and learning. all the while navigating their own work/life balance. >> i feel like probably requiring the masks was my number one thing that made me feel safer. >> the impact of isolation and cancellation of school was far greater than covid itself. it's been a struggle, knowing that i can't be, you know, in two places at once. >> sometimes i'm like, "okay, we can do this. be mindful. one step at a time." at other moments, it's just this wave of overwhelming what ifs. >> right now, our institutions of higher learning are also trying to figure out how to reopen safely this school year. in lexington, the university of kentucky is kicking off an ambitious plan to test all 30,000 students there. the school set up sites across campus just to handle the sheer volume of testing that's needed to do that. but the clock is ticking. the semester starts in just two weeks. nbc's allison barber has made her way to the university of kentucky for us with more on the mammoth testing operation there. about 75% of those students live off campus, as we understand it. walk us through what the university of kentucky is doing to test all of these students, the safety measures they're putting in place for the school year. >> reporter: hey, craig. yeah, so the university of kentucky says the majority of their classes this fall will be in-person, in classroom it. the classes start august 17th. today is the first day of testing. every single student who is going to come on campus must have a covid test before they return. that is one of many steps they say they're taking to be sure their students stay safe while they come back to school. i'll walk you through a little of what happens when they do come on campus. this is one of five testing sites they have at the university of kentucky. you can see some people down this way. they are registering, signing in, getting an appointment, so they can get tested. when they do come here, the first thing they'll do if they live off campus is they'll get a wellness, personal protection kit. they put these in the dorm rooms for students living on campus. this is a mask hoellder, thermometer, so students can check their temperatures, and sanitizer. once students check in here -- this is zach, a junior at the university of kentucky -- once they check-in, they'll come down the hill. i'll show you where everyone is sitting and waiting for students to come. again, they don't have a lot of lines right now because classes don't start until august 17th. they are doing these different testing sites every single day for the next two weeks. right now, you have a lot of people, ras, people coming to campus early, coming to get tested. today alone, they expect to test about 1,500 students all across the campus. first thing they'll do, they'll come down here, get checked in, then they make their way toward this back end, where they get their covid nasal swab. we spoke to the president of the university this weekend, and he said it was not riskless, having students come back, but they're doing everything they can to make sure they mitigate the risk and reduce it as much as possible. listen here. >> this virus can hitchhike across the world in hours. it could hitchhike across a campus in minutes. you've got to have effective screening, testing, and tracing to successfully keep people healthy. we must remain flexible. if better science comes out, we need to be able to put it immediately in the field. >> reporter: again, they say they're going to test roughly 30,000 students when all of this is said and done. classes officially start august 17th. craig? >> alisa allison, are they goin continue testing the students throughout the semester? is that the plan? >> reporter: this is the only big, mass testing plan right now, where everyone is going to be mandated. they are giving students access to an internal app of sorts, where every day they go through kind of a symptom checker. if they have one of any of the symptoms, then they will be told to quarantine. they have plans, they say, in place where they can keep those students isolated. they're not allowed to go to another campus building until they get a test, based on what the symptoms are. in terms of this scale, this ends on august 22nd. craig? >> all right. allison barber starting us off in lexington, kentucky, on the campus of the university of kentucky. right now, not all institutions of higher learning are working with the same tools when it comes to reopening safely. that's especially true for many historically black colleges and universities. as this headline notes, this pandemic has ushered in a new normal for historically underfunded hbcus. experts point out the pandemic has highlighted funding and resource inequities for some of these schools to make tough decisions to continue to educate their unique population. i want to bring in ruth simmons, the president of prairie view a&m university, an hbcu in texas. 