Enjoy book tv on cspan2. Dental Daarel Burnette joins us on School Reopening. EnPresident Trump has made it clear will open in the fall and has gone so far as to say last week he will cut off federal funding for schools that dont reopen, can he do that . Know or it would be very difficult for them to do that. The biggest thing is that most federal funding has already been set out for the school year. This thing is that congress controls the Purse Strings so they have created rules around exactly when money gets sent out, how much money gets sent out and exactly what School Districts need to do toreceive that money. And then the last thing is that if the congress decides to provide more bailout money for School Districts, they would have to agree to get the strength to betsy devos to decide when to fill out money and how to dole any extramoney out. Our understanding is no one of the things i want to point out is federal money is targeted for low income schools so what betsy devos and donald trump are saying is that we dont wantto give up already underfunded schools more money. You talk about additional federal dollars, how much was in the care for schools and whats being proposed the prozac that democrats are talking about and other plans that are being pushed right now for future additionally. The carryback money under thecare , had about 13 million which is really a drop in the bucket for 700 billion a year. That money was really targeted towards, it was explicit in the law. In one School District to spend that money on lasters extra cost when they had to shut down in march, the first thing that pops forget, on my side etc. The heroes which is whats been proposed in the house which has passed the house, that would provide about 50 billion for schools. Again, not enough. Most districts, most education advocates are saying the 200 billion to reopen school. Right now, senator Lamar Alexander who runs the Senate Education committee, hes talking about possibly providing six to 70 billion for and that money would really be geared towards reopening costs such as transportation etc. School districts need to pay their staff so the reopening costs might help but really what districts need is enough money to survive the school year. And what i should emphasize is that federal dollars are only 10 percent of school funding. The vast majority of School Districts rely on local and state aid and state aid has plummeted a. We show this article in the last segment of the washington journal when we were talking about School Reopening. In early june report from the Association School administrators reopening even an additional 1. 8 million in costs for the average sized School District, i know theres other numbers out there. Can you dive into those numbers of it . Sure. So reopening we talked to several administrators about some of the logistical challenges andfinancial challenges in reopening. The asa or the Superintendent Association estimate was for about 13,000 students, about 2 million and theyre really talking about the hardware of opening schools so ppe equipment which at that time they were estimating that masks cost 10 each but masks are really because theres a shortage of ppe equipment , masks cost about 2 to 3 dollars so i actually think they might be underestimating how much it would cost area some of the other they costs are plexiglas, trying to reduce last sizes which you would have to hire more teachers and more professionals in the school then the schools to do. You want to, if you want to do social distancing, three or 60 you would be have to go out and get more facilities so you would have to take the kids reto you know, the local stadium or take them to the local Convention Center in order to conduct classes and that all costs more money. So ive heard more recent estimates in which these numbers can climb into the two, 3 million for School Districts. The local superintendent was seeing the masks 400,000 kids , masks alone you would have to spend 10 million and the big thing is for School Districts is they might purchase all this equipment and all this is sitting in a Storage Facility somewhere and they cant use it. It would basically be a waste of tax dollars. Carol burnett, finance reporter and your questions when it comes to School Reopening and financing of that process and what Online Learning might look like. 2027488000, educators the number 2027488000 one. All others 2027488000 two. You were talking a second ago about potentially hiring more teachers and yet this was the headline, the story that you put out this week, thousands of educators being laid off already due to covid19 and more expected. This is the thing that nobodys talking about right now you districts are really on the cost of recession in which more thana quarter of their funding could basically evaporate. And we are already seeing a handful of states, massachusetts, michigan, nevada right now, those legislatures talking about cutting a quarter of their funding, hundred 25 Million Dollars this school year, thats a quarter of their funding which would lead to masslayoffs. We really havent seen historically, typically School Districts are, their cushioned against the economic and womens but ive counted more than half the School Districts are heavily reliant on state income tax revenue and now that the economy as extensively shut down in less than a few weeks effectively shut down again so down twice in the last six months alone were going to see budget cuts at a scale that we have truly never seen. And once Congress Ends their special session that starts next week, were going to start seeing space state