the 2020 one defense programs and policy bill. peter0 a.m. on c-span3, gaynor testifies before the homeland security committee on the response to the coronavirus pandemic. at 2:00 p.m., the senate foreign relations committee addresses u.s. competition with china. weingarten, the president of the american federation of teachers talking about reopening schools in the pandemic. guest: thank you. people about the scope of the american federation of teachers, whom you represent. millione represent 1.7 people across the country, all strivers,e teachers, professionals cap -- bus drivers, public employees, nurses, and other health care professionals, 200,000 of whom have been working through this pandemic.

we represent the people who make a difference every single day in the lives of americans, and we have been working as essential workers to help people be safe through the pandemic. host: your organization just did a survey of teachers asking them what they would need to feel comfortable should schools reopen, what were some of the results? guest: i am so glad you asked this question. we did our survey at the end of june, basically wanting to wait so school had finished this year. largest -- ande also higher education, to get a sense to what attitudes were right now after they had gone through the virus. and what they told us, because i am sure that it is different than what it is today, giving trump, is that at

the end of june they said that 76% said that if we could get the safeguards that we had been fiercely advocating for since april, meaning safeguards to stop the spread of the virus, meaning that you have very little virus spread in a community, you have a testing infrastructure, and then in school you have the social distancing, the masks, cleaning, ventilation, and reasonable accommodation for people at risk on top of washing your hands, that 76% were comfortable going back in. i think kevin what has happened in the last two weeks with the wood -- with divorce and trump wanting school -- devos and trump wanting schools to fail by creating this situation that

denies the virus and says you can open up without having the resources, i would say that that number has completely reversed. host: betsy devos and president trump stressed the importance of having kids physically back in school saying it is the best environment for kids to learn, you agree or disagree? guest: of course i agree. to-pandemic we were having fight betsy devos for years, because she has always been into virtual learning as a substitute for public education. she is into anything she can have for a substitute for public education. but, we know that you need to have in school learning. teachers want to be back in the classroom. we also pulled our members to see what they thought. even though they gave their district a lot of credit for trying to help support them, 86% thought that remote learning did

not work. it is not a substitute for it. this is the problem. choice, youave a cannot pick safety of people in the middle of the pandemic surging in florida, texas, california. you cannot pick that against education. we need to do the -- we need to do both. first, but we also have to do things to ensure that kids can get a decent education this year even with the pandemic, and that will probably mean that in most places we will start remote. there will be places where you can do some in person learning. that, big proponent of but it has to be safe. our members wanted, as you could see. they knew that if it was safe, they were comfortable. spread have a huge virus

that is raging throughout the country, and you have a reckless president, and secretary of education who deny the virus and not care about jeopardizing peoples' lives. host: educators can call at 202-748-8000. parents and students, 202-748-8001. all others, 202-748-8002. you can text us questions at 202-748-8003. randi weingarten for the federal responsibility dollar wise, is there a figure that needs to be seen in order to make school safe? guest: i think that the heroes bill was a first step, because it is a two parter. basicallystate aid fund public schools. cratered invenues

march and april, and they are going to crater again. federalult, the government should not just be propping up the cruise industry, propping up the airline industry as important as they are to the economy. the most important services for localities been what have been doing throughout this pandemic. that is why states need about -- states need the support that the heroes act gave, which is about half $1 trillion. localities as well. i think we need the trillion dollars from the heroes act, and on top of that, another hundred billion dollars because of the cost of reopening schools. our union figured out that it billion in order to pay

for the ppe, masks, face shields, and other ppe that we need. structures toe create physical distancing, to pay for the cleaning and rejiggering of the system, the nurses and guidance counselors that we need in schools. doyou are actually going to what donald trump says, which is assuming no surge, pick a place like new york and new jersey where you have infection rates down below 1% and you are going to reopen every single school, five days a week with all of the services that kids need, you would have to pay half $1 you would have to pay teachers 50% and you will have to find tenants and all sorts of other things. so we have to be safe for kids.

