04/29/20 04/29/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new yorkrk city, the epicenenter of the pandemic, thi is democracy now! ," the postal service is a joke. >> what would happen to this country to postal service went out of business? >> if the post office were allowed to die with this covid pandemic in this economic impact, if congress doeses not office couldpost die. amy: president trump lashes out

at the u.s. postal service as the pandemic brings it to the brink of collapse. why more americans and never are relying on the mail. -- while more americans than ever are relying on the mail. how attacks on the postal service could also threaten efforts to vote by mail as people are under orders to stay home. and we look at the impact of the pandemic on schools, universitieses, students, paren, teachersrs, professssors, andnds at the table to o shape what happens s next. >> if you'u're goingng to consolidate schools, iyoyou' gogoing to startrt moving teacrs around, if you're goi t to come up witith cute experimentatal teaching techniqs,s, we ne too have f fks from those commununities at the table t tag abouout what will l and will not work up front and not have the biionanaires ce e rush in and say, hey, i have another experiment i want to try.

amy: we will speak with education scholar, cornell professor noliwe rooks, author of "cutting school." all that and more, coming up. welcome to dememocracy now!, dedemocracynow.o.org, the quarae repoport. i'm amy goodman. an international aid group is warning as many as a billion people worldwide could become infected with the novel coronavirus unless urgent measasures are taken to stop its spread. the finding by the international rescue committee, based on u.n. data, came as the global death toll from the pandemic topped 217,000. in the united states, over 58,300 people have died from covid-19 -- more than the number of u.s. troops killed in the vietnam war. officially, the u.s. has confirmed over 1 million cases of novel coronavirus, but that figure is just a small fraction of the number of u.s. residents believed to haveve been infectc.

the u.s.s. accounts for a quauar of all reported covid-19 deaths worldwide in one third of ththe confirmed cases. top infectious disease scientist dr. anthony fauci on tuesday warned states not to reopen businesses prematurely, and said the united states will likely face a resurgence of covid-19 in the fall. in california, governor gavin newsom on tuesday ouineded pla for a phas r reopening of ththe economy, saying some businesses at lower risk for spreading coronavirus might be weeks away from reopening. >> i want to make this clear. we believe we are weeks, not months come away from making meaningful modifications to that indicator and in this space. amy: here in new york, police broke up a gathering of hundreds of people tuesday who ignored social distancing rules as they gathered in a brooklyn funeral of a rabbi who reportedly died of a coronavirus infection.

new york reported 335 coronavirus-related deaths on its lowest s single-day deatathl tutuesday, in a month. presidident trump on tueuesday invoked the defense production act to order meatpacking plants around the united states to remain open. trump's executive order comes as u.s. beef, pork, and poultry processing plants are linked to areas with the highest rates of coronavirus transmission in the country. president trump's order declaring them critical infrastructure came on workersrs memorial day, an international day of remembrance and action for workers killed or disabled on the job. at least 20 meatpacking workers have died from covid-19, and thousands have fallen ill from the disease. unions say president trump's order fails to require on-the-job safety measures that will prevent further illness and death. in a statement, stuart appelbaum, president of the retail, wholesale and department store union, said -- "we only wish that this administration cared as much about the lives of working

people as it does about meat, pork, and poultry products." this c comes as someme states, including iowa and texas, are warning workers they'll lose unemployment benefits if they refuse to return to the job when recalled after a layoff or furlough -- even if those workers are concerned abouout contracting the coronavirus on the job. a new survey by the economic policy institute finds millions of u.s. workers who've lost their jobs have been unable to file for unemployment benefits, with state agencies unable to keep up with the sheer volume of new claims.. this comes as the official u.s. unemployment rate is set to reach 16% oror higher this mont, levels not seen since the great depression. in puerto rico, san juan mayor carmen yulin cruz says residents of the u.s. territory have yet to receive promised relief duduring an islaland-wide coronavirus lockckdown. she spoke with msnbc on saturday. >> no one in puerto rico has

received the $1200 from the federal government. we are having problems with the $500 the governor said was going to distribute. some more than 130,000 unemployment requests that have nonot been filled. the same e with people getting fofood stamps. amy:y: workers at someme of the biggggest corporations in ththe united states are planning an unprecedented wave of strikes on may 1, international workers' day. employees of amazon, whole foods, walmart, fedex, target, and instacart will walk off the job demanding compensation for unpaid time off work, hazard pay, sick leave, personal protective equipment, and cleaning supplies at workplaces. many of the workers are part of a growing coalition that will join a people's strike launched may 1 by worker cooperatives in mississippi. this is kali akuno, co-director of cooperation jackson. >> we are asking erybody to start with these basic -- no n n, nohopping, n no rent, mortgage, no s school, ,

arters, nono prisons. let's all take joint action together. amy: tenants around the u.s. are organizing rent strikes, as rent comes due on may day for millions of newly unemployed workers. and some homeowners are planning to withhold mortgage payments. new york congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez is calling on state and federal officials to cancel housing payments nationwide e during the pandemic. >> people can't pay. you cannot coercrce someone into doing something t that they cant do. there is no money in thehe bank. people need to feed their kids. we cannot be evicting. we need to be making sure we are passing policies that allows to stay in their homes. amy: criticism is growing over a new government program that was supposed to help small business owners receive low-interest loans to stay afloat during the economic crisis.