80% of the schools more than 9,000 students there get some form of financial aid. ruth, thank you so much for your time this morning. let's start with some of the tough decisions that you're making right now for your faculty, for your students, based on the concerns that you're hearing from them. what are they? >> good morning, craig. first, let me clarify. not all hbcus are the same. we're part of a very large state system, so the small, private institutions have a particular set of issues. the larger state universities, part of systems, get a tremendous amount of support. so their issues are mitigated by the fact that they're part of a system. but let me go to the issue that concerns us as hbcus. first of all, you know that covid adversely impacts african-american and latino populations. as a consequence of that, we are dealing with financial issues among our student population which challenges their ability to come back, frankly, and continue their education. that's number one. number two, we're dealing with the stresses of covid, where families are impacted economically and, therefore, the students feel very concerned about the status of their families, making it a challenge for them to complete their work in the same way. in addition, we've gone to online in large measure, and this has hit hard in certain communities that are economically distressed because it's not a simple matter to go online and have all of the equipment you need and the wi-fi access and so forth. so we've heard from our students that it is very challenging for them to be able to get online, stay online, communicate with their professors online. in addition to many of them feeling that it's very difficult for them to learn as effectively online. finally, i have to point out, the condition of the country today with regard to police misconduct causes an additional stress on our students. so they have this confluence of factors, economic, health, and now police issues that make it very challenging for our students to be hopeful about their future. >> a majority of your students depend on some sort of financial aid. >> yes. >> your school received almost $7 million in funding from the cares act. how was that money spent, and is that nearly enough to help the students who have been affected during the crisis there? >> thank you. well, we actually received considerably more than that. we received the first cares act funding, which you mentioned, but we also got msi funding. obviously, the greatest need is financial aid, and we applied as much of that funding as we could to financial aid which, by the way, helped immensely in terms of allowing students to complete the semester and to be ready for fall enrollment. the rest of the msi funding, the second wave of it, we've been able to use to buy computers, for example, for students, to enable them to get online effectively, to improve instruction for them, faculty t better prepared to teach in an online environment. we used some of it to have additional staff in the courses, to help serve our students better, and so on. we've been very fortunate in receiving the kind of support, but it's never enough. as you know, in this demographic, students are desperately trying to finish college on very meager resources. i have so many students who come to see me and who say, "ruth, i've got to leave college. because i don't have $200 to pay for something." then when i say, "don't you have an uncle? don't you have an aunt, somebody who could possibly give you the money"? they say, "no." i hope people understand the dire circumstances of economically disadvantaged students and how hard it is for them to go to college, to keep in college, because financially never covers everything they need. >> ruth, really quickly here, i mean, this pandemic has really highlighted the challenges that hbcus have historically faced, and there are a number of high-profile folks who have been stepping up. mckenzie scott, the ex-wife of amazon's jeff bezos, she announced she is donating millions to hbcus. i recently talked to netflix ceo reed hastings, who is doing the same. have you seen any of this interest in hbcus land at prairie view? overall, what does this kind of attention mean? >> well, it's enormously, enormously important and gratifying. mckenzie, especially, i just want to thank her for stepping up. but here's a mckenzie story that's interesting for your viewers to know. mckenzie was a student of tony mars de marsden. the fact she was exposed to tony marsden is a big factor in the way she sees her iluence american society, the more people are exposed to difference, the more likely they are going to be sensitive to these kinds of issues. so i first want to say that. as far as the gifts are concerned, here's what i say to corporations and individuals, don't come with a token gift, a one-time gift. be in it for the long run. that's what will make a difference for hbcus. >> ruth simmons, that's a good spot to leave it. ruth, thank you. thank you for your time this morning. i appreciate you. >> thank you. thank you. from texas to georgia now, this morning, parents there are facing some alarming, new developments as they weigh sending their kids back to school in georgia. right now, there in georgia, there's been an outbreak, if you will. 260 school employees not working. blayne alexander is standing by for us in georgia with the latest on this summer camp that had to shut down after an outbreak there. blayne? >> reporter: craig, good morning to you. yeah, let's talk about this summer camp. it is about two hours north of atlanta. it was an overnight camp that opened in june. in fact, there's video the camp posted, detailing the new safety measures they were taking to welcome the students back to the camp. but according to the cdc report, all of this started, essentially, when a staff member started feeling ill. the next day, tested positive for covid-19. in the weeks to follow, at least 260 people, according to the cdc report, who were present at that camp all ended up testing positive. so the number, just to break down the factors. 597 people were at the camp. 344 were tested. 