Fauci says Biden’s plan to reopen schools in 100 days ‘may not come to fruition’

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“The president takes the issue very seriously … both from the perspective of students and from the perspective of teachers,” Fauci said at a virtual event sponsored by the National Education Association.

“He really wants and believes that schools have to reopen in the next 100 days, basically all K-8 schools, within 100 days. It is the objective. It may not happen because there may be extenuating circumstances, but what he really wants to do is whatever is in his power to make it happen. “

Biden is pushing Congress to approve an additional $ 170 billion for K-12 schools, colleges and universities to help them operate safely in person or facilitate distance learning. Congress approved $ 82 billion in aid for schools in December, which Biden said he saw as a “down payment.”

The new funding would be part of a massive $ 1.9 trillion relief package that would also include increased unemployment benefits and direct stimulus checks.

“I’ll give you one word: money,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told CNN’s Erin Burnett this week, when asked why he thought some public schools across the country are still closed in places where private schools are open. “That’s why the President of the United States sent a plan to Congress, even before he took office, to make the investments you need to make schools safe.”
Klain referred to a study released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in which researchers looked at data on 17 K-12 schools in rural Wood County, Wisconsin, which conducted a in-person learning last fall. They found rates of Covid-19 cases lower than those in the general community and few cases of transmission at school. Cohorts of 11 to 20 students of the same grade gathered for lessons and lunch indoors, where students were often seated next to the same person.

“Students in very small groups, classes of around 11 or 12, remote, in a rural area – they can go to school safely,” Klain said, adding that “in other states, we haven’t seen that kind of investment. “

Biden has also signed several executive actions to help support the reopening goal and establish a national strategy to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control, but the measures do not require schools to reopen within a specified time frame.

An executive order directs the education and health and social services departments to provide reopening advice to schools with an emphasis on masking, testing and cleaning. A separate presidential memorandum proposes reimbursement to schools for purchases of personal protective equipment through the Disaster Relief Fund of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“The educational community, teachers and education teams are an absolutely essential part of society in general,” Fauci said Thursday. “But also a very critical part of our response to this epidemic – because we’re not going to get back to normal until we get the kids back to school.”

CNN’s Katie Lobosco contributed to this report.

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