July 8, 2020

Reopening Schools Is One of the Biggest Coronavirus Challenges. Trump and Fox News Are Making It Much Worse.

Gripas Yuri/ZUMA

The coronavirus is a rapidly developing news story, so some of the content in this article might be out of date. Check out our most recent coverage of the coronavirus crisis, and subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.

Amid the record-breaking surge in coronavirus cases, and as parents around the country face the enormous decision of whether to send their children back to school this fall, President Trump on Wednesday threatened to pull federal funding from school districts and dismissed the Centers for Disease Control official guidance on how to safely reopen, because he claimed the requirements were too onerous and costly.

The extraordinary tweets marked a new chapter in the president’s demands for schools to reopen—a critical component to reopening the economy—while, so far, staying quiet on additional federal funding for sufficient PPE equipment and social distancing measures school administrators have said are essential for safety. Instead, Trump has turned the issue of reopening schools into a political fight, claiming, without evidence, that Democrats prefer to keep schools closed because they believe it to be politically beneficial to them.

“They think it’s going to be good for them politically,” Trump said at a White House event on school reopenings Tuesday. “So they keep the schools closed.  No way.”

But for parents, many of whom are desperate for regular childcare and a return to some semblance of normalcy in the months ahead, Trump’s aggressive push to reopen schools while dismissing CDC guidelines will do little to reassure them that safety is a high priority for a president, who has repeatedly dismissed the threat of COVID-19 and the need for expanded testing by focusing on the economy. 

Furthermore, Trump’s threat to slash federal funding at this crucial juncture would undoubtedly exacerbate the disproportionate effects of the pandemic, with lower-income districts being more reliant on those funds than their wealthier counterparts. Several states are already suing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over a rule they say unfairly directs relief funds away from public to private schools.

Ever in lockstep with the White House, Fox News this week has also urged schools to reopen, rationalizing the move with the poetic claim that “life is full of risks.”

“Kids should learn that early that life’s full of hurdles, you’ve got to find a way to overcome,” Fox anchor Brian Kilmeade said during a Fox & Friends segment on Wednesday before downplaying the coronavirus threat as “not Ebola.”

“Mostly kids 99.9 percent of kids will not be affected by it at all,” he continued, despite growing evidence that some children can become seriously ill from the virus and can transmit it to adult family members. “This is a risk that has to be taken.”

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate