[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 35 (Wednesday, February 24, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S833-S834]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Schools

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I am going to talk for just a few minutes 
about the need to open our schools. I think you would agree with me 
because I followed your career--with admiration, by the way--that our 
country is only as good as its dreams and we are only as valuable as 
our children. And, in my judgment, we are doing immeasurable damage in 
this country to our children.
  We all know that we had to close down our public schools and our 
parochial schools and our private schools, pre-K to 12, because of the 
coronavirus, but I think most fairminded Americans understand that we 
need to open them.
  The future of this country is education. It is not the level of the 
stock market. It is not the unemployment rate. It is not who the 
President is. It is education, and we know that. So why aren't we 
opening our public schools when we know it is safe to do so?
  I am very proud of our efforts in Louisiana. Seventy percent of our 
public school students are back learning in person--70 percent. And I 
want to thank every teacher, every parent, every school board member, 
every maintenance worker in our schools, and anyone who directly or 
indirectly influenced this result. They are heroes in my opinion. 
Seventy percent--I am so proud of that.
  I especially want to thank our teachers. I have been a volunteer 
public school teacher in Louisiana for--I don't know--20-plus years. I 
do it three times a year, and I am a real substitute--none of this go 
for an hour and talk about how a bill becomes a law. I am a real 
substitute: quarter to 7 to 3, teach five classes, do your bus duty, 
your lunchroom duty, and get worn out. So I have some appreciation for 
what it takes to teach, particularly in this difficult environment, and 
I especially want to thank our teachers.
  But that 70 percent figure that I am talking about, the number of our 
public school children in Louisiana who are back to in-person learning, 
is only 40 percent nationwide, and that is an embarrassment. That is a 
disgrace. We are doing immeasurable damage--immeasurable damage--to a 
generation of children.
  Now, I don't need to tell you we have been struggling with elementary 
and secondary education for the last 40 or 50 years, and it is very 
frustrating because Americans can do extraordinary things. We can 
unravel the human genome. Americans can take a diseased human heart and 
replace it with a new

[[Page S834]]

one and make it beat. Americans can send a person to the moon and bring 
him back or her back. But we struggle to teach our kids how to read and 
write and understand the meaning of their diplomas when we have 18 
years to do it.
  Now, there are a lot of reasons for that, and I am sure not blaming 
anybody, and I don't want to digress. But my point is, we were 
struggling before the coronavirus. That should tell us that now more 
than ever, given our circumstances before the coronavirus, we need to 
take meaningful steps to get these schools back open.

  We know that it is safe. The CDC Director under President Trump has 
said it was safe. The CDC Director under President Biden has said it is 
safe.
  Vaccination across America is--we started out a little rocky, a lot 
like our testing program, but it is getting much better.
  I read an article the other day in the Wall Street Journal, written 
by a Johns Hopkins researcher, physician, who said, in his opinion, 
about six or seven times more Americans have had the coronavirus than 
we know of; therefore, they do have immunity. And he said, coupled with 
the number of people who have had and survived coronavirus and our 
vaccine program, which is getting more aggressive every day, we could 
have a substantial reduction in the number of coronavirus cases by 
March and April. Indeed, we have seen the decline in the number of our 
cases now, today, starting from early January. They have declined 
dramatically. And people smarter than me have suggested it is our 
vaccines, it is the approach to herd immunity, and, of course, it is 
the habits that we have developed in terms of social distancing and 
masking and good hygiene.
  But my point is that the experts, the science, all tell us that it is 
safe. And I have to tell you, I don't mean to be unfair because I know 
it is complicated, or it can be, and I don't mean disrespect, but I 
have been very, very disappointed with President Biden. He has flipped 
and flopped on this issue like a banked catfish. He has said we need to 
follow science, but he refuses to follow the science in terms of 
opening our schools.
  We know it can be done because we have been doing it in Louisiana. We 
have done it. If you look nationwide at the number of private schools 
that are open, back with in-person education, the number of parochial 
schools, the number of Catholic schools--they are doing it. Why can't 
we do it in our public schools?
  It is not money. For our first five coronavirus bills--I am not 
counting President Biden's proposed bill. Through our first five 
coronavirus bills, we have appropriated between $70 billion and $80 
billion to our public schools to get them back open. Our public schools 
have spent $5 billion out of 70 to 80--I think it is $70 billion. So it 
is not a matter of money. I think it is just--I am not sure what it is. 
I don't want to be a cynic and say that it is a matter of will. But 
here is what I am asking President Biden to do; here is what I would do 
if I were King for a day. I am not; I don't aspire to be. But here is 
what I am hoping that President Biden will do this afternoon: Call a 
press conference, and look the American people in the eyes, and look 
our school board members in the eyes and our teachers and our parents 
and our maintenance workers and say that we need to open up.
  If we really believe we are only as good as our dreams, we are only 
as valuable as our children, then we need to act like it. And I think 
President Biden needs to call that press conference. He doesn't need to 
talk about the science, though that is important, or the politics or 
nibble around the edges. He needs to look the American people in the 
eye and say: By God, open the schools. Open the schools. Our kids 
deserve no less.
  There is not much I agree with former Congressman and Mayor Rahm 
Emanuel on, even though I think he is a bright guy, but politically we 
approach the world differently. But he said when he was mayor that kids 
drop out--not in the 12th grade. They drop out in pre-K and 
kindergarten and the first, second, third, and the fourth grades. We 
are going to lose a whole generation of kids here.
  I see I have some additional time while we are waiting on Senator 
Schumer. I think I am going to take my additional time--and I will cut 
it short if Senator Schumer is here--to talk about another issue