legislatures reconvene and start cutting budgets and cutting big chunks out of their budget. Weeks before the School Year Starts, possibly after the School Year Starts we can possibly see midyear layoffs which i think eeis can be very traumatizing for a community. It could be academically distracting for students. When youre talking about these layoffs and these districts what are they telling the teachers . Are they saying that theseare temporary or permanent cuts . There telling them that if congress decides to give them extra money they might be able to rehire them back but m. Otherwise people should try to find another job. Taking your calls this morning, emily is up first out of charlotte michigan area and a parent. Good morning. Good morning. Im a grandparent, i just want to make a comment, listening to this young man talk about the billions that he made or the School District may ask for from congress or are trying to get from congress and their disparity in that small number and the trillions being given to corporations that were dumped out in the first week of this situation. And now with in the midst of this terrible, horrible social experiment theyre running us through a want to send their children back to School Without giving you folks enough money to dothe job. Im just pointing this out as a disparity. Im sure its probably striking everybody else as being a parent too. But youre talking billions and theyve already thrown out 3 trillion, 4 trillion, 5 trillion. Carol burnett, who else is pointing out that disparity . I talked to the superintendent in michigan about potential teacher layoffs and he actually decided to provoke himself this summer to avoid teacher layoffs. His reasoning i thought was interesting. This is in adrian michigan which is a Little College town. The School District there is the Third Largest employer and that town has a 30 percent unemployment rate. So once School Districts start laying people off, this will have a and hounding effect on the economy. And in a sense it could also in effect and we saw this during the last cerecession, it could spark another recession. This is one of the things i think a lot of people arent really thinking holistic about the role that schools have area they are huge employers. They employ around 1 million people, 3 and a half million teachers and in some towns, some cities they are the largestemployer. Not only teachers working in schools , paraprofessionals, custodians, administrators. After school care workers. Theres a whole workforce around schools so i think this gentleman pointed out there is a lot of focus right now oncorporations and their survival. But there is less focus on Public Schools but Public Schools are, they play a very central role in the economy. Brenda, redfordmichigan. A parent, how old are your kids . My kids range from oneyearold to 39 years old. What your concern about schools this fall . My concern is kids with asthma and various medical conditions going back to school, schools in michigan i knowa lot of them dont have airconditioning. The climate and there is hard for children to breathe with a mask on. Im concerned that there teaching the children right now half the parents dont understand the cause they changed it to other countries wearing the masks g. I think children should stay at home right now until they get everythingunder control. Daarel burnette. Thefirst time i was on the show was talking about school facilities. The infrastructure of Public Schools, their crisis. Its a longrunning crisis so i think weve estimated 1 trillion in maintenance costs. One of the most concerning things about a recession is schools basically freeze upgrades to facilities and so all the schools that have a water pump issue , mildew in the schools etc. , all that gets put on the back burner for schools to basically pay salaries instead. One of the things i wanted to point out as this lady to greatgrandmother pointed out , schools have a difficult time, School Administrators have a difficult time stopping kids from bathing in the bathroom, kissing in the hallways, from confiding in the hallways so we talked about schools trying to keep kids apart, six feet apart all day long because its very, very difficult and i think this is one of the arguments that a lot of administrators have been making the last few weeks as secretary betsy devos and donald trump have taken on this mission for schools, the heart of americas Public School system is under public control and every town has a unique scenario. There are some towns in america talking about friends or former coworkers in which the infection rates there are 15, 20, 30 percent area they have people dying on a frequent basis and the fear of the coronavirus assome of the colors were talking about is very real, very tangible. There are some communities in america in which they have brandnew schools, kids can work there and some areas in which they can take the kids outside and have classrooms outside and that if its the kid so i think the interest administrators have been arguing there should be a local decision. Of the viewer interested in that segment about failing infrastructure, back in january 12 of 2018 actually not your first time on this program we had you on about three years ago. Almost to the day today back in 2017, talking about teacher evaluations read all of darrells appearances on this Program Available onour website. Use the search bar at the top of the page is your friend and you can find his and all of our guest appearances area far rockaway new york, a parent, you are up next. Grandparent. Ll a quick question. Is there any way that the local School Systems can link up with Online Education whereby if you have to make up at least 180 days in the classroom, is there any way i aycan link up the coast online is usually two years in advance and if youre in the sixth grade you will get seventh and eighth grade education but this way the students cancatch up and not only that you could print out the information and send it in online rather than mailing it in. So School Districts did do Online Education in march, starting in march of last year and there were some bright spots. There was a lot offrustration. Amongst teachers and administrators. Especiallyfor the younger grades. I think that higher ed has really figured out t Online Education. K12 is light years behind higher ed. Everything from not all students have access to wifi and not all students have access to laptop computers. My colleague a couple months ago, not all teachers have access to wifi. We have teachers sitting outside of schools trying to connect to School Buildings wifi. It is a big logistical hurdle. This summer a lot of schools have decided to go out and purchase more and improved software for Online Learning and they are trying to roll out more comprehensive Online Learning. But as my colleague has shown in and week, its very difficult and i think theres a growing concern amongst k12 community that in person learning, teachers standing in front of a child works best. I think its really interesting that betsy devos was saying that the wave of the future for k12 and now shes demonizing it. I think a lot of k12 administrators are saying which one is it . But i think like everything in k12, its nuanced. There are some bright spots. There are potential areas of growth. But overall its nowhere close to in person or as effective at as in person learning. She had pointed out printing out materials. Most administrators i talked to in wisconsin and because so many of their students do not have access to wifi or computers, r,they spent around 6 million printing out curriculum. And then they spent another Million Dollars delivering it to kids. They had to basically buy all the postage to put laptop computers, paper in the mail to parents. Again, another logistical expensive hurdle. You mentioned the Virtual Learning and her comments about six months ago versus recently. This was the president last week saying on twitter now that we witnessed it on a large scale basis and firsthand Virtual Learning has proven to be terrible compared to in school or oncampus learning. It is not even close. Schools must be open in the fall. Why would the federal government government give funding . It wont. You talk about at the beginning of this segment that he cant really take away funds from federal School Districts that have been appropriated and distributed but what other carrots and sticks can the president and betsy devos used other than the bully pulpit and the bully twitter page . They have to work with congress. My colleague andrea has talked to several experts about this. And i think the department is also scrambling to figure out how scto do this. Its very complicated once you get into the legalities of the powers that the executive branch has over school funding. Four years ago the federal government passed the every single kids needs act and the trust of that law was there be two things of the secretary of education. There was a broad consensus under the Obama Administration that the president and secretary of education should not have oversight over american schools. We all concluded that local control rain and its interesting betsy devos and donald trump have taken on this role of we are going to tell districts what they can and cant do and when they can and cant open because the vast majority of their tenure has been all about local control. To the point that administrators, district administrators have been crying for leadership. Six months ago when the coronavirus first began, the administrators had basically asked us, they explicitly asked donald trump and betsy devos to tell them whether they should be open or closed. And betsy devos said it was a local decision, you decide. So howthings change. Next out of fort wayne indiana, a teacher, good morning. Caller good morning. Id like to ask you a question about teachers pay. I am an adjunct instructor and my prospects for becoming fulltime are getting very very dim. Im wondering how you see that playing out in higher ed and those that proliferate through k12 as far as teachers pay . Thank you. Guest teacher pay there is an ongoing local crisis with thegovernor, legislature and teachers union. This was one of the things that manny and i have really racked our brains about because the political momentum behind teacher pay has again, eight months ago, nine e months ago there was a huge movement. Teachers decked in red, thousands of teachers decked in red in indianapolis actually pushing state legislatures to increase teacher pay. There was a broad consensus amongst the general public, not only teachers but the e general public that teachers were underpaid for the work they do. Teachers were getting paid o 26, 27,000 a year in kindergarten, first, second grade teachers, the teachers who matter the most in kids lives. So now that these states are dealing with these huge budget crisis, the first thing that will go is teacher pay. All the initiatives to raise teacher pay are thrown out the door. We were tracking which states were and were not going to increase teacher pay and we had concluded this would be the year in which states could finally fork over millions, hundreds of millions of dollars of a cost to increase teac