INDIANAPOLIS — Ahead of Mike Pence’s photo op in Indianapolis tomorrow, Indiana Democratic Party Chairman John Zody released the following statement:
“Hoosiers deserve a president who will work every day to protect the health of our students, teachers, and families. Instead, Donald Trump has ignored CDC guidance, demanded that schools reopen without essential safeguards, and even threatened to withhold the education funding that we need to keep kids safe. During this pandemic, Americans and Hoosiers need certainty, and the Trump-Pence administration has provided nothing but arrogant displays of passing the buck and blaming everyone and everything but their own incompetence. Their ignorance of reality can’t be stopped with a photo op while American families are left with mounting questions.”
BACKGROUND ON TRUMP’S BROKEN PROMISES TO INDIANA FAMILIES
Promise: “We’ll fight for our great schools and we want to make them incredible. We want to make our schools really good.” [Trump Campaign Rally, 12/9/2016]
Reality: Betsy DeVos refused to say whether she could ensure that students, teachers, staff and parents would be safe from coronavirus when schools reopen.
Reality: Trump is pushing to weaken guidance for the safe reopening of schools and threatening to take away funding that schools say they will need to safely reopen.
Reality: After Congress passed emergency education funding to help public schools adjust to the pandemic, the Trump administration failed to quickly distribute the relief to schools that needed it. Instead, DeVos withheld hundreds of millions of dollars from public school districts and funneled the relief to private companies. Now, Senate Republicans are refusing to take up legislation for additional relief funding for school districts.
Reality: Despite rising death tolls and record unemployment, DeVos has described the coronavirus pandemic as an “opportunity” to promote her disastrous anti-education agenda.
Reality: The Trump administration has failed to equip public schools to deal with the pandemic. Asked about the need for high-speed internet access, DeVos said distance learning can happen “in the woods behind your house.”
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