"the new york times" recently revealed more e than 200 publicy traded companinies receid ovover $75050 million i in small busins loans before the initial funding ran out. the intetercept reports manyny f the biggest beneficiaries have major trump donorors, including the owners of the ritz-carlton in st. thomas. meanwhile, the center for responsible lending is estimating that up to 90% of businesses owned by people of color have been, or will likely be, shut out of the small business administration's paycheck protection program. a handful of large companies who benefited from the small business loan program have agreed to return the loans after facing public backlash. the list includes the los angeles lakers, potbelly and shakeshack. the house of representatives has abruptly canceled plans to reconvene on may 4 after the capitol physician warned washington, d.c., remains a coronavirus hot spot, with the rate of infections continuing to rise. the decision threatens to further delay work on a massive new coronavirus relief bill. republican senate majority

leader mitch mcconnell, meanwhile, says the senate will convene on monday as scheduled. mcconnell says he wants the next coronavirus stimulus bill to include liability protections for companies whose workers become ill or die after they're ordered back to the job once states reopen their economies. vice president mike pence, who leads the white house coronavirus task force, refused to wear a mask tuesday as he met with doctors and patients at the mayo clinic in minnesota. after the tour, pence was asked by reporters why he violated a mayo clinic policy requiring everyone in the hospital to wear a face covering or mask. vice pres. pence: let me say, vice president of the united states, i'm tested for the coronavirus on a regular basis. evereryone who is around me is tetested for the cororonavirus. and since i don't t havehe coronavirus, i thought it would be a good opportunity for me to be here, to be able to speak to these researchers, these incredible health-care

personnel, look them in thehe ee anand say thank you. amy: on tuesdaday, the mayo clic tweeted that it had informed vice president pence of the masking policy prior to his arrival. later in the day, the tweet was deleted without explanatation. the associateded press reports riotots are breakingng out insne juveninile jails a across the u, and some youths haveve attempted to escape as c coronavirus cases mount. one teenager imprisoned at the bridge city facility near new orleans described a swat team pepper-spraying a group of children who had kicked down their cell doors. criminal justice and children rights advocates are demanding youths be allowed to serve the remainder of their time at home amid the pandemic. in new jersey, the intercept reports nearly 30 imprisoned people have died of covid-19 as -- annually -- and only 184 prisoners in new jersey have been tested for the virus, less than 1% of the state's incarcerated population. in arizona, families and allies of incarcerated women held a car rally and prayer vigil outside perryville prison sunday,

continuing demands for the release of incarcerated people as covid-19 rapidly spreads through arizona prisons. the federal bureau of prisons has confirmed the first covid-19 death of a female prisoner. andrea circle bear hadiven birtrth to her child. she was 30 years old. in related news, an iranian scientist imprisoned in a u.s. immigration jail who for weeks has been pleading for his freedom has contracted covid-19. dr. sirous asgari often spoke about his fears of coronavirus spreading inside crowded immigration and customs enforcement jails and about the unsanitary and inhumane conditions inside winn correctiononal center in louisiana, where he is being held. attorneys and advocates are raising concerns for the due process of immigrant children as

the trump administration continues deportation hearings for unaccompanied minors during the pandemic. due to social distancing guidelines, judges appear in a tv screen or connect via telephone. there are no attorneys physically present. public universities in california are issuing emergency grants to students under the deferred action for childhood arrivals program, or daca, as they c cope with the financial devastation triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. this comes as over two dozen democratic congress members are condemning education secretary betsy devos'' exclusionon of college students with daca from coronavirus emergency federal receiving aid to cover expenses like food, housing, and childcare. in related news, propublica reports internal emails show immigration and customs enforcement, or ice, has access to a database containing the personal information of daca recipients -- despite promises from the trump administration that information from daca applications would not be sent to dortation a agents. in brazil, the total n number of