260 tested positive. the vast majority of them were children. so a few factors here to point out. the camp did meet all of the requirements as required by the state of georgia to reopen their doors. that includes requiring everyone who attends to provide proof of a negative covid-19 test that was taken within 12 days of arrival. the cdc report goes on to say there were at least two cdc guidelines not followed. one, opening the doors and windows for buildings to increase the ventilation in buildings. the second was requiring masks for everybody in attendance. only the staff members were required to wear masks there. so the report also says that singing and cheering likely played a role in all of this. i have to say, craig, i actually spoke with a parent who sent her two children to the day portion of the camp, not the overnight camp, and she told me that even after getting the notifications of the positive tests, she wouldn't have done anything differently. she said there needed to be some semblance of normalcy for her children. they needed to get back to activities. she believed the camp took all of the precautions that could be expected, craig. i want to read you a little of the statement from the camp. they said they made every effort to adhere to the guidelines set forth by the cdc and the american camp association, but the rendition to reopen is one they now regret, craig. >> did they say why they didn't require the campers to wear masks, blayne? >> reporter: it's not something they said in the statement. something that weighed in their decision was this was a generations long tradition for so many people, going to this camp, camp high harbor. they said maybe the people reached out to them and said, "please, help us create some sense of normalcy for our children in the midst of this," asking them to reopen their doors. they said that was something that weighed heavily on their decision to reopen and, again, one they now regret. >> blayne alexander in atlanta, thank you. let's turn to dr. cass, an emergency medicine physician at university of columbia. she's also a yahoo! news medical contributor and also recovered from covid-19. dr. cass, underscoring this need for testingvirus, i want to share this headline. quote, britain to roll out millions of 90-minute coronavirus tests. they will be rolled out to hospitals, care homes, and laboratories in the coming months. why can't we do that here? why aren't we doing this on a similar scale? >> honestly, craig, it is lack of leadership. it's not a capacityish sh issue knowledge of testing issue. we have tests in america that can turn around tests as quick as 15 minutes. they are available in some spaces in america, but certainly not at scale. i, myself, tried to get my daughter tested yesterday for the coronavirus, and i needed results quickly to know if she could hang out with my son, who is immune compromised. parents need this as schools open, as gatherings increase. we need results as quick as 24 hours, but no longer than 72 hours. if we're going to expect our children to stay in school and learn, if we're ever going to open them. >> dr. cass, stay put if you can. you'll stay with us for the hour. we have a lot of viewer questions to answer, like how big is too big when it comes to class sizes right now. i want to get to that in a moment. first, i'll talk to some folks at the center of this back to school conversation. the teachers. one teacher has a pre-existing condition that makes him nervous to go back into the classroom. the other is using instagram to share how teaching kindergart r kindergartners in ppe is not going to be easy. >> i'm going to show you a letter, and i want you to say the name of it and the sound. e says "eh." make sure the corners of your mouth are going back. new sensodyne sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend. can it help keep me asleep? smart bed is on sale now. absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. save up to $500 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. plus no interest until january 2023 & free delivery on most beds when you add a base. ends monday right now, thousands of teachers and families across the country are in crunch time to get ready for school. many of those teachers have to prepare their physical classrooms and, simultaneously, get ready for online learning. i want to bring in two teachers. tuff dave galloway is a sixth grade science teacher from florida. emily krisman is a kindergarten teacher from massachusetts. dave, i'll start with you. what kind of preparations has your school system made for this upcoming year? as we understand it, you head back to the school building with your fellow teachers next week. >> yes, sir. the district is doing as well as they can in response to the ever-changing guidelines from tallahassee. they've put in ppe as best they can and made the adjustments they're able to with everything changing all the time. because there is no set plan or guidance from our department of education at the state level on any of this. >> emily, what about for you? what's the plan? >> we don't really have one yet. we're between either doing a hybrid model, where kids go to school two days a week or two full distance learning. we're waiting to hear what the final plan is. >> emily, when are you guys supposed to be going back to school, in-person or virtually? when is it supposed to start? >> in a regular year, my school, teachers go back today and students would start next week. now, it's pushed back where students are starting after labor day. we, like i said, still don't have a plan. >> what are your biggest concerns about heading back in the classroom, or virtual learning, for both