Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly dodged questions about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on school reopening under the Biden administration in an interview Wednesday morning.
Speaking on NBC’s “Today” program, Harris continually insisted on CDC guidelines published last week on its gradual reopening of schools, specifically on the point that teacher vaccination is not required.
Asked if it was a mistake for guidance to keep 90% of schools closed for face-to-face learning, Harris would only say it was the administration’s priority to open the doors of schools.
“In the last four weeks, schools are opening, more schools are opening every week,” Vice President Host Host Savannah Guthrie said. “And it’s that we’re complementing what needs to happen around the introduction of vaccines in states, but also because we see progress, people wear masks when they get vaccinated, when they distance themselves socially, we see 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.”
Harris then argued that the guidelines should not be followed as if they were legally binding.
“What the CDC has recommended and what they have recommended are exactly that: recommendations on how to reopen safely if they have been closed, how to stay open if they have been opened.
“Some recommendations include what should happen again around social distancing, hand washing and the use of masks. But the point is, we all want our kids to go back to school as quickly as possible and as safely as possible, ”Harris said.
Harris faced Guthrie’s backlash over changes in messages about administration schools, from changing schedules to worrying about how many days a week students could return.
The vice president 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 them to spend five days a week, so that we have to work to achieve this goal.But our goal is the goal of parents, I mean, here’s the thing, Savannah, I don’t need to tell you, the issue here is not just statistics, but our children , but of their parents. It is a matter of the fact that every day our children lack essential and critical days in their educational development “.
Harris acknowledged the harm done to children who lost their years of classroom training, 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 third grade, if a child isn’t at the third grade reading level, they literally leave. So every day in a child’s life is very long, and that is why we must collectively do everything in our power to reopen our schools as quickly as possible and with the maximum possible security ”.
Asked about the prudence of some teachers to return to work without getting a vaccine against COVID, which some teachers’ unions have taken advantage of to refuse to return to face-to-face learning, Harris seemed to undermine the CDC statement, insisting that teachers should be a priority for vaccination.
“Teachers should be a priority [to receive the vaccine] along with other front-line workers, ”Harris said twice before offering an anecdote about a favorite teacher of his.
“And we’ll do one,” he added, while refusing to say whether teachers should feel safe returning to face-to-face instruction, as the CDC has advised.
Pressed by Guthrie whether unvaccinated teachers should feel safe when they return to the classroom, Harris responded, “Well, I think we need to decide if we can put in place safe measures. That’s why it’s so important that we approve the American Rescue Plan. The American Rescue Plan, which the president and I have proposed, is a plan to reopen our schools. “
When Guthrie asked Harris to simply address the issue of teachers who are wary of exposure if they are not yet vaccinated, the vice president reiterated her statement that the administration thinks teachers “should be a priority.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, said over the weekend that it would be “optimal” but not essential for vaccinating all teachers before returning to the classroom, echoing a similar verdict by Biden’s new CDC director.
Biden, a friend of teachers ’unions, has refrained from using his influence to crush group dissent in some of the country’s largest cities.
Pressed Tuesday night during his CNN town hall meeting on school closures, Biden said press secretary Jen Psaki was wrong when she said her plan would only allow half of the children to be seen in classrooms so only one day a week.
The commander-in-chief said he wanted the full school to reopen at the end of his first 100 days in office, predicting that there would even be districts where they could establish a full summer school semester.
“That’s not true. There was a communication error,” Biden told CNN anchor Anderson Cooper when asked about the reduced goal of 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 that could be open,” he said.
“I guess they’ll probably be pushing to open all summer to continue as if it’s a different semester,” he continued. “I think a lot of them will do it five days a week. The goal will be five days a week.”