confirmed d covid-19 deaths hahs surpassed the e death toll figue the world health organization is reporting for chchina. on tuesday, the brazilian health ministry reported over 470 more deaths than the previous day, bringing the total to just over 5000. meanwhile, brazil's supreme court has given the green light to an investigation of alleged corruption and obstruction of justice by far-right president jair bolsonaro. the high court's decision comes after former justice minister sergio moro resigned friday, accusing bolsonaro of illegally firing the federal police chief who was at the time investigating bolsonaro's political allies and two of his sons. on tuesday, bolsonaro appointed a family friend as the new federal police chief. the world health organization says it's preparing to slash humanitarian aid to yemen's health care system by as much as 80% after the trump administration cut off funding to the u.n. global health body. some 24 million people in yemen, about 80% of the population, are

reliant t on humanitarian aid. millions of yemenis are on the brink of starvation. yemen, which has been devastated by a u.s.-backed, saudi-led mililitary bombing campaign sine 2015, already has an ongoing cholera epididemic. it confirmeded its first coronavirus case on april 1010. in lebebon, massivive protests continueued in beirut and cities across lebanon for a second consecutive night tuesday as people are angered by the deteriorating economy and alarming food shortages during the pandemic. >> we are daily workers. if we work, we eat. if we don't work, we don't eat. may god change the situation for the better. largest and most violent the protest was reported in tripoli, triggered by the death of a 26-year old man, who was reportedly shot by the lebanese army during a protest the previous night. protesters in tripoli torched several banks in response, as clashes with soldiers continued ininto the eararly hours of wednesday.

a warning to our viewers, the next story contains disturbing footage. video has gone viral of a white police officer in northern californrnia repeatedly punchina 14-year-old african-american boy who was laying on the ground. the rancho cordova officer stopped the boy after he allegedly purchased a cigar from an adult. a video of t the incident has bn viewed over 2 million times online. in climate news, parts of the u.s. southwest are poised to shatter april heat records, with las vegas expected to reach triple digits today for the first time ever before may 1. highs in phoenix could reach 106 degrees, also a record. in russia, new wildfires have erupted in central siberia, with temperatures soaring by as much as 36 degrees fahrenheit above normal. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration says 2020 is on track to become the hottest t year ever recorded,, toppining 2016. in alberta, canada, severe the flooding on the athabasca river

has submerged homes and buildings in the city of fort mcmurray, forcing the evacuation of 13,000 people despite the coronavirus lockdown. with local hotels nearing capacity, local officials are housing some evacuees in nearby work camps for tar sands oil workers -- camps that have been left idled by historically-low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic. a group of climate scientists and environmentalists including filmmaker josh fox and p profesr michchael mann a are callingng a new w movie exececutive prododuy michael moore to be taken off-line, clmimingt is ngerous, misleadg, and destructe." the film, "planet t the humans," desibibes rewabable energi like e nd and solar as eless anaccuses e enviroenental vementntf selling t to corrate americ michl l moorand d thfilm''s rector jeff gibbs have dedescribeththe domentntaras a "full-onontal asulult onur sacred cow" the onli f film bsitite lms for aconon brily t toodown t t

documentary, claiming it was ulull ofisininfoation"n"ut later added it bactoto itsitee withth aengthyhyote. the auoror andctivivisnaomi klein recently tweeted -- "it is truly demoralizing how much damage this film has done at a moment when many are ready for deep change. there are important critiques of an environmentalism that refuses to reckon with unlimited consumption and growth. but this film ain't it." and those are some of the headlilines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. when we cocome back, what is happenining to the u u.s. post office during the pandemic. we will be speaking with the head of the u.s. workers union and then we wiwill look at education in amemerica under coronavirus. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: " "we shall overcome" son virtually by alabama's oakley univiversity during a 2020 virtl alumni homecoming. this is democracy now!, democrcracynow.o.org, the quarae report. i'm amy goodman. i am in new york city with my cohost juan gonzalez joining us from his home in brunswick, new jersey. more than 6400 people have now died from coronavirus-related publicatations in new jersey. close to 114,000 cases of covid have been reported, second only to new york. one coat welcome to all of f our listeners s and viewers frfrom aroundnd the country and aroroud thworlrld. amy: wishing your family very well in these difficult times. we're going to turn right now to the post office. we look at the devastatating impact the coravirus h hadad

onhe u.s. postal service, which y y be othe e brk of collapse. ththis aa titimehen momo americans th ever are relyin on the m mail. the nation's mail service faces steep losses in revenue and warns it may not survive through summer without major federal assistance. but president trump and his administration have repeatedly rejected a attempts to bail out the postal service, blocking its inclusion in the $2.3 trillion stimulus bill. trump lashed out at usps on friday. pres. trump: the postal service is a joke. because they're handing out packages for amazon and other internet companies comeme and every time thehey bring a packa, they lose money on it. the post office, if they raised the price of a package by approximatately four times, it would be a whole new ballgame. but they don't want to raise because they don't want to insult amazon and d they don't want to insult other companies perhaps that they like.

