GOP eyes more than $70 billion for schools in coronavirus package

Republicans are eyeing more than $70 billion in help for schools as part of the next coronavirus aid package currently being negotiated. 

“There is going to be over $70 billion that this president has already authorized to work with Congress to try to make sure we not only keep the classrooms safe, but the students safe,” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told Fox News of the forthcoming GOP proposal for the fifth coronavirus relief legislation.

Asked as he left a meeting on Monday night with Meadows and top GOP senators if there would be more than $70 billion for schools in the GOP plan, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters “that would be a good guess.”

“It’s a lot of money,” Mnuchin added. 

How much funding to give to schools, and what restrictions should be attached to it, has emerged as an early fight in the upcoming negotiations. 

As states across the country see a spike in the number of coronavirus cases, school districts are having to weigh if they should bring students back for in-person classes, hold virtual lessons or do some combination of both. 

President Trump has threatened to defund schools that do not reopen for in-person classes this fall. 

“The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!” he tweeted earlier this month. 

The threat has earned fierce criticism from Democrats, who have warned against using federal money to try to nudge schools into reopening for in-person classes.

The total being discussed by Republicans is also short of the $175 billion Democrats proposed for schools in late June. 

Top GOP senators, including those involved with crafting the education portion of the bill, have also pushed back over the idea of tying the coronavirus aid to schools reopening. They say that schools who resume in-person classes would likely need more help to cover associated costs, those that do not hold in-person classes are likely to still need federal assistance. 

“I just don’t think you can come up with a national federal policy that’s a one size fits all. The circumstances are very different,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), asked about tying the education funding to schools reopening for in-person classes. 

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) added that “some of that support” could be conditioned because schools that reopen would have different costs.  

“[But] I think, in any case, schools at all levels have been impacted by what happened and so I think a lot of that support needs to not be conditioned,” he added. 

Mnuchin and Meadows met with Blunt, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Monday night. A significant portion of their discussion, they said, was about school funding. 

The GOP group is set to meet again on Tuesday morning. 

“Well, just a better understanding of how we can … most effectively use federal dollars to help 135,000 public and private schools, and 6,000 colleges, open safely this fall, as much as possible in-person. That’s what I would hope to do,” Alexander said when asked what he hoped to get out of the Tuesday meeting.