Biden’s Ed. boss visits Bronx, pushes vaccines
Rising COVID numbers threaten eagerly anticipated school openings throughout the country, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona suggested during a visit to the Bronx on Tuesday.
“In communities where there’s less vaccination, there’s a greater likelihood that we’re gonna end up having to disrupt schools again,” he was quoted as saying by CBS New York at Truman High School in Baychester.
“We’re doing our part to protect you and protect your rights to play on the field. Help us out. Get the message out there,” he urged. “Do your part to keep your family safe, but keep school in-person.”
Earlier Tuesday, Cardona made similar remarks on NBC’s “Today.”
“School reopening will depend on community spread. Let’s be very clear. If the community spread is high, it is going to impact whether or not the schools can be open,” he said.
The comments appeared to mark a change in tone from the White House, which has been encouraging schools to start in-person learning in the fall.
Earlier this month, the Education Department released a “road map” for schools to have students onsite, suggesting measures like mask-wearing, COVID testing and more.
In April, President Biden said schools “should probably all be open” in the fall.
But since then, the highly infectious delta variant of coronavirus has fueled alarming surges throughout the country, prompting bitter feuding over COVID rules among local leaders.
Republican governors who pushed back against safety measures recently got rebuked by Biden, who said, “If you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way of the people who are trying to do the right thing.”
Cardona voiced a gentler version of that sentiment on Tuesday.
“We all need to do our part,” he said.
“Not only our students, not only our educators, but our community needs to do their part to keep the numbers low so they don’t jeopardize in-person learning because that’s where students learn best.”
The secretary of education also said schools have to do better on mental health support for kids.
“We need to build back better and make sure our schools are prepared to meet the social and emotional and mental health needs of our students and staff,” Cardona said, without going into detail.