devos say that trump and and mcconnell, they are not going anywhere near that number. but they are doing is that they do not have a plan or the resources, they are trying to create a talking point because they know, just like we know, that schools are important. we believe it is important because we have to deal with and lost instructions and meet their emotional and social needs. but, what we are seeing is that devos, trump, and mcconnell wanted to be a talking point as opposed to actually wanting to solve the problem. host: we have calls lined up for you. moses is in minnesota. you are on. go ahead. caller: yes. if i remember correctly, you made a position about impeaching trump, so you have got one

million plus teachers and you guys cannot come up with a solution. guest: we have come up with a solution. we put our solution out at the end of april. we spent the entire month of april talking to epidemiologists, virologists, infectious disease folks to figure out how to do this, and we have a plan. i sat on the formal commission in new york state and we came up with a plan. remember what i said, sir. my membership before trump and were so reckless, 76% of them said that we got -- if we got the safeguards we were comfortable. the question is that we need the leadership, planning, and resources, and frankly, the administration turned their backs on the virus and now it is surging. host: we will let him finish his thought. caller: go ahead and finish his thought. guest: i am sorry.

caller: you made a position about impeachment, your union, you represent teachers. you is my point, why are not an essential worker? we have people in the military who fight for our country to protect us. your teachers will not even go in the classroom. the parents are saying going the classroom, students are single in the classroom. who are yellow teachers typically communists, most of them, your union is, cannot go in and teach kids. guest: let me just say to you, sir, my grandfather was -- escape from russia and he would be rolling over in his grave if he knew that somebody was calm -- calling his granddaughter a communist. let me say that to you. the point i am trying to make to you, sir, is that teachers are essential workers and they have

been working and engaging kids all year long. they changed their teaching practices in a nano second, and the polling i have seen, just like what happened with my numbers is that because of the recklessness of trump and devos, and mcconnell, it has switched to 70% of her so of parents do not want to send their kids to places that are dangerous. we want schools to reopen safely. we have been working on it since april. ultimately, i would love to work with you and try to figure out how do we open school safely as opposed to any of the name-calling. host: let us hear from a parent in florida. carlos, hello. caller: hello, i am a parent of two, i have a child in middle school and elementary. the data that you were bringing up was from april. well, a lot of things have

changed between april and now. schoolsas stayed open, have been going. in florida, daycares have never closed due to covid. even when our percentages were low, the transition was not -- the transmission was not increased. we do have to look at the data compared to april. for the children, we do not have enough -- we do not have the data that shows that they are transmitting this disease. we cannot politicize this. our kids have to go back to school. me and my wife, we both work from home, this has been a wrecking ball for the house. they have to go back to school, it is not fair to them, and the family. we just have to fight this, but there is no proof that children are transmitting this disease. host: we will let our guest answer. guest: thank you for that. and, frankly what you just said t to put oute the af

a plan on how to get us back to school, and i frankly that you read the plan on aft.org. we want schools reopened, we want them to be open safely. but we are actually getting new data every single day, and frankly there is now data about -- from south korea that shows that older kids actually transmit the way that adults do. the point is that we know it is not going to be risk-free, which is why i am saying that before trump and devos started the recklessness and denied that the virus existed, before their stances ignited that the virus existed and you had that huge percent --orida, 70% 76% of my members were comfortable in terms of going

back to school buildings with those safeguards. what some of us are trying to say, you are right about the daycare centers and in places one of the things we used in figuring out the safeguards where the safeguards happening in daycare centers and rec centers. we know that the physical distancing of six feet, and masks, and cleaning, and ventilation, and kids not using each other stuff works, and we know that younger kids need school. i would disagree about sweden, and about what has happened in these different places, but we need to have the kind of infrastructure set up. i do not want to be on remote instruction just like you do not want to be on remote instruction, but we need to try and make sure that it is safe before we put people into classrooms that do not have ventilation and do not have the kind of safeguards.

