Sec. DeVos: Schools must reopen, just a matter of how it will be done safely
Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, discusses President Trump's efforts to get schools back and his warning of pulling federal funding
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told “America’s Newsroom” on Thursday that “we need to get kids back in school” and every state should “figure out how it’s going to be done safely.”
“Every state and every community has school leadership that can sit down and can figure out solutions to the problem of reopening,” DeVos said. “It's not a matter of if, it's just a matter of how.”
She added that she thinks “there is a tendency on the part of some to be fearful of taking that next step toward where we need to go to get schools to reopen. "
"There are no excuses for sowing fear and for making excuses when there are clearly safe ways to do things and we can make those decisions, take those steps forward to getting schools fully open, fully operational and serve the families that we’ve made the promise to,” DeVos continued.
DeVos made the comments one day after President Trump said he disagreed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on their “very tough & expensive” guidelines – which he called “impractical” – on reopening schools in the fall amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“The recommendations from the CDC are just that, recommendations and as Dr. Redfield has made clear the CDC never even suggested in the first place that schools should close down initially,” DeVos said. “They’re there to help provide recommendations and guidelines on how schools can consider doing things safely and they’re going to continue to provide more detail to that and more help and assistance.”
The president’s comments come amid a week of discussions on whether schools will be able to reopen this fall, even as cases of the novel coronavirus surge in states across the country.
Host Sandra Smith noted that several states, including Texas, Arizona and Florida, are experiencing a spike in cases and asked DeVos if she thinks schools in “those emerging hot spot areas should also open?”
“Obviously there will be considerations in certain locations,” DeVos said in response.
She then pointed to The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which said schools should be reopened.
“The AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school,” the academy wrote in their guidance for school re-entry.
DeVos said AAP has “taken into account the whole child.”
“They are looking at it as physicians who take care of children on a daily basis and their posture is kids have got to get back in school, they need to be together with their peers, they need to continue learning for their own health and well-being,” she said. “This has got to go ahead.”
She acknowledged that “there are going to be exceptions for flare-ups here or there certainly, but we shouldn’t be paralyzed across the country or across the state because of one location.”
“Plan for schools to be fully open and fully operational and have contingency plans if you need to move to a remote situation because of a flare-up or because of a certain situation in a specific community, but this is not ubiquitous across the country,” DeVos said.
On Wednesday, President Trump threatened to withhold federal funding if schools don’t reopen in the fall.
Smith asked DeVos on Thursday if she backs the president on that warning.
“American investment in education is a promise to our students and families and if schools aren't going to reopen we’re not suggesting pulling funding from education, but instead allowing families take that money and figure out where their kids can get educated if they’re schools are going to refuse to open,” she said in response.
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“Schools can reopen safely and they must reopen, kids need to be in the classroom, they need to be with their peers, they need to be with their teachers and they need to continue learning,” DeVos stressed.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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