BUSES. In this file photo taken on March 31, 2020 about 100 school buses are parked at the Arlington County Bus Depot, in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in Arlington, Virginia. Photo by Olivier Douliery/AFP
But in two television interviews Sunday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos insisted on the need for schools to reopen, even as several states were registering record numbers of coronavirus cases and hospitals in many cities were struggling to cope. "We're all very concerned," Giroir added on ABC's"This Week," as he called for the re-closing of bars, greater spacing in restaurants and the near-universal wearing of masks in the areas most afflicted, largely in southern states that reopened aggressively.The pressure to reopen schools has come from the top, with Trump threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that refuse to reopen – a stance that DeVos reconfirmed.
"There is no desire to take money away," she said on CNN."In fact, we want to see schools open and have been committed to ensuring the resources are there to do that."But in a Fox News interview, she was more direct, explicitly saying that if school don't reopen, they should not receive federal funds.
Trump on Saturday wore a mask in public for the first time during a visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, after downplaying the practice for months in defiance of his health advisors.