you and your students, emily? >> yeah. i mean, my biggest concern with being in-person is that i can't guarantee to my students and their parents that they're going to be safe. every year when i meet my new families, i want to be able to tell them that i'll do everything in my power to keep their children safe. i just don't feel like i can do that this year. wearing masks and doing all of the guidelines, i don't think we can teach in the same way we typically do. so it's just all around really scary. >> dave, teaching is a hard job. i know it. my mom was a teacher for decades. my mother-in-law was a teacher for decades. how does this make it even harder? what specific help do you need from your district or from the government? >> well, you know, funding, especially here in florida, has always been an issue for the last 20 years. we need adequate funding to enforce the safety guidelines that they're asking us to enforce. and that's been criminally absent. right now, this is when the rubber meets the road. this is when everything starts happening, getting back in the classroom, getting it planned up, getting ready for the kids. this year, i'm having to not only do the normal preparation, but now consider everything that's in front of us. like emily said, i can not guarantee the physical safety of my kids this year or my fellow teachers. and, you know, i'm not a guy that's hard wired for stress, but i'm at the point now, when we're looking at the enormity of the risk we're asked to take on for our students and kids, it's really overwhelming. >> especially there where you are, one of the hot spots in our country right now down in florida. >> correct. >> emily, no matter how we look at it, the act of learning is going to be completely different this school year. the act of teaching is going to be completely different this school year. as a kindergarten teacher, how realistic is it that teachers, especially teachers of students that young, are going to be able to enforce social distancing or get kids to keep their masks on or keep their hands to themselves? is that something you can do? >> i mean, i think we can do it because i do think that teachers are superheros, and we can take on anything. but i don't feel comfortable doing it. i think i can get kids to stay apart from each other and wear masks, but i still can't guarantee that that will even keep them safe. that's what really scares me. >> emily, thank you. dave, thank you. both so much. we continue to hear from lawmakers and policymakers and parents, and we haven't heard enough from teachers. so i appreciate your time, and i know that it wasn't easy for both of you to come on. thank you so much. >> thank you. a lot of questions about whether we are doing everything we can as a country to be ready for our kids to go back to school. i'm going to spend some time with a former u.s. education secretary, secretary john king. he's going to join me to talk about what he would be doing differently if he were running things. first though, a reminder, this virus has no age limits. a mother whose 2-year-old is battling covid just shared her story with me. i'll ask our doctor on duty about how kids are affected differently by this virus. if you have questions school related or otherwise, feel free to reach out. tweet those to us aat at #msnbcanswers or send an old-fashioned email, as well. there's the email address. talk @msnbc.com. ♪ thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients. patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs that can lead to death. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including trouble breathing, shortness of breath, cough, or chest pain. before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. be in your moment. ask your doctor about ibrance. be in your moment. >> techand your car., we're committed to taking care of you >> tech: we'll fix it right with no-contact service you can trust. >> tech: so if you have auto glass damage, stay safe with safelite. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ california's economic challenges are deepening. frontline workers stretched too thin. our nurses and medical professionals in a battle to save lives. our schools, in a struggle to safely reopen, needing money for masks and ppe, and to ensure social distancing. and the costs to our economy, to our state budget? mounting every day. we need to provide revenues now, to solve the problems we know are coming. right now, it certainly feels like there are more questions than answers about this virus, especially when it comes to our children. i talked to a mom on the "3rd hour of today" whose 2-year-old son is battling this thing. >> it came on very quick. we put my son to bed sunday night the 19th, and he was totally fine at 8:30/9:00 at night. at some point overnight, he had woken up about 10:30, started showing some symptoms. we got him to calm down, back to bed. by morning, he had a high fever, a saucough, struggling to breat lethargic, and wouldn't eat. it came on suddenly and out of nowhere. >> prognosis, thankfully, is good for her son. he is on the mebnd, expected to recover. i want to bring back dr. cass to talk about this and answer your questions. let's start with what we heard there. a question from our viewer, wendy. wendy asks, are this country's pediatric hospitals and regular hospitals prepared to handle a spike in pediatric cases of covid-19 if and when students return to the classroom? children, especially the younger ages and in smaller stature cannot be treated with the same medication, doses, equipment, even