the post office should raise the price of the packages to the companies, not to the people. to the companies. and if they did that, it would be a whole different story. amy: "the washington post" called trump's claim the usps loses money on every package it delivers for e-commerce merchants baseless. , later that day, trump tweeted -- "i will never let our post office fail. it has been mismanaged for years, especially since the advent of the internet and modern-day technology. the people that work there are great, and we're going to keep them happy, healthy, and well!" at least 30 postal service workers have died from covid-19 and the u.s. post office has reported more than 1200 confirmed cases of the virus.. workers rereport aack of protectiveeaear. earlier this monthsesenato beie sananrs discussed the crisis confronngng theostal service thth american postal workerunion pridident mark dimondstn. >> i understand thathe poststereneral hasaid that

postalerviviceill be running t of mey in n fewonths. the postal service has been dealing with long-term financial problems. what would happen to this country of the postal service went out of business? >> of the post office were allowed to die in with this covid pandemic in this economic impact on the postal servivice,f congreress does not st up and peoplele makeke sure that theyyp upup, the post office could die. it runs on no taxpayer r dollar. it runs onon revenue.. >> say that again. i think k most people don't know ththat. people t think it isis a governt agency. where the revenue comes from -- explain where revenue comes from. >> it is an independent agency that only runs on revenue from postage and postal services. no taxpayer dollars. and that revenue has to be able to maintntn the delivery to 1610

million addresses anand reil units all ovover the country, often the anchor of th commitity whher r it is rural or urban. amamy: ts cocomeas thehettack on usps also pos s a maive e that the upcoming november presididtial election. wellfor morewe a joined americ postataworkers ion prident ma dimondsin. lcome toemocracyow! fit and fomost, cayou talk about e healtof the wkers d the u. postal rvice around ts countrywhat ey' confronng n? he in new rk, we see pt ofce is csed, mainot livered r wee. i oke ta postalervice worker w was walng on th stre. he was saying they are devastat. >> well, first, grtings. ank you so mu foror hing us onon, am ok, itits a chalngnging d dangerous te. post worrs aressenenti frontline woers. salute l of theront lin worker-- grory store wowoers, health care persoel, transit workers,irefights,

and one. esere tough times. the poal servi and the postal emploes are doing the st wean to mo the ml of e people of the c cntry, , t vital supplie le lilifeaving dicines, allllorts of importanininformion. the missi of the stst offe is t bind theountry tether, the e puic postal service. obobously, tre are going to be ps in mail servi. there are woers who e unable to come to wor becau of ckness, cause of quaraine, cause of ep concerns and arars. we he a leralal lve polic that helps protect t theorkers protect emselves but the w wle, the st fice is ill ableo serve evev in thesveryry dficult timemes. the po office dostal workers e e oftetaken fo grante weave been here nce the ar bere the countryas found. is someing that ialways there. t t in ts time opandndem, , i think thehere ia greate

appriation f what ststal rkrkers e doing. h have d deaths unfortate,e, 4 ma people ve becomsick and manyeople have been quarantid, and yethey' proupostal wkers are succumng to work when they can and serving the american people the best we can. we constantlyan: hear these reports that the postal service is running huge deficits every year. could you talk about how the previous reform that required the postal service to prepay all of these retirement benefits for years, what the impact ththat tt has had, the decision by congress to impmpose that restririction n on the postall service,e, whahat -- the impactt is had on the bottom line? >> it definitely had an impacact on the bottom line. i can share that briefly. but i do want to differentiate

some of the historicacal probles and the ongoing problems s with the covid pandemic, economicic crisis,, and how that is affecting the post office. 2006, little babackground, inn the popostal kindd abilility enhahancement act was passed. they did something that t no otr government agency or private company has ever had to deal with, and it is too onererous. they force the post office to pay 75 years into the future and within a 10 year period, 75 years into the future, retiree health benefits.s. that is for workers that not only did n not work at the postt office yet, but were not e even born y yet. and that is where so much off te newsws storieses each year aboue postal serervice being in debt came from. it was a a manufacturered on par crisis. the reality isis, if you took ot that pre-funding mandate, the post o office did quite well.

