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Congress appropriated money for a new middle school at Kentucky’s Fort Campbell. Then, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s help, Donald Trump took that money to build his border wall, leaving kids in McConnell’s home state behind.
“Teachers at Mahaffey will continue to use mobile carts to store their books, lesson plans and homework assignments because there is not enough classroom space,” The New York Times reports. “Students stuffed into makeshift classrooms-within-classrooms will continue to strain to figure out which lesson to listen to and which one to filter out.” As far back as 2007, the Senate Armed Services Committee was getting testimony that “Garbage cans catch water from a leaking room while a broken heating and air-conditioning system produces sauna-like conditions in some classrooms, while other classes have no heat.”
“Most of our students don’t know what it’s like to live in a world without war, where you don’t have to worry about Mom or Pop being killed,” teacher and union leader Jane Loggins told the Times. ”The one big benefit of this school is that we try to support all those emotional needs.”
But screw that. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham says those kids should be happy to keep eating lunch in the school library because the cafeteria isn’t big enough for everyone. “It’s better for the middle school kids in Kentucky to have a secure border,” according to Graham. “We’ll get them the school they need, but right now we’ve got a national emergency on our hands.” And how do Republicans intend to get the kids their new school? By demanding that congressional Democrats pass funding for the school again, with no promises that Trump doesn’t steal that money for his wall, too.