now leading the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, follow the latest. search c-span's coverage of news conferences as well as remarks from members of congress. use the interactive gallery of maps. go to c-span.org/coronavirus. >> we are joined by presidents of the american federation of teachers, here with us this morning to talk about the efforts to reopen schools across the country. welcome to washington journal. guest: thank you. my kids communist weingarten host: how many members do you have, what types of educators do you represent? guest: we have about 1.7 million members, and over 200,000 of

them are working in health care facilities as respiratory therapists and hospitalers. about one million of them work in pre-k through 12, public schools. florida, that is pre-k-12. and the remainder are in public services including correction officers. the people who watch our water, to lawyers. and we are the largest higher education union from adjuncts to full-time tenured professors. host: as you alluded to, you come as a former teacher. during the pandemic, what has been the most common complaint issue that you from your members, your member teachers, your teacher members across the country? guest: teachers are used to doing it all, and frankly we represent a lot of rural and

urban systems. people in those systems from lh chicago to new york city, i taught in brooklyn for the health professions, which was a career tech at school. so people are used to doing it all, they are used to working in schools that don't have soap, that don't have windows that open, that have textbooks that are 50 years old. but this is a pandemic. and what happened in this pandemic is teachers have tried to figure out virtually everything, from turning on a dime to remote education, which they would have told you, pre-pandemic, was not the best way to engage kids, to now, after 10 months of fighting for resources, reading for guidance, fighting for data, and then being blamed when we don't get

any of those things, they would express and utter frustration about how the powers that be have dealt with them. particularly the former trump administration and several governors and various things. what they don't expect frustration about is the connection that they've had with students and the appreciation that parents have had for them, because parents are now up close and personal and have watched through the screen teachers connecting with kids and trying to really lift up kids emotions and find that way to learning in a very, very anxiety-filled time with lots of inequity, lots of fear, lots of death. host: want to make sure that those parents, teachers, and

kids can join that conversation here on c-span's washington journal. the phone lines are set aside for educators. for parents and students, i should say, (202) 748-8001. for all others, (202) 748-8002. obviously having you on this morning in the aftermath of the cdc releasing guidelines on friday, you put out a statement that said the cdc has met fear of the pandemic with facts and evidence and some of the guidelines that came out from the cdc, encase folks don't know, include making physical distancing and hygiene mandatory, lower income students and students with disabilities will be prioritized for in-person instruction, students, teachers, and staff who are at high risk of severe illness cannot out of in russian, teachers should be prioritized for vaccination, but not

mandatory for reopening, and in person learning prioritized over sports and other extracurriculars. with all these guidelines in place, what do you think the most difficult thing will be about coming back into school, physically for students and teachers? guest: first off, let's go with the positive for a minute, which is that for the first time in 10 months, we actually have a set of guidance that is based not on politics or on public health. there has been some studies both in europe as well as in america about what has and has not worked. so for us, it should have happened last april or may. we put out guide last april about not whether to reopen schools, but how.

we want to explore the myth that teachers don't want to be in person in school. they understand how important it is for children, but we need to make it safe for families, for educators of our kids. so what you have here is you have a set of science-based, fairly detailed mitigation strategies for how to reopen schooling in person. for that is the good news. the bad news is that we need to have the resources that are attached to it. we've been fighting for those resources since last april and may. nancy pelosi's heroes act in the congress was a very good way of approaching it. it is unfortunate that it got passed in december.

joe biden's $1.9 trillion rescue act, very important because it focuses on both what we need in schools and the cities, estate -- states, and localities as well as struggling individuals with the moratorium on evictions, on student loans, on increasing employment. the bad news is that this is now on a really bad political situation where people see the wearing of masks as political instead of as a public health requirement. and so i already saw over the weekend questions about whether this is doable. if we care about her students having in-person education, this has to be doable. and this has to be something that becomes the norm all across america.

the other piece that is concerning is that things like bars and gyms and other things will not take front street because we've seen that those are the things that are big transmitters. there's probably going to be lots of questions in different places about whether the politics takeover, or whether the public health takes over. host: kind of interesting to look at a survey that cnn has of how education has been happening over the pandemic. it is not quite one third, but basically virtual, only 35%. hybrid models, 25%. across the country in person, 40%. the next big phase of the thing is the rollout of vaccines. are you involved in all getting teachers vaccinated?

guest: we've been trying to. i want to just go back to what you said before, because in the fall, you basically had 13,000 districts due 13,000 things. and there were a lot of places where you had tremendous austerity, where you had real lack of investment. you could see in terms of what was closed, what was remote and what was open based upon a disinvestment line. the disinvestment in buildings. like when you could not open a window, when there was no money for soap. in places like philadelphia. los angeles. such that millions, los angeles spent millions on fixing their ventilation systems.