the postst office e is not set s a business. it is s t set up t to packck millions of dodollars into the bank for rich shareholders or ceos. it is set up to serve ththe peoe of the country. and it wasas doing thatt well en with the challenges. but if i canan fast-t-forward to now, i think is important to separate out some e of the ongog problems and changee in mail hahabits. some of ththe opportunities that the post office has to bring in new revenue like postal banking and so on. i talked about what is really happening right now. because whatever h happened in 202006, even if f it did not ha, the cocovid pandemic isis havina huge devastating, dire impact on postal revenue. talked about. there's no taxpayer dollars t tt goes into the post office. it runs strictly under revenue a postal and postal products. and that revenue has to be enough to carry out the mission of what we call the universal servrvice mandatate. , noery addressss, every person

matter who we are and where we , getting mail, packages, six days a week now - -- sometis seven. what is happening in this pandemic, and the e economic devastation throughout the entire country and world -- but what is happened specifically to the postal service is the male hahas precipitously dropped off. think about it. whwhat restaururant is sending coupons through the mail? what small busissss is yingng, me my business, we have a sale going on? ev grandpas like mcacan't gogo out ananbuy the birthday card fofor th grandkids and put it in the il because the sries clclosed or we are eltered home. so it s had huge imct. at is happeneng is a lot of e mail, t marketing mail for example, has dropppped o almost 50%.

and that is going t continue to happen. packes are up some, but how long is that going to last with 25 million and more to come are unemployed? what is happening is there a fork in the road. the postal service will actually run out of money, whether it is this summer or early fall, the revenue just is not there strictctly based on covid. what we have asked, and it is not just the we of the postal community, the postal board of governors which sets policies, majority republican board right now, has unanimomously asked for rorobust relief -- not a bailou. this doesn't go into anyy shareholders, any ceos. but to make up the lost revenue so the post office can weather the crisis and still at the same time serve the people of the country, both in ordinary tiss and in this time of crisis. so it serious. its real.

ocused othes very covidandedemi ecomic impa. ju:n additi to the potentl or the posbility of adtitionalelp as a rult of covid fr congres whatbout --ould y t talk little bit more about tse propols, reform wayfor new ssible reforms r new revues for e po oice, spificallyhis olessue o oankingr as her peop call setet -- th reserv accous that wld be used throughndividuapost fices? >> the post t office is a wonderful national treasasured d evevery commununity from the mot remote portions of the country to the m most denselyy populated urban centers and neighborhoods. asas such -- the mission is to bind t the people together. that thee's so much more

post office can do. it alrlready does a certain amot of financial services. he could do a lot more. more postd do a lot of basic check-cashing money transfsfers. alall of that woululd be accound lending predadatory check-cashshing industry. tens of minds of people that are underbankeded.d or meaning they have no bank at all or we call it t the loansharking predatory industry. so tre are oortuniti there toto ser thehe people that would bring revenue postal workers are eagerer to peperform those kinds of things. there coulbe all sorts of license -- licensing there could be, you know, internet access. copying services.

they're all sorts of things the can do and should do. but in order to get there, we have to make sure we have a publblic postal l service. and ththat now is really up for grabs because, clearly, we have an administration that would like -- and it is clear they have an agenda. they would like to sell the public postal s service to prive corporations, privatize it, and tuturn what is a serervice of te has thento an everybody same equal access to, turn it into a profit-making entity whether people get mail service or not and at what cost anand wt kind off surcharges would depe on whether somebody can make a quick dollar. agai the post offices s set on nonprof basis to serve evy singleerson. is admintration s an agenda and th're smefully using th crisis carryt out,ather th set poly. hehe you hav a an inntive

package o$2.2 trillio rpororatns got500 milln. th postal board of governors as for $25 million ofof that. abouti i want to asksk y you this allllegation president trup that amazon is getting sweetheart deals f from the posl seservice, and also the possibilities he is raising about giving access to americans maililboxes by the private carrr industry? e every agencncwith auththority -- t the postal regulatory commission and others -- h has debunked thatat myth te postal service is s losing money on amazon and other packages. it just is not true. and for president of the united states to tell the people of this country and the postal workers who are on the front

lines that the postal workers -- that the post office is a joke, something that belongs t to everybody in this country, belongngs to the people, that is an absolute insult of insults. it is not a laughingng matter to the people of thehe country c ce toto the veteterans ththat relyn their medicicines to come from e in.a., the postal service normal times delivers 1.2 billion packages of medicine and so on. sorry, i forgot your second part of that question if you could say it again. juan: andnd also the possibility of bringing in private carriers to deleliver i never the post office boxes? mailbox is s an extetension of our living roomo. it is part of our home. it is private. nobody can walalk through our front door. nobody now h has asksked us to t mailbox.

h hdout off truet private communicatation. nototfacebook i is not, tweweeting is not, and so . ththat is s what is called thehe sanctity of the mail. let diedst office were by thihis administration, we d't thinink the people of the county will put up with that. they're not going to let it be stolen. but if it t were to didie, partf whatat we die with it isis the t to privacy in the right to what we c call the sanctity of the mail. that is an absurd idea and we don't think the people of thehe countrtry are going to buy that ideaea. again, we're not going to haveve thesee debates if we don't call congressss, we don't write congress, we don't email congress, if we don't get andnd sign all of the petitions going around. org listers can go to apwu. for petitionons.

