An education panel reacts to the administration's latest push to reopen schools in the fall on 'Fox & Friends.'
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
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.
Transcript generated on 2020-07-29.