that was kind of in terms of remote versus others. we saw in places where there was space and in suburbs, and rural areas where you could actually have more space for kids being outside instead of inside. and then in november, december, when you saw this surge, you saw a lot go back to remote. new york city has the gold standard in terms of the way in which we opened and the biggest local in our union, the biggest school system, they have explored the myth that unions don't want to reopen schools. we know how important it is to be safe. so you had basically a very, very clear checklist for what constitutes safety, and that is

very much in line with what the cdc just did right now. you could have a situation because of community transmission in new york city where there were 800 elementary schools starting in december that were open, where 200 or 300 to close for a few days and a quarantine period because there was transmission of the virus in that school. it is not normal until we deal with the virus. host: you mentioned chicago a little bit ago. i just want to get an update on where things stand between the teachers union and the mayor, lori lightfoot. guest: it is soft. it was really nasty and negative and i just saw that lori lightfoot did interview in the new york times where she said

that she learned a lot about the fear that she got herself involved in the middle of negotiations. they have a very good set of protocols now in chicago for pre-k, for elementary, and for middle. in the pre-k students started again last thursday. but what had happened, and this gets to the vaccine issue and the accommodation issue, is that we are still in the middle of this pandemic. and we push very hard. again, remember, we represented both health care as well as educators. obviously for health care, to

me, that is the number one priority. not that it was required for a nurse to work in a covid-ward, of course it is not required. but what happened is that it provides another protection to these front-line workers. the same in terms of grocery workers and in terms of emts and teachers and bus drivers and other educators. what the vaccine does is it basically gives you protection against being really sick. it is these mitigation strategies the cdc just did that stop transmission. god forbid you have a virus, you're going to get less sick if you have the vaccine. that is why any front-line workers should be given the front of the line in terms of

the vaccine. the cdc in december said educators as well as other front-line workers should be in this category, and some places have done it and some places have not. today and saturday in washington, d.c., every educator that wants their second shot, they've already gotten there first, every educator that once their second shot will have their second shot today and saturday. they worked out with the governor, andrew cuomo, that they could stand up their own vaccination programs, which they did for emblem health and nyu. they are all heroes to me. in new york city, 15,000 educators have already gotten there vaccine.

that was part of the fight in chicago, that we said that if people are going to be in school, they should have first priority to these vaccines, and we also had to make sure, and the cdc has now done that as well, that those who are at risk , as educators, or who are taking care of somebody at risk, they should have an accommodation. so if you are taking care of her 90-year-old mother, or if you are taking care of a kid in your family who is immunocompromised, you don't want to decide this with educators over time. they are fearful that they are going to walk into home with it and transmitted to a family member. that is what they are fearful about. with these kinds of protections of reasonable accommodations for those who are at risk, or vaccines, you can actually make sure that you don't get them sick. these things become really important if you are trying to

reopen schools for our kids in the country. it's not either/or, it is both and. teachers can't do it all right now. host: our phone line for educators is (202) 748-8000. and we have several waiting period germantown, maryland, go ahead. caller: i teach for a tutoring company and i teach math and english to kids. but we are not working since the coronavirus. i am a chronic asthmatic, i have been all my life, and i believe in getting vaccines for anything and it has helped me avoid going to the hospital and being on intensive care like i was back in 1993 on a respirator, so it is really important for people with problems like i have that are respiratory, not to be exposed to kids who have the coronavirus or anybody else, for that matter. i think it is better to let

educators get vaccinated. whether they are professional teachers or part staff like myself, because that way when we go to our workplaces, whether they are elementary or adult, they are going to pass it on and bring it back to their families. sending us those who are not vaccinated, they could bring it to us and pass it on to us while we are working. that's why i feel like it is very important for everybody who is an educator to be vaccinated ahead of time as well as other people that are front-line workers. host: randi weingarten? guest: thank you for sharing. my sister is in intensive care doc and i grew up asthmatic. that moment when you cannot breathe is one of the most scary moments in life.

so that is one of the at risk categories for respiratory disease, and i was very pleased that cdc said in their guidance that people who are at risk for taking care of people who are at risk need to have reasonable accommodations. that is number one, meaning that they can't be on leave without pay. they have to have a teleworker or they have to have a family leave agreement that is part of joe biden's $1.9 trillion rescue plan, and as part of one of the things that is agreed on in terms of the chicago settlement. in terms of the vaccines, as i understand it, vaccines help prevent serious illness. that is part of the reason why educators and other front-line workers are prioritized.

the limit is that joe biden inherited a very flawed process, so he is trying to get out as many vaccinations as possible all throughout the country, and ultimately, some governors are working with us to do that, and some are not. pennsylvania is a terrible situation where people in pittsburgh, educators were supposed to get vaccinated at the beginning of february, and then for reasons i don't understand, governor wolf move that away. and i'm not saying that other people aren't important, of course they are, but for our schools to a, we need to align vaccinations with in school learning. host: elk grove village, illinois, good morning. caller: morning.

