Vice President Kamala Harris has repeatedly shied away from questions about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on reopening schools under the Biden government in an interview on Wednesday morning.
Speaking to NBC’s “Today” program, Harris was continually pressured about the CDC’s guidance released last week about the gradual reopening of schools, specifically the point that teachers are not required to be vaccinated.
Asked if it was a mistake for orientation to keep 90% of schools closed for face-to-face learning, Harris just said it was a government priority to open school doors.
“In the past four weeks, schools are opening, more schools are opening every week,” the vice president told host Savannah Guthrie. “And it is because we are complementing what needs to happen with vaccinations arriving in the states, but also because we are seeing progress, people are wearing masks when they are being vaccinated, when they are in social distance, we are seeing progress there.”
“But we all want schools to reopen, Savannah, all of us who have children in our lives. They want to go back to school, we want them to go back to school, the teachers want to teach ”.
Under further pressure, Harris argued that the guidelines did not need to be followed as if they were legally binding.
“What the CDC, what they recommended is exactly that: recommendations on how to safely reopen if they were closed, how to stay open if they were opened.
“Some recommendations include what, again, needs to happen around social detachment, hand washing, wearing a mask. But the point is that we all want our kids to get back to school as quickly and safely as possible, ”said Harris.
Harris faced resistance from Guthrie over changes in administration messages about schools, from changes in schedules to concerns about how many days a week students could return.
The VP defended the administration in response, saying: “Our goal is for as many K-8 schools as possible to reopen in the first 100 days. Our goal is for five days a week, so we have to work to achieve that goal. But our goal is the parents’ goal, I mean, here’s the thing, Savannah, I don’t need to tell you, the issue here is not just about statistics, it’s about our children, it’s about their parents. It is about the fact that every day our children are missing essential and critical days in their educational development. “
Harris admitted the damage done to children who lose their formative years in the classroom, but remained vague about how the administration would ensure mitigation.
“We know, we’ve been working on this issue for years, around the fact that at the end of the third grade, if a child is not at the reading level of the third grade, he literally gives up. So every day in a child’s life is a long time, which is why we have to do everything in our power collectively to reopen our schools as quickly as possible and as safely as possible. “
Asked about the caution of some teachers to return to work without getting the COVID vaccine, which some teacher unions capitalized on to refuse to return to face-to-face learning, Harris seemed to undermine the CDC’s statement, insisting that teachers need to be a priority for vaccination .
“Teachers must be a priority [to receive the vaccine] along with other frontline workers, ”Harris said twice before telling an anecdote about her favorite teacher.
“And we will make them one,” she added, refusing to say whether teachers should feel safe about returning to face-to-face education, as CDC advised.
Pressed by Guthrie if unvaccinated teachers should feel safe when they return to the classroom, Harris replied, “Well, I think we have to decide whether we can implement safe measures. That is why it is so important that we approve the American Rescue Plan. The American Rescue Plan, which the President and I proposed, is a plan to reopen our schools. “
When Guthrie asked Harris to simply address the issue of teachers being cautious about exposure if they have not yet been vaccinated, the vice president repeated her statement that management thinks that teachers “should be a priority”.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist, said over the weekend that it would be “great”, but not essential, for all teachers to be vaccinated before returning to the classroom, echoing a similar verdict on the new director of the Biden CDC.
Biden, a friend of the teachers’ unions, has avoided using his influence to crush group dissent in some of the country’s largest cities.
Pressed Tuesday night during CNN city hall about the closure of schools, Biden said that press secretary Jen Psaki was wrong when she said that her plan would only be to see half the children back in class for just one day a week. .
The commander-in-chief said he wanted a complete reopening of the school at the end of his first 100 days in office, predicting that there would even be districts where they could institute a full summer school semester.
“This is not true. There was an error in communication,” Biden told CNN anchor Anderson Cooper when asked about reducing his goal by one day a week.
Biden said he would be “close” to meeting his goal of reopening most K-8 schools by the end of April.
“We had a significant percentage of them being able to be opened,” he said.
“My guess is that they will probably endeavor to open all summer to continue as if it were a different semester,” he continued. “I think many of them will do five days a week, the goal will be five days a week.”