step up and do the right thing. amy: i would -- but the disproportionate impact that this threat against the post office has. after an activist danny glover wrote a piece last year in usa today headlined "my parents proudly worked for the u.s. postal service. don't destroy it." in it, he wrote -- "for black families like mine, the postal service has long been one of the few reliable paths to the middle class. today, the postal service remains a critical source of good jobs for african americans. black employees make up 28.6% of the postal workforce -- more than double their share of the u.s. population." if youou can talk ababout thisnd then i w went to ask you aboutut mail at home.. that the very proud postal service is such a diverse workforce. have anyny work is really y truy ,,d equal pay for equal work fair hiring practices, and so on? and because of our union contracts, we've had people pay for equal work i ithe postalal clerks, the people use it when you go to a post office and buy

stamps andriring packakages, and soso on, thehe postal clerks arw over 50% women, equal p pay for equal work as we mentioned. itit is been a wonderful opportunity fofor many of the african-american workers,, asian workers, latino workers, andnd white workerers. we are all in it together. danny glover, activist t and acr danny glolover is very clear tht without the opppportunity that s parents had - -- and theyey held make that. they were union members ththemselves. clear that the opportunities he had in life wewere largely based on his parents opportunity to make a decent living g and give their family the opppportunity and pay was able to take. so o -- let's go to president trump voting.about mail-in pres. trump: you get thousands

and thousands of people sitting in somebody's living room signing ballots all over the place. no, i think mail-in voting is a terrible thing. i think if you go, you should go anand even the concept of early voting is not the greatest because a lot of thingngs happe. but it is okok. you should go and you should go. i think it should go and vote. look at what they do or they grab thousands of mail-in ballots and they dump it. i will tell you what, and i don't have to tell you come you can look at the statistics, ththere's a lolot of dhohonesty gogoing alonong with mail-inin . amy: didn't you mail-in vote in florida? mark dimondstein, during the pandemic, we see what happened in wisconsinin, the fiasco aroud voting when people were afraid to go out to vote, the issue of mail-in voting, increasingly significant in this critical

election year.r. how is it threatened? what does this m mean? >> look, w we're talkiking now t .asic access to the ballot box the reality is, the post office isis the most trusteted federal agency, 91% in the last pew reflecting as also new and greater appreciationon r what postal workers are doing during this crisis. we have been servicing the people of this country on vote by mail and the information around balloting, voter registraonon ando onon f dededes and decades. the states that have mdadatory nootey mail havebsolutel probm.m. thahat just t t true. people are going have ue acssss to e baball box, then we are going to ha t to have vote by mail. anthat haseally be brought home in this tragic crisis.

d ifif wdon'tave the unid states plilic poal s serce, wewe will n n be able to have vototey mail. anody who thinks ving can take place on the internet and take place safely, at is a pipe dream. ththe inrnetet and all that cane hackedmail cannot be. it is a great way. people are voting voluntntarily that we e long before this criss in calififornia -- amy: and they don't have to pay when they are sending in their vote by mail because we hahave a u.s.s. post office, unlike thehe private corprporations.. >> that's right. it actually saves the cities, states, counties money. itit wos well. it i increases voter partrticipation. just the opposite of thousands of people -- it actually gives people a chance to make e a more informed vote come to o think abouout it. but to have access to the ballot box. the last time i went to vo in november was a three hour wait at the polling place.

of course, our electctions are n a workday y so it is much more - it is much harder for working people to vote. it is a thrust toward more democracy, defense of our democratic rights, and, obviously, this pandemic has brought that home. if we're going to have e true access at ththe ballot box or me access just becausee we don'n't really have true access noww -- vote by mail is definitely the way to go. it wasn't before. now it i is very, very clear. and postal workers are r ready o ntininue to serve the people of this countntry in all sorts of ways, including defense of our democratic right to vote. amy: mark dimondstein, thanknk u for being with us president of , the american p postal workers union. we go from the post office to education in this country. stay with us. ♪ [music breaeak]

amy: from roma h high school ana texas, virtually playing "these are thesese eyes."

ththis is dedemocracy y now!, democracynow.o.org, the quarante report. i am amy goodman in new york. juan gonzalez is cohosting from new jejersey. as we turn to the imimpact of te pandemic on schools, universisities, students, paren, teachers, and professors. here in new york city, the epicenter of the pandemic and home to the largest school district in the united states, public schools have been closed since march 16. at least 68 education department staffers have died from coronavirus, including 28 teachers, 25 teachers assistants, and also administrators, office employees, school aides, food service workers, guidance counselors, a parent coordinator and a technology specialist. on tuesday, new york city mayor bill de blasio announced a new grading system for the rest of the coronavirus-disrupted school year. said some so-called underperforming students may be enrolled in virtual summer school. this is is mayor de blasio. >> we want to make sure the grading policy wewese now fitits the moment we are in now and the reality of our kids come our parents, our educators now.

