COVID-19 Education Coalition Raises Concerns on the Delivering Immediate Relief to America’s Families, Schools and Small Businesses Act
The undersigned members of the COVID-19 Education Coalition offer the following statement on the Delivering Immediate Relief to America’s Families, Schools and Small Businesses Act:
Our coalition is deeply concerned with the Delivering Immediate Relief to America’s Families, Schools and Small Businesses Act because of its low education funding levels, its fixation on physical reopenings of school buildings, and its failure to provide direct support for professional development in online learning. The bill would provide just $70 billion in additional K-12 education stabilization funds, a figure that is far short of the $200 billion that many educational groups feel is required to meet their needs. Additionally, we are concerned that the bill would condition receipt of two-thirds of this funding to the physical reopening of school buildings. This requirement ignores recent reports showing that 95% of districts plan to offer remote instruction to some degree, with about a third planning on remote instruction exclusively. This restriction makes no sense and will only adversely impact marginalized communities, including students of color, homeless students, students in foster care, and students with disabilities.
We also must note that this bill fails to provide separate funding for a key priority: professional development for online learning. Recently released studies point to the urgent need to support educators to deliver effective and equitable learning experiences. For example, more than one-fifth of educators have not received any training as it relates to technology-based remote instruction. A separate survey shows that a majority of novice educators do not feel well-prepared to provide online learning experiences for their students, as their preparation programs had not trained them on research-based technology integration frameworks.
Therefore, members of the COVID-19 Education Coalition urge members of Congress to quickly work towards a final education relief bill that reflects the following priorities:
- Provide at least $200 billion in additional education stabilization funds, an amount estimated by national experts to be necessary to fully support schools, students, educators, and families through the COVID-19 global pandemic.
- Ensure that additional education stabilization funds are not tied to the physical reopening of school buildings.
- Provide dedicated funding aimed towards helping states and districts support the capacity of the educators to lead effective and equitable online learning experiences for all students.
About the COVID-19 Education Coalition
The COVID-19 Education Coalition is a community of nonprofit organizations convened by ISTE and EdSurge to support the education field as learning moves online. The coalition is creating resources focused on these areas: policy & advocacy; centering equity; connectivity; international engagement; personalized learning; social emotional learning; safety, privacy and digital citizenship; and higher education.
Members of the COVID-19 Education Coalition
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
American Federation of Teachers
American Student Assistance
Arizona Technology in Education Association ASCD
Association for Educational Communications and Technology
Association for Middle Level Education
Association of Teacher Educators
Butler County Educational Service Center
CAST
Center for Black Educator Development
CK-12 Foundation
Consortium for School Networking
Digital Promise
Edcamp Foundation
EdTech Evidence Exchange
ETS
Future of Privacy Forum
Grantmakers for Education
iCivics
Illinois Digital Educators Alliance
International Society for Technology in Education LEAP Innovations
Learning Ally
Learning Forward
LearnLaunch
National Association of Secondary School Principals National Center for Learning Disabilities
National Council for the Social Studies
National Council of Teachers of English
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements
National Rural Education Association
National Science Teaching Association
National Summer Learning Association
National Technology Leadership Summit
New Hampshire Society for Technology in Education Next Generation Learning Challenges
New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education
Phi Delta Kappan
Project Tomorrow
Quality Matters
Relay
SchoolHouse Connection
State Educational Technology Directors Association Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education
SHAPE America
Student Data Privacy Consortium
Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children
Team4Tech
The Learning Accelerator
Turnaround For Children
Virginia Society for Technology in Education Wisconsin Educational Media & Technology Association
Tags: AACTE partner organizations, advocacy, elementary education, federal issues, funding, secondary education