beds as adults. your answer to the question from wendy. >> it is true that children are not just small adults and do need special equipment, medication doses, and trained physicians that are better at taking care of them. right now, we know that even if a child gets the coronavirus, they are unlikely to need hospitalization or icu care, thank god. the death rate in children is very, very low. so we should continue to report the number of beds that are available locally and nationally for children, but i am not concerned right now that the capacity for our hospitals for children will be overwhelmed. >> excellent. excellent news, i suppose. next viewer question comes from elena. let's listen. >> i'm a teacher from texas, and i'm wondering, what type of ppe i should use once classes resume in person. specifically, should i wear a face shield? how effective is that ppe if my class size is 22 students versus 10 students? >> how can elena best keep herself safe in the classroom, doctor? >> so the best elena can do, just like the rest of the physicians, teachers, and nurses have done is make sure she has a face covering, maybe even a face shield. she washes her hands regularly and stay ace pas apart from her students. the class size is concerning. not just because of the rate of infection, but what happens if one child is symptomatic and can't get tested or is waiting for a test? do 22 children get disbanded and stay home for two weeks? this is why schools and districts need to think about smaller class sizes when possible. not just for the infection rate but also for the likelihood of having to stay home. >> barbara, viewer, asking, my husband and i are both high risk because of heart conditions. i am a teacher and need to go back to the classroom. would it be wise to buy a uv light to help sanitize my classroom? what do we know about uv light as a disinfectant? >> there are sanitation methods, including uv lights, that can be used to disinfect any surface. i wouldn't put it on teachers to be responsible for the disinf t disinfecting of their classrooms. if you school can't provide it adequately, it probably shouldn't open. >> next question comes to us from kristin. >> i recently read in "business insider" that a kindergarten teacher is now considered one of the riskiest professions during a pandemic. we are hearing of the importance of students returning to school. i do not hear the discussions about how to protect teachers and staff, especially when a child can be asymptomatic. sending children and staff back to school while numbers rise seems to be dangerous. what is being done to protect teachers and staff? >> dr. kass, she's mentioning teachers here, but we should note, school custodians, cafeteria workers, secretaries, the principal, you've got a lot of adults in these schools. what are we doing to protect them? what more should we be doing? >> so the first thing we're not doing is providing a uniformed standard by which all schools should have to follow to open the school. that has to come from the federal level, which means the positive tests for your community needs to be below a certain number to open schools. it means the capacity for testing and tracing if there's a case. it means all health care workers, inclouding teachers, should be provided with ppe and know what the disinfection capacity is for their school. kindergarten teachers will be at risk more by going to work than staying home. our goal is to support all school staff and teachers and students as they return to school. >> dr. dara kass, always learn something from you. appreciate all your time this morning. see you soon. we'd love to hear more questions from you, as well. if you're watching or listening on sirius satellite radar, you can tweet us. msnbc answers. or email us, as well. talk @msnbc.com. how do educators, how do they see schools reopening safely? one superintendent in arizona told the "washington post," quote, i'm sorry, but it's a fantasy. i'm going to talk about that with former u.s. secretary of education john king. step onto the blue line, sir. this device is giving us an accurate temperature check. you're good to go. i have to take care of my coworkers. that's how i am. i have a son, and he said, "one day i'm gonna be like you, i'm gonna help people." you're good to go, ma'am. i hope so. this is my passion. if i can take of everyone who is sick out there, i would do it in a heartbeat. parents face an impossible decision on whether to send their kids back to school. imagine for just a moment you were the person making that decision, for not just your kids but thousands of students. an arizona superintendent said this to the "washington post" about reopening his schools. quote, i'm sorry, but it's a fantasy. jeff added, this is my choice, but i'm starting to wish that it wasn't. i don't feel qualified. i've been a superintendent for 20 years, so i guess i should be used to making decisions, but i keep getting lost in my head. i'll be in my office, looking at a blank computer screen, and all of a sudden, i realize a whole hour has gone by. i'm worried. i'm worried about everything. each possibility i come up with is a bad one. i want to bring in john king jr., former u.s. secretary of education under president obama. he is now the president and ceo of the education trust. john, you can hear the desperation in those words. the safe school openings happen without national standards, without a national plan, without funding? what should we be doing differently? >> in part of what is so heartbreaking about a superintendent talking that way, it