The Cost of Keeping Schools Safe

in children in the last half of July. Cases among kids grew for according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association, that brings the total number of child infections to around nine per cent of all US cases, but deaths from COVID nineteen total only six that's point zero six percent of total fatalities in the country. The report aggregates data from forty

nine states. While the surge of infections may inflame the heated debate about schools reopening in the fall, the data also show that child infections make up a disproportionately small share of the overall outbreak in the US. California, Florida, and Arizona had the highest number of total child cases, with more than twenty thousand each. In New York, the number of coronavirus patients hospitalized and occupying intensive care beds

has reached a new low. