Democrats in Congress are trying to limit the impact of the coronavirus on students, as K-12 schools and higher education institutions close or move online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Friday, Sen. Patty Murray, introduced the Supporting Students in Response to Coronavirus Act alongside Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Rep. Bobby Scott, chair of the House Committee on Education and Labor, introduced a sister bill in the House of Representatives.
Alongside other measures, the $3 billion legislation would give $1.2 billion in emergency financial aid to offset the costs of sudden campus shutdowns, including food, housing, health care and child care. It also sets aside another $1.2 billion in Education Preparedness and Support Grants to governors to handle the manifold effects of school closures.
“Across the country, schools are preparing for temporary closures, students are wondering how they’ll receive vital services, educational facilities need to be cleaned, college students need help finding food and housing, and early education programs need help remaining open and staffed,” Murray said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve introduced a bill to ensure that our coronavirus response provides the resources our students, teachers, other staff, and schools so desperately need.”
Dr. Julie Ajinkya, vice president of applied research at the Institute for Higher Education Policy praised the proposed legislation for highlighting “the importance higher education plays in students’ daily lives … beyond just what goes on in the classroom and what can perhaps more easily be delivered through virtual technology.”
Low-income students – who might be food-insecure or rely on campus housing – could be stripped of basic needs their campuses usually provide as colleges shift to online courses for indeterminate periods of time. For these students, campus shutdowns come with added financial stress, which could exacerbate equity gaps in completion rates, Ajinkya added.
“We as a society need to think about what we want to look like on the other side of this,” she said. “When we are able to look past this pandemic, we want to make sure our students haven’t been abandoned by higher education.”
