BETSY HAS A REOPEN MIND

Ed. sec’y vows fall return to schools

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos vowed Sunday to have students back in classrooms this fall.

“Parents are expecting that this fall their kids are going to have a full-time experience with their learning, and we need to follow through on that promise,” DeVos told “Fox News Sunday,” adding that “kids cannot afford to not continue learning.”

She said it’s “not a matter of if ” but a “matter of how.”

DeVos said students have already been harmed by not being in school during the spring amid the coronavirus pandemic, and some who have been staying home could be suffering from mental, emotional and social issues.

“They’ve fallen behind this spring, we need to ensure they’re back in a classroom situation wherever possible and whenever possible, and fully functioning, fully learning,” she said.

Fox News’ Chris Wallace pointed out that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not say schools had to close in the fall, and it released guidelines last month for how schools could reopen safely.

DeVos acknowledged that exceptions could be made in school districts that are seeing a spike in cases.

“Where there are hot spots in the future, in the fall, of course that has to be dealt with differently,” she said.

She also doubled down on threats to withhold federal funding from schools that don’t reopen.

“American investment in education is a promise to students and their families,” she said. “If schools aren’t going to reopen and not fulfill that promise, they shouldn’t get the funds.”

Wallace noted that she and President Trump would have to work with Congress to cut funds.

DeVos said the administration is “looking at all the options.”

“Because it’s a promise of the American people, to students and their families, and we want to make sure that promise is followed through on,” she said.

Meanwhile, Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, insisted there’s “no way” schools across the country can reopen unless the federal government steps in to help financially.

“There’s no way that you’re going to have full-time schools for all the kids and all the teachers the way we used to have it,” Weingarten told John Catsimatidis on his AM 770 WABC radio show on Sunday.

“Once we have a vaccine, I hope we can get back to that,” she added.

The School Superintendents Association estimated that it would cost an average of $1.8 million per school district to adhere to guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reopen this fall.

“And in doing this, not only is there a [need] for retrofitting, for ventilation systems, but also for buying the damned masks for the cleaning equipment, for the nurses that we’re going to need,” Weingarten added.

“That’s why we’ve been pushing really hard . . . To get the [federal] money that states need . . . to reopen schools,” she said.

The Trump administration hasn’t said whether additional funds would be available for schools.