didn't have to be this way. the failure of the trump administration to adequately address the pandemic is how we got here. this isn't a school's issue, it is a society issue. we don't have testing. we don't have contract tracing. we don't have effective systems of quarantining. we don't have a national strategy around following the best science or public health. the consequences are being visited on schools now faced with this impossible decision. we have to protect the safety of kids and, yet, of course, educators know how harmful it is when kids are missing so much school. >> it seems like an impossible situation, and i say that not just as a journalist but as a parent, as well. here's the cover of this week's "new york" magazine, and it is pretty strikeing. as many parents decide whether to send their kids to school, the question has been asked of education secretary betsy devos, "what is your plan?" does the government have one? what is your opinion on how the current secretary is handling this crisis? >> well, it's just been a failure. let's be honest. the secretary should be out making the case for the national strategy we need around the pandemic. she should be out making the case for significant resources for schools. it is going to take at least $175 billion just to avoid school districts facing devastating cuts and state aid because of the covid-19 economic crisis. schools need resources for internet access, particularly for low income students and student of color. schools need resources for all the ppe and changes to ventilation systems and so forth that are necessary to open safely, even once we get the community spread rates down. she's not doing that. schools need guidance. we have 13,000 school districts who are each sort of now tasked with making it up as they go along, rather than having a coherent set of national guidelines for how to think about reopening and also how to think about doing distance learning effectively. >> we're continuing to get a great number of viewer questions. this is one from julie. julie writes in, for those of us with small children, how can teachers in districts keep kids engaged in the e-learning you mentioned. how can we keep them engaged so working parents don't have to become de facto teacher aides? what is your advice to julie? >> it's so hard for parents of young kids. my kids are 14 and 16. they're pretty independent about their work. for young kids, it is a huge challenge. distance learning is not going to be able to take the place of school, frankly, and parents are going to have to be assisting the school and helping their kids focus. we can't expect little kids to spend hours a day on zoom, so they'll have to have projects and things that they do on their own. that's going to require parents' support. the key thing that i hope districts will do is provide parents with lots of resources and assistance, technical assistance on navigating the technology, and also assistance on understanding how to support their kids' learning. think about the san antonio school district that's now planning extensive training for parents, knowing that they are going to have the first few weeks at least online. they're going to help support their parents, so they can be sort of co-teachers with the teachers. >> john, really quickly, not to put you on the spot, but you mentioned your two kids. are you sending them back to in-person school? >> my kids are in montgomery county public schools in maryland, and they've announced virtual until the end of january. i have to say, given the context, that feels like the responsible choice. they said they'll revisit it in november, depending on where we are in cases. as a country, we're not doing the things necessary to make it possible for schools to reopen. we've chosen bars and restaurants over schools. the current administration has chosen not to pursue a national, coherent strategy for combating the pandemic. some of our international peers have been able to open schools, but that's because they've got the rate of spread of the pandemic under control. >> john king, stick around if you can, please, sir. local districts making a push for online early learning in the fall. how do you do it effectively? john just mentioned some of our contemporaries overseas. what u.s. schools can learn from one country that's been honored for its digital education plan. first though, we continue to track tropical storm isaias, churning off the east coast of this country as we speak. right now, some 59 million people are under some sort of tropical alert, stretching from central florida all the way up to maine. that storm is expected to strengthen back into a hurricane later today. this is a live look at kiawah island. this is in south carolina, of course. this is courtesy of earth cam. we're going to head to the beach in our next hour on "andrea mitchell reports." let me tell you something, i wouldn't be here if i thought reverse mortgages took advantage of any american senior, or worse, that it was some way to take your home. learn how homeowners are strategically using a reverse mortgage loan to cover expenses, pay for healthcare, preserve your portfolio and so much more. a reverse mortgage loan isn't some kind of trick to take your home. it's a loan, like any other. big difference is how you pay it back. find out how reverse mortgages really work with aag's free, no-obligation reverse mortgage guide. with a reverse mortgage, you can pay whatever you can, when it works for you, or, you can wait, and pay it off in one lump sum when you leave your home. discover