Some lawmakers want to take away federal funds if schools don’t reopen by Sept. 8

A couple of lawmakers are using what they call a “carrot-and-stick” approach to getting public schools to reopen for in-person classes this fall, WXPR reported.

Reopen schools by Sept. 8, or lose funding from the federal government, the bill says, according to WANE.

The bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by sponsor Rep. Jim Banks, R-IN, and cosponsor Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-WI, according to Congress.gov. The bill would “prohibit the Secretary of Education from providing funding to certain educational institutions unless the institutions return to in-person instruction,” the congressional database says.

Schools closed for the academic year after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and many still remain uncertain about when it will be safe to bring students back to in-person classes, WXPR reported. The bill’s sponsors have said children are at a relatively low risk of catching COVID-19 and remote learning is ineffective, according to WANE.

Kids below the age of 18 in the U.S. make up about 4% of the country’s coronavirus cases, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of the 2.1 million COVID-19 cases in the U.S., just over 87,800 are kids between the ages of 0 and 17, the CDC says.

And while parents are generally satisfied with the response from their child’s school during the pandemic, the vast majority are concerned their kids are falling behind academically, according to The Education Trust. Nearly 9 in 10 parents feel their child is falling behind and 8 in 10 parents felt their kids were experiencing more stress during the coronavirus-related school closures, the poll found.

“What we know now is that virtual learning, what our kids have gone through over the last few months, isn’t cutting it,” Banks said, according to WPTA. “If you don’t reopen in the fall then you’re not eligible for the federal grants that you receive because frankly, if you don’t reopen your school, you don’t need the grant to begin with.”

“I think it’s a carrot-and-stick approach to give people an incentive. People react to incentives,” Tiffany told WXPR. “Just want to give an impetus to get kids back in school.”

The bill would offer schools that reopen for in-person instruction liability protection in case a student or faculty member catches the coronavirus and tries to sue the institution, WPTA reported. Free and reduced lunch programs would be exempt from funding cuts, according to WPTA.

Funding for public education is primarily left up to state and local governments, with the federal government contributing about 8% to elementary and secondary education, according to the Department of Education. But the dollar amount varies by state; while New Jersey only gets about 4% of its education funding from the federal government, New Mexico’s education budget relies on the fed for about 14%, according to a report from Governing: The Future of States and Localities.

Critics of the bill have said that pushing schools to reopen by threatening to cut funding is “unacceptable,” according to WXPR.

“No matter where you stand on pandemic measures, our children and our teachers should not be held hostage,” Democratic candidate Tricia Zunker, who is challenging Tiffanyfor his seat in Congress this fall, said in a statement to WXPR. “Rep. Tiffany should be focused on ensuring that our students and teachers have the tools they need during this pandemic by working to expand rural broadband access throughout northern Wisconsin.”

The bill was introduced June 11, but no further action has been taken to approve the provision as of June 16.