chancellor, his teaeam workrked with parents, teachers, elected officials, advocates listened all different viewpoints. we have had a series of conversations confirirming the direction of this policy. it came down to the notion off what we owe our kids at this moment. first of all, flexexibility. amy: this comes asas the los angegeles unified school d dist, the second-largestst school sysm in the u.s.s., has announced tht no stutudent will receivive an " grade. california governor gavin newsom said the state's academic year could start in late july or early august. some k-12 campuses may re-open to offer summer school programs. meanwhile, here in new york city, at least 12 -- and possibly as many as 17 -- faculty and staff in the public city university of new york system have died since the cororonavirus pandemic began, including five at brooklyn college. this comes as universities nationwide face massive financial losses from closing down their campuses and moving ininstruction online during g te pandemic.

for more on all of this, we are joined by education scholar, noliwe rooks, the w.e.b. du bois professor of literature at cornell university, where she is also director of american studies and a professor in africana studies. she's the author of "cutting school: privatization, segregation, and the end of public education." s as from her home in ithaca, new york. she'll be the featured guest tonight at a virtual community conversation on the future of public schools in queens after covid-19. professor rooks, welcome to democracy now! what has the coronavirus pandemic expososed about educatn in america? >> first of all, thank you so much for having me. i think as we have seen in 700 other areas, the pandemic is exposing, just t shining a light on inenequality that arare alrey there.e. asas we see people who were impacted, who are falling ill

tend too be poor, , tend to be blacack, latinx. the children whwho are suffering the most with this clolosing don ofof schools sharereimilar kinis of demographics. one of the thihings that is perplexing -- and hopefullyly, e can come out of the e other endf this really taking t this seriousl-- is wewe had absolulutely no conversasation. there werere no emergency plans fofor closing a school, for ceasing education. whenen it became clear that it s putting teachers and students, as you mentioned the n numbers f educational workers who have lost their lives or fallen i ill attemptiting to stay in clasassrooms, we hadoo plansns r what happens if you take schooling off-l-line. we quickly across the c country,

new york city anand elsewhehere, decided on remote education. there are two things ababout tht that are particularly disturbing. something asct that central toto community, essentil to children, as c central to vuvulnerable community's as pubc educioion -- pubublic educations not jujust a about education for vulnerable communities. it is also about h health care, also a about mental h health stability, abobout -- for some kids it is abobout where you get your close washed, where you get the food you'rere going to eat during the day. to take something that central off-line i in a hodgegepodge, ia rush withohout even ththinking t disastster preparation should for what we do. the second thing is, what we instead of inace

person education is online schooling. what education scholarars, schoholars -- this is s not even isn questioion anymore -- know online education advantatages se childrdren and disadvantages -- severely disadvantages others. communities that cannott havav f fast, stable internet, it matters t the way those children are able toto len toto keep up, to have their learning abilities evaluluated. you just can't do it as easily majority of poor black and latinx families access to internet through their fountains. so t there is additional c chars that are racked up when they have to use their phone to try to access learning.

we know that. we also know that in terms of standardized tests, in terms of closing gaps in educational learning, online learning consisistently performs wororsen any y other dedelivery metethod. we know that from 20 years worth of research. it is not something new. so in this moment of crisis -- which it was a crisis. something had to happen. it could not be planned for. that is whwhat a disaster is. wayhut t down schools in aa ththat further hararmed certains and wee instituted a kind of learningng that is goingng to ce anan educational pandemic once e schools reopen. i want to asksor, you come at rutgers university, one e of my teams -- i teaeach ininvestigative reporting. one ofof my teams is doingng prt on the coronavirus. did a survey of several hundred

rutgers students precisely on this issue of remote teaching. the figures they came up with were astounding. 85% of the students who responded to the survey said that their ability to concentrate and it is s shipped online classsses -- 8 8 of them said it was extremely effectivee -- affected d or very mucuch affected. 71% sasaid their home environmet to poor for being able actually particicipate in ee classes, an online class. so there iss -- this is at the university level. take this down to the public school level, or sense of the impact that this is having even on the abibility of stududents o lear >> right. we arere saying things likike children who are sitting on a sidedewalk in front of a mcdonald's bececause t there ste wi-fi there.e. looking for r some wi-fi s so ty

can in fact complete the assignments. they want to l learn. theyey want to keepp up. they want to doo well, but this form o of educucation makekes it difficult, much like her students a at rututgers, i have studentsts all across the socioecoconomic spectrtrum in my classes. five students who went back to homes that were housing insecure in new york city.. whereious family s shelterss the wi-fi is spotty at best. and my students whosose families becacame involved in icece actin the peperiod b between the emergency andf the when they had to go home, and trying to navigate all of that -- i know students w whose pares are u unemployed,d, whose family members have died. i know, as youou do, from a

