Dingell: Money for Schools in COVID Relief Bills Will ‘Be Spent When It Can Be Spent Effectively’

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) defended the push for more funding for schools in the coronavirus relief bill even though only some of the money will be released in FY 2021 and money from prior coronavirus relief bills hasn’t been spent yet by stating that the money will “be spent when it can be spent effectively.”

Dingell said, “Well, it’s not to say that some of that money can’t be moved forward. But there’s — we don’t want to waste money. But let’s really talk about what’s happening. Everybody wants to get the schools re-opened. And I mean everybody, from the students, to teachers, and everybody that’s on school boards, communities, up to the president of the United States. But people are still concerned about the contagiousness of COVID. I talk to teachers every single day who are scared. They want to be in the classroom. They know their kids need to have that social interaction, but they haven’t been able to get the vaccine themselves, etc. And we’re having to make modifications. What people don’t think about is, as schools re-open, students have to sit farther apart. So, you need more teachers. If you’re busing them to the school, you can only have a certain amount of people on the bus. You can’t have a full bus. You need a second person on the bus to make sure the kids are keeping their physical distance. So, it’s being planned out.”

She added, “The money isn’t being spent. So, it’s not being wasted. It’ll be spent when it can be spent effectively.”

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