WASHINGTON (WVLT/AP) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he would withhold federal funding if America’s schools don’t reopen in the fall. He also disagreed with federal health officials over reopening guidelines that he called impractical and expensive.
As President Trump increased pressure on state and local officials, New York City announced that most of its students would return to classrooms only two or three days a week and would learn online in between. “Most schools will not be able to have all their kids in school at the same time,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Taking to Twitter before the New York announcement, Pres. Trump argued that countries including Germany, Denmark and Norway have reopened schools “with no problems.”
He did not say what funding he would pull, but Vice President Mike Pence later suggested that future COVID-19 relief bills could be tied to reopening schools.
“As we work with Congress on the next round of state support, we’re going to be looking for ways to give states a strong incentive and encouragement to get kids back in school,” Pence said at a coronavirus task force briefing.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said officials will reopen when it’s safe to do so.
“School reopenings are a state decision, period,” he said at a news conference. “That is the law, and that is the way we are going to proceed. It’s not up to the president of the United States.”
At a White House event Tuesday, health and education officials argued that keeping students out for the fall semester would pose greater health risks than any tied to the coronavirus.
Among those pushing for a fall reopening was the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But Trump on Wednesday complained the agency’s school opening guidelines were “very tough & expensive.”
“While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!” Trump wrote.
The CDC’s director, Dr. Robert Redfield, has emphasized that his agency’s guidelines are only recommendations
“I want to make it very clear that what is not the intent of CDC’s guidelines is to be used as a rationale to keep schools closed,” he said at Wednesday’s coronavirus task force briefing, which was held at the Education Department.
The CDC’s guidance recommends that students and teachers wear masks whenever feasible, spread out desks, stagger schedules, eat meals in classrooms instead of the cafeteria and add physical barriers between bathroom sinks.
Trump did not clarify which of the guidelines he opposed. Pence said revised guidelines would be coming out shortly.
At the briefing and a day earlier in a call with the nation’s governors, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said anything less than a full reopening would be a failure for students and taxpayers. But some of the nation’s largest districts plan to bring back limited numbers of students for only a few days a week, saying it would be unsafe for all to return at once.
She singled out Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools, which are asking families to decide between fully remote instruction or two days a week at school
“A choice of two days per week in the classroom is not a choice at all,” DeVos said, according to audio of the call with governors obtained by The Associated Press.
In announcing New York City’s plan for in-person instruction two or three days a week, de Blasio said schools can’t accommodate all their students at any one time while maintaining social distancing. The city’s public school system, with 1.1 million students, is by far the nation’s largest.
Trump said at the White House event on Tuesday, “We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools.” He said that parents and children want schools to reopen and “it’s time to do it.”
“Trump has proven to be incapable of grasping that people are dying — that more than 130,000 Americans have already died,” said Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association. “Educators want nothing more than to be back in classrooms and on college campuses with our students, but we must do it in a way that keeps students, educators and communities safe.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently issued guidelines suggesting that schools aim to start the academic year with students “physically present in school.” Keeping students at home can lead to social isolation, the organization said, and prevent schools from identifying learning deficits, abuse, depression and other issues.
Full Coverage: Virus Outbreak
Associated Press writers Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, Carla Johnson in Washington state, and Marina Villenueve in Albany, New York, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2020 WVLT. All rights reserved.
"lose" - Google News
July 09, 2020 at 02:46AM
https://ift.tt/38QaDi9
Pres. Trump says schools must reopen or lose federal funding - WVLT
"lose" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3fa3ADu https://ift.tt/2VWImBB
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Pres. Trump says schools must reopen or lose federal funding - WVLT"
Post a Comment