firsrsthand college peperspecti, how disruptpte this is. it is not a leap p to think students who were already at risk, , who were already vulnerable, , who were already n families worried about their ability to make ends meet, we now have an economic crisis on top of the public health crisis. and the ways s we are choososino educate children is simply unequal and is going to lead to an educational crisis, and educucational pandemicic on the others i've. you cannonot ask students to perform well with a medium that requires a lot of concentration. you really have to pay attention and have to know how to make your computer work if it goes off. you have to know what to d if your wi-fi all of a sudden goes down. in the midstst of trying to lean new concepts, i've tried to learn n foundational knowlwledge that you''re going to neeeed to

continue to move throughgh the ededucational system. it is disruption on top of disruption on top of disruption for communities and childreren o can least t afford it. if you'm also wondering have been following thee experiment t that los angeles -- unlike many of the o other placs around the country, in los angeles, the local public television stationon immediately swswitched to h having different bands of itits spectrum to prove inststruction to d differentnt classes. i haven'tt heard this happening inin many other places a arounde country, using publilic televisn -- which is accessibible to many more people -- to be able to get instruction out to studentnts. >> that is a grereat idea. i have not heard about that. i had not t been following it. i do know all over the country, though, you are s saying businesseses, parents, activist, and families s get together to

talk about what would work as for them. what they think needs to happen. there have been some c calls for allolowing children to access te wi-fi in p publi schools. we can't have i instruction take place in new york city public schools for a variety of reasons, but is s it the case tt children on n school grounds cannot accccess that wi-fi i in order to have something statabl? theree are people e who are askg for creativity in this moment. and d certainly, a as we think t whwhat happens on the oththers,e don't knonow when schools are going to open upup again. we don''t know what form. but we know there's going to be another r side of this mosost ae reach the other r side, , i'm he all that we do not repepeat some of the unintentional misistakes that were e made we e shut thins add schoolwe did not

by schchool, neighborhrhood by igighborhood, , what you neeeedm us? whatat is it -- give them a a st at the table. folks that are most impmpacted, say, how can we bring these schohools back online in a way that does not disadvantage e yor chilildren? what you know that we neneed to know? i think we are at a point in the crisis were we need that kind of creativityty and collaboration. amy: w what about the mental health of young people right now? who are at home, -- you know, in a lot of cases, they don't have to screens or their parents did not want them to, and now i online all the time. in this vision you have of the future. yet the president of brown university sank of schooools do not reopen in ththe fall, harry education, higher education is imperiled. most kids go to public schools, whether we're talking about community colleges, whether we're talkiking about public

universities. what about all of this, that we don't even know what is going to veryn and the inequitable different kind of endowments that the ivy league has versus the rest of higher education in thisis country? are we going to see the closing of hundreds of schools? t the of the things, convnversation about higher ededucation, it is sort of mirroring the conversasation we are having about k-12 in that we are ndnding -- we are not.t. our public policy, our sense of urgegency is not arounund childn who are momost in n need or instititution serving chilildreo are most in neeeed. the e vast majorority, well over 50%, well overer 60%, black and get collegewho degrgrees do so at community collegeses or for-prorofit universitities. nonot for institutitions -- nota

four-year insnstitutions and certrtainly not li o ones i tet, but ththe conversation about reopening colleges and universisities has so far exclud communitity colleges almostt wholly. i'm heararing very littlee in te what t is theia aboutut impact on n community colleges where most of these kids are actually being served? similar phenomenon you're findin witith k-122 where theh's thest no convnversation about kind and qualityty of instructin thatat is evenen taking place oe based on the socioeconomic background o of the kids. some kids are having -- some of the plalans entails having limited, 40 minunu week or 240

minute sessions a week that actutually involve the computer. and the rest of the time,e, not even online, pararents are being askeked to step in, being given different kinds of worksheetss and plans and thehey are being asked to step in and help ensure that kids are completeting this work. abilitiesve different toto offerer that kind of help.. so i know both k-12 as well a as in h higher eduducation, a ait o often the e case, our public policy is nonot startining frome bottom u up. it is startining from the top down. it is starting with what works best in a time of crisis when we are all impactedd -- what works best for the most wealthy most of amy: this is a conversation that we will have to continue. noliwe rooks, thank you for joining us w.e.b. du bois , professor of literature at

"cutting school: privatization, cornell university, author of "cutting school: privatization, segregation, and the end of public education." democracy now! is working with as few people onsite as possible. the majority of our amazing team is working from home. [captioning