On a call with Vice President Pence and the nation’s governors, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made it clear that it was the administration’s position that schools must fully reopen in the fall.
DeVos hammered a plan from Fairfax County in Virginia as an example of what local districts should not do, and went on to say that local leaders should look at the data and “weigh the risk” of opening.
“Here in the DC area, Fairfax County, one of the wealthiest districts in this region, with a $3 billion budget has offered families a ‘so-called’ choice in the fall of zero days in school or two days. Their attempt at distance learning this spring was a disaster," she said.
DeVos said "a couple of hours of week of online school is not okay."
"So this can't happen again this fall," she said, saying such a plan would fail students" and "would fail taxpayers who are paying high taxes for education."
"Ultimately, it's not a matter of if it needs to open, it's a matter of how and they must be fully operational and how that happens is best left to education and community leaders," she added.