets slapped together, but selective hiring of experienced tutors who are paid fairly and undergo background checks, etc?
Even schools that remained open had extensive quarantines of students and staff- it’s been incredibly chaotic. Our school was open and my son was quarantined twice, so missed about 15 school days and he was one of the luckier ones. I think most parents here would have their kids take part in a summer tutoring program if it were offered, particularly if they offered transportation to and from the school.
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Summer school is fine; I don’t think it should be required in most cases, though.
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I worked at a full day summer school enrichment program in an urban elementary school with the teachers on staff. It lasted for a month, was well attended, and it saw results. Unfortunately, the program was not repeated (too expensive).
I think a summer school program like that would be perfect for 2021 given the circumstances. While it should be compulsory, it should be encouraged. It should not be scripted or common core.
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Yes, it should absolutely not be an online credit recovery program or a scripted curriculum.
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After NCLB & RttT, schools outsourced summer classes to vendors who offered online credit recovery programs. I don’t know if there were specific requirements in either law but it seemed to be a thing all over the country.. Schools that previously offered summer school using teachers from their home districts stopped offering those classes and switched to private vendors.
Boosting training & hiring new teachers is a real necessity in any education relief package or reform measure- a New Deal in Education per se.
We don’t need the fine print found in the CARES act where dollars can only be funneled to the tech industry.In the COVID19 Cares act, money to schools could be spent ONLY on technology and protective equipment.
There was no federal money to hire more teachers, teaching assistants, prepare for more substitutes for teachers getting sick, or for more nurses -essentially it could not employ people. Those tricks & traps need end.
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“A critical plank of President-elect Biden’s COVID-19 plan is to safely reopen schools as soon as possible…”
There’s a crisis with teachers leaving due to Covid and a huge parent/teacher divide due to all the learning loss talk.
It would have been nice to hear him praise teachers who are doing a good job in places keeping students learning.
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Investing in schools is good. Interesting that he specifically wants to reopen all the grades that have standardized tests forced on them every year. I fear Biden is willing to sacrifice lives for test score data. This better not be another Race to the Top contest for prizes. Biden had better not tell states they only get the money if they open up schools to take the tests. Obama turned the Great Recession into a stupid game show. Whoever risked their safety the most won money. In the end, everyone lost. Disasters are not for capitalism.
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scary line, but so likely to be true: sacrificing lives for test score data
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When the federal government spends money on education, there cannot be strings attached.
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Four teacher where I teach have been severely attacked by Covid. IN our county, one teacher died from it so far. Any plan should include a pension plan for any teacher who is taken by Covid. Any teacher who gets Covid as a governmental response to the question of whether teachers are “essential” workers should receive compensation, at least by receiving the promise of insurance against future complications from this disease.
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Hey, guys, how about “safely” jumping out of airplanes at 30,000 feet without a parachute. We need to provide funds for this.
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There is no safe opening of schools during a raging pandemic. This country and it’s schools will not be ready to safely open schools until next September at the earliest and only if all involved are properly vaccinated.
Really, how hard is it to comprehend that simple fact?
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