Governors and Education Leaders Call for Funding and Flexibility to Ensure Student Safety in Fall

In a letter to congressional leaders, the National Governors Association (NGA) and groups representing state K-12 education agencies, local school boards, universities, community colleges, educators and the special education community urged Congress to provide the significant resources necessary for schools to balance learning and safety in the fall, while respecting the long-standing principles of state and local control that govern our education systems.

As Congress considers the next round of COVID-19 relief, the groups requested that Congress provide substantial funding for the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, K-12 education and higher education institutions to have the resources to address the challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic and to prioritize learning and safety.

“To ensure the safety of communities and educational equity, and to allow for in-person and online delivery of education, increased federal investment is critical,” the groups said in their letter.

The state and education leaders also called on Congress to prohibit conditions on COVID-19 education relief funding that would seek to define or mandate specific models of K-12 or higher education reopening.

In addition to NGA, the letter to Republican and Democratic leadership in the House and Senate was signed by the Council of State Governments, the American Federation of Teachers, the National School Boards Association, the National Association of State Boards of Education, State Higher Education Executive Officers, the National Center for Learning Disabilities, the Association of Community College Trustees, the National Association of State Directors of Special Education and the Council of Administrators of Special Education.