SCHUMER: LOCAL GOVERNMENTS & INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION FACE HUGE BUDGET SHORTFALLS AMID ONGOING COVID CRISIS; SENATOR PUSHES TO EXPAND SUPPORT IN FUTURE STIMULUS
Building On Successful Funding For Universities Through The CARES Act – Which Netted SUNY CORTLAND $6.2M – Schumer Says New Education Bill Includes $132 Billion In Additional Funding For Higher Education
Senator Says Also Pushes For Direct Aid For Local Government As City of Cortland Faces A $1.3 Million Deficit
Schumer Meets With Cortland Mayor Brian Tobin & SUNY Cortland President Eric Erik J. Bitterbaum To Discuss Efforts
In meeting with Mayor Tobin and President Bitterbaum at SUNY Cortland, U.S. Senator Schumer unveiled the Coronavirus Child Care And Education Relief Act (CCCERA) and called for fiscal relief for local governments.
“Our local governments and universities have been selflessly navigating the ongoing global pandemic, ripping huge holes in their budgets to prioritize the health and safety,” said Senator Schumer. “While the funding for education I secured in the CARES Act helped mitigate some of the financial devastation, as the crisis continues long beyond what anyone imagined, we need to ensure that our local governments like the City of Cortland and world-class institutions of higher education like SUNY Cortland are equipped with the assistance they need.”
Schumer explained that Coronavirus Child Care And Education Relief Act (CCCERA) would provide an additional $132 billion in federal funding would for emergency financial aid grants to students for necessary expenses like food, housing, child care, and technology supplies, and to colleges to as they face the financial pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic downturn. Schumer said this legislation will build on the assistance in the CARES Act, which provided SUNY Cortland with over $6.2 million in direct funding.
Highlighted aspects of the Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act (CCCERA) Schumer will fight for in COVID-4 include:
- $50 billion for a Child Care Stabilization Fund, to ensure that child care providers can stay open, educators can continue getting paid, and working families get tuition relief;
- $1.5 billion to address and prevent child abuse and neglect, to support the child welfare workforce and to fund community-based prevention programs that strengthen families;
- $345 billion for the Education Stabilization Fund, including:
- $175 billion for K-12 schools, to help schools address learning loss, implement public health protocols, and provide quality education to all students—whether they open in-person, remotely, or a hybrid of both;
- $132 billion for higher education, to help colleges and universities deliver a quality education for their students, implement public health protocols, and provide emergency financial aid to students for expenses like food, housing, child care, and technology;
- $33 billion for a Governor’s Fund, to allow governors to allocate funds for needed educational services to areas of their states hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis.
Schumer’s push for additional aid for institutions of higher education comes in conjunction with his call for additional aid for state and local governments. The senator explained that with municipal governments across the state and Central New York facing budgetary crises and forced to consider layoffs of tens of thousands of public health care workers, firefighters and EMS workers, police, sanitation workers, teachers, and other vital staff, local aid for education is also being slashed. Schumer warned that with budget cuts looming, without additional educational and municipal aid, job cuts and layoffs would skyrocket in the coming months. The city of Cortland alone projects over a $1.3 million budget shortfall due to the pandemic.
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