i really think that the poor kids are the ones who are the real losers in all this. they are having very few problems, the suburban schools are open, they have commonwealth basketball. no mask, the coaches did not have masks. but high schools can have sports because of the virus. there is a cdc study that says transmission is the lowest in schools and among schoolchildren but i just hear no plan, absolutely no plan for opening. i hear we need the rescue plan, we know the teachers unions get more money to joe biden. i suspect some of that goes to the schools ample wind up back in his pockets. we just don't have a plan. what i see is just for children

who can afford not to be in school, we are holding them hostage. guest: that is completely wrong, and there is a plan. frankly, what we've seen, and i'm sorry that you have not seen it up close, we have over 400,000 people who have died of covid, and we have millions of people who have been infected by it. and maybe you have not seen people in your own family who have died or been infected, but our plan is about both making sure that we can reopen schools, reopen and safely, so that kids can have a shot at life. the places that are most skeptical, i would give you an example in terms of chicago. when the chicago school system did a survey about who wanted in school learning, 60% of white

parents opted for in school learning. 30% of black and brown parents opted for in school learning. what happened with this disease, it has had disproportionate effects on black and brown and indigenous communities. so we have to get this right. and what we are seeing right now is that in the last few weeks, new york city has reopened since december, you have had boston reopened any gradual way. you have chicago reopening any gradual way. you have miami-dade reopened. the major school districts with the exception of philadelphia and l.a. are now reopening with these kind of resources. but, sir? i taught in a high school where i had to scavenge for chalk. so let's make sure these kids get the resources that they need. let's not talk the talk about

it, let's get them the resources and joe biden plan gets them resources. it gets every family resources. it gets people the check that they need. this is the kind of stuff that we need to do for all of our families. host: the educators line, kentucky, charlie, go ahead. caller: yes, good morning this is weingarten. -- misses weingarten. i'm a prime candidate to get this. let me tell you something. we went back to school a week before the governor of kentucky said we should. we close down public and private. my thinking that was unlawful. but what did we do? we took the limited resources that we had, much more limited than the public schools, might i add, because in kentucky, we get no money from the state. what we did is went to the local hospital, and said what do you

guys do? they told us, we bought the equipment. we also enforce rules and with our rules, there are consequences. if you go down the hallway in the wrong direction, if you don't have a mask on, guess what?you go to detention . consequences. we have 535 students, all boys. we have seven young men get it and recover quite quickly. we had as many as 43 in quarantine. we are down to 18 now. we have had one, note the number one, one faculty member that is contacted -- contracted the disease and recovered within two weeks. i don't know what the public schools are doing, but they are not doing much. cincinnati public, your governor says you get the shot if you go back to school. they refused to go back to school. they went to court. the court says you must go back to school. they still are saying we are not going back to school.

i think you had better twisted up the ladder and little because it don't look prime to me. guest: i would say that if the cincinnati public schools -- first of all, sir, i am so glad that you have been in education for this long and that you are able to do this. at the union, we also at the beginning of the virus, when you could not get masks, we spent millions of dollars to get our members face shields and masks so that they did not have to rewash. frankly, i don't think i've ever bought anything in china, but we had to go to china to buy surgical masks. the kind of innovation and ingenuity that you showed, we are seeing that, and this is part of the reason why the cdc

studies have seen that you can reopen elementary schools safely, because there were a lot of kids to actually did follow the rules. and it was not like what we saw in georgia with that huge hallway with nobody wearing masks and things like that. we are also seeing that lots of private schools have been able to open. also having the kind of testing that they were able to do. but your process that you did in your school's frankly the kind of process that we are looking for in those public schools, and that is what we are able to do it new york city and frankly, that is what cincinnati is trying to do. they are open, they are trying to actually have the kind of safeguards that you were able to do the old-fashioned way, to try to make sure that those things actually are in every single school. host: you mentioned those crowded hallways. what does a school look like in terms of the crowds in a hallway

, the kids in class, how many, however they separated? in your planning, what do you think is the best scenario for in classroom teaching? guest: so, if you think about physical distancing, the two most important litigation strategies are the appropriate use of masks, and now the cdc is talking about double masking, but the appropriate use of masks and having at least six feet physical distancing. that essentially means that you are down to about half the people in a school that you would normally have and dependent upon how small or large classrooms are, you could be talking about one third or one half in terms of a classroom. so places that had lots of space