that is what we are trying to do. host: there is an organization called the florida education association that is suing the government of florida over the reopening of schools. what do you know about the lawsuit? affiliatey are our and we have been engaged in the lawsuit. what happened is the lawsuit is about letting the different jurisdictions in florida make their own decisions rather than actually force without safety standards or anything else the having five day a week school was september 2 -- as if this was september 2019 pandemic. so as of yesterday the florida education association sued d santos and -- d santos and the state educational commissioner mayore miami-dade county

because he has been making all sorts of health decisions in defiance of the science. what we are saying is let science and safety rule, because that way we can get back as quickly as possible to a normal where we can engage kids in school safely. that is what that is about, and it says let local districts make decisions based upon what is safe in their community. i was honored to be a part of the lawsuit, as is corporation. host: this is lee from tennessee. georgia andught in one time. i absolutely agree with you. i do not think it is safe to go back to school in cleveland, tennessee. our case count is out of this world.

the kids are out here playing ball, and i do not understand that. no mask on. the county mayor is not enforcing the mask. intake, andgh nothing changed at our schools. where are they going to get the ppe. notave had people here just even being able to get out. it has been two months since i've been able to go out and get my groceries. i worried -- i worry about my young ones, i have three, and they are expected to go back to school next week, and i do not understand why -- this is all political. it has everything to do with our on your, if a grown man thing there says a while ago, said he had been a disaster. maybe we need to have more kids at home and the teachers need to go on strike, because of the way

the local mayors, and the governors will not take your phone calls. the mayors will not take your phone calls unless you threaten to call the news. host: ok, i appreciate it. andt: what you are hearing, one of your speakers who was on one of the conservative lines said it should not be political. i agree with that. we need to be driven by what are and theeeds science and safety concerns. and i will say it over and over again. we have been trying. wehave had people on and have been making plans in april, may, and june. i served on governor cuomo's reopening plan where we came up with a plan on how to reopen in school learning safely, and where teachers are wrestling

with that right now. we put a teacher and superintendents back? public officials have refused to do that up until now? , and as dr. fauci has said, that masks make things safe for you and for people that you are with, why is governor atlantang the mayor of about the wearing of masks? -- every european country that has reopened their school safely has done it in terms of focusing on the science and the kids, andests of our of their communities including teachers. i do not get why we do not do it in the united states and why

this has become political. host: would you advocate for schools not starting until a vaccine is fully developed? guest: i do not. we advocate -- we know that schooling is really important for our young people, and we know that there are some risks involved, which is part of the reason why we feel like there should be accommodation to people who are at risk including whether it is kids who are compromised or educators who are at risk. it is absolutely a necessity. i amy for a vaccine, watching these places across the world racing to try and get one. that is why the safety safeguards that prevent transmission in a school are so important including ventilation, ppe,ing, masks, and other

and the six foot physical distancing. we know that schools are made for social interaction, not social distancing. we know that this will be hard and that is part of the reason advocated fory trying to do some of this like the gentleman said about derek -- like daycare, and like summer school this summer to try and do some of these different plans. but we need the safety considerations as a condition condition, asy something that is first and foremost. host: vermont is next, a parent. melissa. hello. there, i wanted to say carlos was mentioning about children must go back to school and that children do not carry the disease. anyway, what do you say to the parents where there was a child

that passed away in new york that was five years old? an 11-year-old passed away in florida not so long ago. i am very fearful of my grandchildren and children in school. i believe what should happen is whether the government helps everybody with food and whatever they need to take care of to stay home, mandate people stay home for 30 days and see what happens. i bet that there would be a big turnaround. i am just fearful of the kids going to school, the bottom line, it scares me. my husband had a heart attack and the doctors told him that you could not get this disease or you would pass away. i think everyone should follow 's word.e -- fauci wear a mask, stay home. host: we will let our guest

