Hawkeye Reporter

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) has introduced a bill that would require schools to offer partial in-person learning in order to receive federal pandemic relief funds.

"Kids and families are suffering," Hinson said in a floor speech enumerating several effects of not being able to send kids back to school immediately. "The cost of this goes well beyond academics. Child depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges are surging. The science shows kids need to be back in school."

One-third of the funding will be immediately available with the remaining two-thirds available to schools in increasing amounts as they move to reopen.

Hinson’s new conditions on the $54 billion that Congress allocated to K-12 schools in December to help them safely reopen is that schools offering at least 50 percent in-person learning, at least 50 percent of the time will receive the full amount of funding.

But the bill was rejected.

“It's disappointing that Democrats continue to play partisan games while kids and families are grappling with the mental health toll and other stresses of this long-term lockdown,” she said in a statement. “I will continue to work to ensure that parents have the option to send their kids to learn in person."

Recently, she said that 'not everything is politics."

“My Reopen Schools Act would ensure that money Congress already allocated to reopen classrooms safely is used for that purpose. Let’s work together to do the right thing and get students back in class.”