President Trump Says He Will Pressure Governors Over School Reopening Even as Virus Surges

In a speech on Tuesday to open back America during this pandemic, President Donald Trump said he’s putting pressure on governors to reopen schools this fall.

In his speech, the President assured that the US is not closing down and will never close down even with a recent surge in coronavirus cases and a high rate of cases recorded.

“We hope that most schools are going to be open,” Trump said at a White House event.

“They think it’s going to be good for them politically, so they keep the schools closed, No way,” the President claimed without evidence. 

Donald Trump, who has been anxious to make America great again, despite the resurgence of COVID-19, said, “We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools.”

The events to plan towards reopening schools held in the White House and was attended by various stakeholders, teachers, students, parents, health, and education leaders from the state level.

The President claimed the actions to the reopen academic institutions in the fall are primarily on the governors. He specifically attacked Harvard University, saying the school’s leadership ought to be ashamed of its plan to bring up to 40% of undergraduates back to campus for the fall semester but have all course instruction delivered online.

The Educational Secretary, Betsy DeVos, at the event on Tuesday reaffirms how the school should be opened is more critical. 

DeVos discussed what she called one school district’s attempt at distance learning.

“A couple of hours a week of online school is not OK. And a choice of two days per week in the classroom is not a choice at all. So this can’t happen again this fall, it would really fail all of America’s students, and it would fail taxpayers who are paying high taxes for education. Ultimately, it’s not a matter of if schools need to open, it’s a matter of how,” she said.

The President Trump administration’s push to reopen schools is particularly about relieving parents of the obligations that come with having children at home and free more adults to return to pre-pandemic jobs and help resume a healthy education environment.

A senior official for the centers for disease control and prevention discussed the importance of schools to be the first to open and the last to be close, adding that kids need to be physically in school. He has further disclosed the CDC is planning to release new guidance on how best K-12 students can return to the classroom, though the proposed new guidance is unclear, according to the senior official. 

President Trump has frequently called for schools to reopen, tweeting Monday, “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!”