answer. that carlos was had fourt data that we weeks ago, even though he said the data was more updated than that, and, maybe it was. we are learning something new every single day. not,ow that young kids do asnk god, do not get as sick our seniors, we know that 40% of the deaths right now have been people in nursing homes either working there or people who have lived there. we areth the data getting from other places, we are seeing that the number of people who are getting covid in the united states i actually -- are actually going down, the

average age is in the 30's and 40's. and, this new report from south korea shows that even though they had their schools open, they have been opening and closing, that middle schoolers and senior high schoolers do carry and transmit, which is why it is so important that when buildings are open we have safeguards in buildings to prevent the transmission, just like other essential workers and others who are indoor and outdoors have been. your caller is saying is that that is what was supposed to happen in march and april in terms of this very across thecause country. what happened is that the president and places like arizona and georgia and florida

opened much too quickly and they had an inconsistent message about not wearing a mask, they had an inconsistent message and so we are seeing huge virus spread. there is a balance here, and we have to try and figure out how to have our new normal, but we have to take the virus seriously, particularly in places where there is a huge spread. the airline is taken -- the airlines take it seriously, other commercial entities take it seriously. i flew yesterday, and had to wear a mask. the airline showed everything it was doing was making sure it was clean. there was better ventilation in that airline than there ever is in ever -- in any school i know, and that is what they are trying they to assure those that

-- those that are flying that they are safe. why don't we have the safeguards and schools? that is what is ridiculous about this conversation with trump. he refuses to have safeguards for our children and teachers, and yet all of these commercial interests are having safeguards. he gets tested every day including the vice president and everybody who is with them. we could try to have testing of all students every single day and all parents every single day, and that would cost an enormous amount of money. there are other options, but we are trying to figure out how to educate kids to make sure that it is safe. start remote inll some places, different places are trying different things. ,this is randi weingarten

pennsylvania, we are just about out of time on this. >> i'm a teacher in new jersey and i'm ready and able to go back what i'm worried about safety. we have already seen how this local highut at my school, not implementing any of the executive orders. they didn't include any masks, very little distancing. thank you. totally right. these are not either or. and.ed masks and physical distancing. the cleaning of the school and the ventilation. thank you to the teacher. int: let's try to squeeze one more call.

john, mechanicsburg. short on time, go right ahead. guest: -- caller: taxation without representation. these unions, the states and federal locals like the teachers union, they get paid for not working. the movement is growing and there will be changes in the future. will need to be heard. have a nice day. guest: let me just say, anyone who says that, sir, you haven't watched what teachers did all this spring and all this summer. teachers were working remotely. teachers were calling their students. teachers were making sure that they not only taped lessons, but contacted their students all the time. it's not fair to say that about teachers. you may hate unions, but please,

just because teachers, like i'm in my apartment right now, in, doing this, doing this interview . you can't say i'm not working. you cannot say that pedro is not working. we want to be back in schools. we want to see our kids. we have a right just like you do to be safe. this is not political and it's too bad that in this country we have gotten so political when it is about children. host: quick everyday we are taking your calls live on the day. we will discuss policy issues that impact you. coming up this morning, pennsylvania republican congressman, member of the house education and labor committee, will join us and discuss negotiations on the next coronavirus relief bill. oregon's democratic congressman

will be on to talk about the federal response to the and send antiracism protests in portland. watch washington journal at 7:00 eastern this morning. join the discussion with your phone calls, comments and facebook messages and tweets. join the discussion. ♪ has toptv on c-span2 nonfiction books and authors every weekend. coming up this weekend, princeton university professor, again,"f "begin on race in america. he is joined with harvard university professor cornell west. at 9 p.m. eastern on afterwords, washington state democratic congresswoman with her book "use the power you have: a brown woman's guide to politics and political change." she is interviewed by jim himes.

watch book tv on c-span2 this weekend. ♪ >> in his first coronavirus briefing since april, president trump given update on the federal response to the pandemic as cases continue to rise across the country. he spoke about testing, wearing masks and the economy. this is 25 minutes. pres. trump: thank you. good afternoon. i want to provide an update. on our response to the china virus and what my ais