Reopening Schools

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAINES. Madam President, outrage--that is what American families should be feeling right now, and many are. We are seeing President Biden and the Democrats support opening the border, the southern border, for illegal immigrants while bowing to political pressure and keeping many of our Nation's schools closed for our students--opening the southern border for illegal immigrants, closing our Nation's schools for our students.

Schools across the Nation remain closed to in-person instruction largely due to teachers unions and their influence on many of our local and Federal leaders on the other side of the aisle--all, unfortunately, to the detriment of the education and the health of our students.

In States and localities where schools remain closed, America's youngest and brightest minds are posed with challenges that generations before have never dealt with. Children are continuing to cope with the unprecedented hardship of virtual classrooms, a lack of social interaction with their peers, and other impediments to their education. But this isn't because of the pandemic itself; it is because President Biden, the Democrats, and local leaders have caved to the political pressures of teachers unions and have kept many classrooms closed and students at home despite what the available science and other experts are telling us. The science is clear: Schools are not major COVID-19 spreading grounds, and younger students are a low-risk group. Studies indicate that students across the country are months behind where they should be academically.

The hardships our students face go beyond academics because the mental and physical health of children has also taken a toll. We are seeing depression and anxiety rates skyrocket among our young people. I was on a call today, a Zoom call, with several elementary school principals in Montana, hearing their firsthand, frankly, tragic accounts of what is happening with the mental health of our students in elementary school and hearing about elementary school students assaulting teachers. A whole year without full-time, in-person learning has done irreparable damage. The status quo is truly devastating to many of our students. Despite this--despite the science, despite the overwhelming data--schools across the country, in many parts of our country, remain closed.

Frankly, it is unacceptable that many of my colleagues across the aisle and the Biden administration are standing by while this happens to our students across our country. They have chosen to play politics with our Nation's students instead of ensuring that our children are getting the very best education possible, which is full-time, in-person instruction. They are intent on jamming through this partisan $1.9 trillion COVID package, which does include billions of dollars for schools.

Incidentally, in working together, we have passed five bipartisan COVID relief packages. Yes, it is harder to work in a bipartisan fashion, but that is why we were sent back here to Washington--to work together. Yet President Biden and the Democrats are saying: We are going to do this one alone. It is going to be their way or the highway.

The sad reality is, the more the American people hear what is in this $1.9 trillion package, the more they are not going to like it. Most of the money in this package is not to be spent now. In fact, 95 percent of it will be spent over the next 7 years, after the crisis. We should not use this COVID crisis as a liberal wish list of items here wherein 95 percent of it gets spent in the out-years. How does this help our students and our schools now? The answer is, it doesn't.

This is not how we solve the problems that our students are facing. Fortunately, there is a pretty simple solution. It is this: Listen to the experts. Listen to the science. Reopen our schools, and let's get our students back in the classroom.

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