Education

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Chrissy Houlahan and Mike Quigley introduced the Global Learning Loss Assessment Act.

This legislation aims to address education loss. School closures stemming from this global health crisis have affected more than 1 billion students around the world, and, according to a recent study by Save the Children, about 10 million students are in danger of permanently dropping out of school due to rising poverty related to the pandemic.

U.S. Sens. John Boozman and Ben Cardin have introduced companion legislation in the Senate.

U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) on Sept. 4 introduced a bipartisan bill that would expand access to childcare services through the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Congress must ensure that our school districts can provide the best quality of education during these turbulent times,” Rep. Fitzpatrick said last week.

For 113 consecutive months, the United States’ economy saw an increase in the number of jobs, the longest streak on record. Then the coronavirus hit, leaving at least 30 million Americans unemployed and eliminating the past decade’s employment growth. While we once focused on maintaining our robust gains, we are now picking up the pieces. Our country is currently in the middle of a storm, but when it clears, millions of Americans will be ready and willing to get back to work, and we will have an economy in need of rebuilding.

Newly introduced bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) would establish a new commission to designate specific essential workers and to provide them with student loan debt relief during the pandemic.

“Our essential workers put their lives at risk every day to make sure the rest of us are safe and healthy,” said Rep. Fitzpatrick. “They deserve all of the help we can provide them. By providing the option to help pay their student loans or continue their education, we can give them one less thing to worry about.”