Maine School Administrative District 1 in Aroostook County put out a notice on Dec. 10 that they had a COVID-19 outbreak. Five individuals tested positive for the virus in a short period of time, and the administration announced that they would be moving to remote-learning until after Christmas. This is clearly necessary, and the safest path for students and staff, but it leaves hourly-wage employees in a tough spot during the holidays.
One bus driver I spoke to is a single mom with a three-year-old son. She said, “A stimulus check would be a godsend right now. With Christmas coming, I have nothing.” She went on to explain that she was already behind on rent. She used up her sick days earlier in the year, and once she’s out of quarantine from this potential exposure at work she’ll still be cut from six hours of work a day to two hours. This cuts her income by more than half.
“I’m going day-by-day because we don’t know,” she said. “We only know there’s no school until Jan. 4. We have no way to plan or know what is coming between now and then.”
Depending on the job, hourly school employees like bus drivers may not qualify for unemployment. The schools in some cases are offering limited hours, cleaning the school or delivering lunches to low-income students, which is of some help. However, as someone who has experienced living paycheck-to-paycheck, I know firsthand how the loss of even one or two expected hours of work can yield devastating results.
And of course, hourly school employees aren’t the only ones suffering during shutdowns. Employees who get paid by the hour in many different fields are losing hours due to shutdowns and quarantines, in a country that doesn’t guarantee sick pay or health care and isn’t providing the support needed to survive these events.
Unemployment benefits are running out, and those measly $1,200 checks from March are long gone. For seven months, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell allowed the HEROES Act to sit on his desk and collect dust while Americans suffered. Now, Congress is on the verge of cutting a deal on a far smaller relief package that may include $600 or $700 stimulus checks for people below a certain income. Earlier this month, Governor Janet Mills announced the new Pandemic Relief Program offering a one-time payment of $600 to all unemployed Mainers. Checks are a good thing. It’s something, but how far can that go?
U.S. Congresswoman-elect Cori Bush of Missouri posted on Facebook recently, “They had the money for endless wars. They had the money for Wall Street bailouts. They have the money for pandemic survival checks.” Truly, that is how any future “stimulus” money should be approached. We aren’t talking about stimulating the economy anymore. We are talking about saving lives and protecting families.
The fact is that all these little things being offered — a few hours here or there for bus drivers, a small check for unemployed Mainers — they’re very small drops in an ocean of economic trouble. They are attempts at economic stimulus when we’ve moved far beyond that. Mainers don’t need a little extra spending cash to boost the economy. We need enough income for rent and mortgage payments. We need to buy food and pay bills. We need real, substantial support for people who are falling further and further below the poverty line every day.
We don’t need stimulus checks. We need survival checks.
Photo: Bruce Bennett, Getty Images
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