We believe many school districts, we believe many school districts can open safely, provided they implement safety measures and health protocols should be based on the data and the facts on the ground in each community, but every district should be actively making preparations to open. I hope that local leaders put the full health and well being of their students first and make the right decision for children, parents, teachers and not make political decisions. This isnt about politics, Ainsley the CDC unveiling new guidelines for schools to follow our education panel is here to react. We have Fox news medical contributor, Dr Nicole Saphier partnership, school superintendent, Kathleen Corder, Mcgee and Education Reform Advocate Darryl Good Morning, Ainsley, thanks for being here, Dr Saphier, I will start with you, since you are the medical expert. Is it safe for from a medical standpoint for our kids to go back to school

Ainsley the case for opening up schools for in person? Education is quite compelling when you take in account the social developmental, long term consequences of keeping the schools closed. Yes, of course you want to get these children back in person. You cant look at the country as a whole, its a very diverse nation. You cant compare our diverse nation to any other country, much larger with a much broader demographic. You have to look at it, not just by individual states but by individual municipalities, the CDC guidelines that went out yesterday and President Trump talking. He gave flexibility and freedom to governors as well as educational administrators to do what they felt is right for their community. One big caveat that he mentioned that you- and I have talked about many times on this show. Ainsley is yes in person, schooling about be successful as long as community transmission of the virus is low, and that is on us as adults as communities to make sure that there is decreased virus transmission. When our kids go back to school Ainsley. The president said yesterday that he is throwing out a proposal that possibly

schools if they dont reopen, they wont get federal funding. Is he also saying the money should follow the kids if the childs school doesnt reopen like in California, eighty percent of the kids schools are closed. Then those children should go to private schools or schools that are reopening and that money should follow them Kathleen. Do you agree with? Is that I absolutely agree with that. That should be the policy regardless of the situation. It should definitely be the policy when parents otherwise would have no opportunities or no options to send their children to any school at all, and so I think its really smart and I think its time to think about that very seriously. Ainsley. When you look at the polls sixty eight percent of Americans, they want to reopen some say open, as usual some say minor adjustment, some say major adjustments. When you add up those three first numbers, the majority of people, forty six percent, thirty one percent say dont open at all. What do you say? Lots of interests intersect in schools, the and right now the conversation doesnt hold them all coequal. Certainly, the health and safety

interest of teachers matter a great deal, but if you are a low income mom, you know in Central Brooklyn, you need to go back to work, this fall, and that requires somebody to help you with that, and that person would be watching your kid and hopefully teach them as well, and those concerns are real and genuine and they need to be at the center of the conversation as much as opening school facilities up safely Ainsley, Dr Saphier. There have been thirty six children under the age of fifteen that have died from Covid 19 numbers, not high, but still thirty, six families without their children. Because of this, and we dont want anyone else to experience that loss. Is there a safe way to do this so that children dont get it or do you think there are underlying conditions here, Ainsley its a very important message that you are making Ainsley? No one is immune to the severity of Covid 19. Although, yes, the most vulnerable are the elderly and those are Co. Morbidities anyone can get sick and anyone can wind

up on a ventilator and die from this make sure to decrease transmission through social distancing and mask oil wearing when appropriate, and we also need to do everything we can to get these kids back in school. More children get sick with the flu die every year from the flu, and we dont take the same measures. So maybe we should have been doing this all along, because children are very vulnerable to every seasonal flu so moving forward. Yes, we wanting to make sure that our children are safe. All of these efforts that we are talking about right now increased hand, hygiene, more social, distancing, improved ventilation. That is good not just for Covid 19 thats, also good for flu for strep throat for all the other things that can be detrimental to our children, Ainsley Kathleen as a superintendent. I know you didnt have the summer off. You are working, probably around the clock, frying to figure out how to open schools safely. What are you doing? We are its been a crazy two thousand and twenty for sure. We were actually very heartened when we saw the CDC guidelines come out yesterday. They look a lot like the mitigation strategies that were working to put in place for our schools,

partnership, schools. We run. We are a nonprofit organization that runs nine catholic schools, seven in Harlem and the South Bronx and two in Cleveland, so urban communities, where sometimes the virus has hit harder than anywhere else in the country. Getting the mitigation strategies right is our top priority, and so we are doing exactly some of the things that the doctor said. We are making sure we are purchasing masks so that every single person coming into our building, children, faculty staff and visitors have the opportunity to have a mask and have a clean maverick every day. We are improving, venting, labor relation in all of our rooms and all of our classrooms. We are actually renting tents for outdoor space so that we can use for outdoor classrooms. So we can make sure that children have recess time. They still need to be kids. Even while we are implementing these mitigation strategies in the classroom- and we are also working on social, distancing and making sure, especially that our teachers are safe about a third of our teachers- are veterans, some of them who have co morbidities, we need to make sure we are

keeping them safe along with the children, Ainsley Darryl. How about you Lou? Is it affecting you and your children and education reform? I just want to say I allegedly have the antibodies and had covid, so I take it seriously, but its interesting just to watch this whole thing play out from a political standpoint, because in the spring, when you know kids are going virtual, if you want to call it kind of like the schools status quo, basically making this point awful best thing possible is in person because they didnt want to lose any kids now suddenly, distance learning is the only thing they can do like either of those things were true in the spring or not true. Now, and most of those folks spent none of the summer getting better at distance learning. So we have this situation now, where, like some teachers, rightly are worried about their safety. Lots of parents and kids are worried about returning to work and improving their learning and like if a district isnt going to offer an in person option to a family that needs one well, you know im going to support a

family finding that wherever they can find it if its at a catholic school or school at neighboring province or online school some place, I think money has got to follow the kid to make that happen. Ainsley thanks to all three of.