and suburban schools, particularly newer ones have lots and lots of space, you might be able to figure out with plexiglas and other things like in the auditorium or in the cafeteria what to do in terms of classes. in places like a new york city school, like an elementary school that has much more limited space or a chicago elementary school or a philly elementary school, you may really be talking about one third in a classroom instead of one half. host: headline in usa today, cbc withdraws roadmap to reopening schools. our guest is the president of the american federation of teachers, randi weingarten. about 10 more minutes, a little bit less than that. we will get as many of your comments as we can until then. wisconsin, jim, go ahead. caller: ok, i would like to

thank you. i've tried to talk on washington journal for so long and i feel that i can weigh in a lot. i am a retired employee of the city of racine, and it was the american federation of state, county, and municipal employees. i also started out as a garbageman in 1975 and after retirement, i was elected as a racine city alderman for five terms, so i would say i have gone the gambit. i attended private schools, but i guess my biggest problem is i've always viewed the union as the attorney for me if i did something wrong or if i was accused of something wrong.

i would be represented. i never realized that the union, as in the teachers union, could be used as a stumbling block to returning children to education. my wife found gloves, masks, and paper masks made in the united states and we use them. i would not buy masks from china, who started the biological attack on us. we are suffering. i was in the military, i know what biological and chemical warfare is. host: you've mentioned that. guest: nobody wanted to buy masks from china, the last president would not invoke the defense production act and ended up complaining that nurses and

doctors started pretending that nurses and doctors were stealing masks instead of what they needed at the beginning of this pandemic. frankly, sir, what we are trying to do is every schoolteacher i know would rather be in person with their kids. we know what kids are missing right now. everyone has a right to have safety. frankly, what i would blame right now, and there's lots of people who blame donald trump, but donald trump and betsy devos use to the guidance that we needed in any public health pandemic. you need guidance, they refused to do it. they refused to do the resources. you got resources from mypillow, other people got resources from other places. teachers in new york city needed resources. teachers all across the city

need to make sure the systems work in schools. we need to make sure that you can open windows. you need to make sure that places are cleaned. ultimately, this is what we are asking for. now, with this administration, they want to do it. so ultimately, and they want to do it regardless of whether somebody is a blue state or a red state or a purple state. and that is really good news for the american people. i just wish we had it 10 months ago. host: beyond the pandemic, what is your prediction on where hybrid learning, virtual learning will fit in the whole specter of teaching, particularly k-12? guest: i think that some aspects of virtual learning are going to be here to stay. some aspects i think have been helpful, but you have to also

make sure that the 16 million kids that still don't have high-speed internet get it, and that they still don't have appropriate equipment. the kind of group work that has happened in some schools, the reinforcement that has happened, i think that would be here to stay. but i think the biggest lesson is in school learning. all, people now realize and recognize how important school learning is. the resilience that gets billed. the connective tissue that happens is really important. what you can see in school, what you can see face to face is really different. what i also worry about is how much time this pandemic has

really hurt in terms of loneliness and isolation. which is one of the reasons why so many schools have said this. but look at how the nfl did sports. look at the difference in terms of the testing all the time. they made sure that the disease was not transmitted. they saw through testing what you can't see in a disease that spreads silently. we need to really get to the issue of how we help our kids post-covid, particularly because of this isolation and just being by themselves and not being with other people. that is what i worry about most. host: we haven't really talked about the testing in schools in terms of cdc guidance. how are all these tools going to do regular testing?

how will the nation's public schools do that? >> part of the biden rescue plan is meant $23 million for testing. i am a big believer in testing. i've watched how it works. testing does not stop transmission, but testing does let you see transmission. you can at least see what is unseen. with all the new kind of rapid tests that are now getting to the market, which are cheaper and cheaper, what chicago is doing, for example, is there testing every single employee once a week and half of the kids once a week. in new york, they testing kids and teachers. 20% of kids and teachers are tested every week. that is how you are seeing how community transmission has

decreased the potential of transmission in schools. host: i'm going to have to cut you short, the house is coming in for a short session. really appreciate yo thank you so much. >> c-span's washington journal. every day we take your calls live on the air. we discussed policy issues that impact you. coming up friday morning, washington post reporter discusses the plan for immigration unveiled by congressional democrats. in the former chair of the 9/11 commission and former new jersey governor tom kane discusses calls for an independent commission to review the january 6 attack on the u.s. capital. reconstruction efforts in afghanistan with afghanistan's inspector general. also ben & jerry's cofounders join us.

watch c-span's washington journal live at 7:00 eastern friday morning. join our discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, texts, and tweets. >> coming up tonight on c-span, we continue our look at new members of the one her 17th congress. then the house financial services committee hears from the ceo of robin hood. in the cofounder of reddit on gamestop's stock price surge. on january 3, more than 60 new members of congress were sworn into serve the u.s. house of representatives. in the weeks since, these members have been part of history. their first few weeks included debating challenges to electoral college votes, surviving an attack on the u.s. capitol, and voting on whether to impeach the president of the u.s. before these historical events we spoke to several new members aut