the option that's best for you. call today and find out more. i'm proud to be a part of aag, i trust em, i think you can too. online or in-class learning. the tough choice so many adults who want to keep kids safe are still weighing, though in some wealthier suburbs like rose point, michigan, the decision has been made. they plan to open the fall season 100% remotely. but can they do it effectively? turns out the answer may lie in the tiny northern european nation of estonia. schools in estonia have pioneered online learning since the late '90s. nbc's carl massman is in london. he's taking a closer look at how they've pulled it off. so, what can you tell us about estonia's system and what could the united states of america learn from them? >> reporter: hey, craig, yeah. they really pulled it off. talk about the choice between online learning and in-class learning. easy choice for estonia in mid-march. they went completely online with all of their classes. when you look at estonia, they're probably the best prepared country to do that. you mentioned. they've been investing in things like high-speed internet, digital infrastructure a couple decades now. it's a silicon valley of europe. some call it e-stonia. when the pandemic hit those investments paid off. to give you an idea of estonia here. around 90% of schools already were using digital learning tools, teachers had been trained how to use those tools. as early as 2015 nearly every textbook was digitized with interactive lessons built right in. you've got wi-fi, high-speed internet available for most students. these are just some of the things that estonia basically had a huge head start when it comes to digital learning. talk about low-income students. of course, a big challenge in the united states. well, things like transportation, textbooks even school lunches are provided for free and during the pandemic, laptops and tablets, a big nation w nation-wide drive to get toes into the hands of students who couldn't afford them and it all adds up to an amazing statistic. less than 1% of students during the pandemic stopped their lessons. for comparison, new york city, the number is closer to 10%. that's a big challenge getting students to keep up with their classes, and stay in school. you know, estonia looking to get back in the fall into physical classrooms, but there have been requests from students and from teachers, actually, to keep doing one to two days of digital-only learning. that's how successful it's been. of course, estonia a small nation and a big head start when it comes to digital inf infrastructure. krieg? >> so it would seem. from london, thank you. and bring back u.s. education secretary john king. john to do something like what they've done in estonia what would that take here? >> we'd have to close the digital divide in the united states about almost 80% of white families have reliable internet access. only 66% of african-american families. only 61% of latino families. students literally have schoolhouse door barred for them because of no internet service. address that. make sure students have devices. many communities where many low-income students do not have a device at home to use to do their work. they're relying on phones rather than a computer. we have to invest in training. low-income school districts, school districts serving large numbers of low-income students need resources to do professional development for teachers, to get the technology in place for learning management systems that can help them provide good online learning for their students. so those are big investments. congress has the opportunity to act on those kinds of investm t investments here in the next couple of weeks and desperately need to so schools can function detecttively this fall whether online completely or some hybrid model spending some of the time learning online. >> i mean, it really seems, john, by -- seems like by some measures our education system in this country is practically third world, and you look at places like estonia. john king, john, thank you. best of luck to you, sir. thank you, thank you. no does it fthat does it mo. next hour, many americans facing the first week without that extra $600. my dre my colleague andrea mitchell is next. "andrea mitchell reports," after this. ts," after this. it. how'd you do all this? told ya! wayfair. let's talk dining tables. yes! blow it up. ♪ wayfair you've got just what i need ♪ come on in, we're open. ♪ all we do is hand you the bag. simple. done. we adapt and we change. you know, you just figure it out. we've just been finding a way to keep on pushing. ♪ welookentertainmentourg a wayexperience: xfinity x1. it's the easiest way to watch live tv and all your favorite streaming apps. plus, x1 also includes peacock premium at no extra cost. this baby is the total package. it streams exclusive originals, the full peacock movie library, complete collections of iconic tv shows, and more. yup, the best really did get better. magnificent. xfinity x1 just got even better, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. no strings attached. good day i'm andrea mitchell in washington. a major surging coronavirus and masoner storm system both threatening the east coast. here are the facts at this hour. 80 million americans along the atlantic coastline are bracing for isaias to make landfall later this afternoon in the caroli carolinas. potentially a category 1 hurricane as governors spent months trying to stop the coronavirus now trying to keep residents safe while socially distancing. the world health organization