Washington (CNN) Education Secretary Betsy
DeVos on Sunday refused to say whether schools should
follow guidelines from the US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention on reopening, saying those
guidelines are meant to be "flexible."
"The CDC guidelines are
just that, meant to be flexible and meant to be applied as appropriate for the
situation," DeVos told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union."
The CDC guidelines for
schools to reopen contain steps to keep children safe, including keeping desks
placed six feet apart and for children to use cloth face coverings. The CDC
suggests the closing of communal areas like dining rooms and playgrounds and
the installation of physical barriers like sneeze guards where necessary.
"There is nothing in the
data that would suggest that kids being back in school is dangerous to
them," DeVos said, when asked by Bash if she can assure parents and
students that schools will be safe and pressed on health guidance that says
children are at highest risk when meeting in full-sized, in-person classes --
doubling down on a similar comment she made last week (CNN).
“The big news today was the administration’s escalating insistence that our public schools must reopen on schedule for the fall. Today, on ‘Fox News Sunday,’ Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos told Chris Wallace (who is one of the Fox News Channel’s actual reporters), ‘We know that children contract and have the virus at far lower incidence than any other part of the population, and we know that other countries around the world have reopened their schools and have done so successfully and safely.’
ReplyDelete“Wallace asked her if it was fair to compare countries that have as few as 20 new cases a day with the U.S., which is currently seeing 68,000. DeVos dodged the question.
“She vowed to cut off federal funding for public schools that do not reopen. Wallace asked: ‘Under what authority are you and the president going to unilaterally cut off funding, funding that's been approved from Congress and most of the money goes to disadvantaged students or students with disabilities? You can’t do that.’
“Then DeVos said something interesting: ‘Look, American investment in education is a promise to students and their families. If schools aren't going to reopen and not fulfill that promise, they shouldn't get the funds, and give it to the families to decide to go to a school that is going to meet that promise.’ This is the best explanation I've seen for why the administration is so keen on opening up the schools.
“DeVos is not an educator or trained in education or school administration. She is a billionaire Republican donor and former chair of the Michigan Republican Party. She is a staunch proponent of privatizing the public-school system and for replacing our public schools with charter schools, as her wealthy family managed to do with great success in Michigan, which has been flooded with low-performing charter schools and with very little oversight…” -Heather Cox Richardson.