Friend —

Everyone wants schools to fully reopen for in-person instruction, but we need to acknowledge that the challenge facing our schools — and our country — is unprecedented.

Instead of offering the responsible, measured leadership the American people need right now, President Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos are threatening to force schools to fully reopen for in-person instruction, even if local jurisdictions have deemed that unsafe.

Secretary DeVos is being willfully ignorant about the crisis we’re facing. She claims “there is nothing in the data that suggests it would not be appropriate to have kids in school,” as the Trump administration insists that all public schools reopen as usual this fall. But the data shows that coronavirus cases are hitting record-highs across the nation, and are still on the rise.

COVID-19 cases in the U.S.

Let me be clear: if we do this wrong, it’ll hurt our communities, our economy, and set our country back. So I’m doing something about it.

Tomorrow, I'm introducing a bill to make it absolutely clear to Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos, and anyone else in the Trump administration who would use the health and safety of our children as a bargaining chip: schools should open when local officials determine it's safe to do so. They should not reopen on the Trump administration's political schedule.

I want to make one other point clear here. The communities who feel the impact of this callous move by the Trump administration hardest are the school districts who are already struggling to afford the safety measures recommended by public health officials. I’m talking about low-income communities and communities of color, who are already being hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic.

We can’t afford to leave any of our children behind, and reopening too soon puts children, educators, and all those who work in our schools at risk. We can’t afford to get this one wrong.

Thank you for your support.

— Mark Warner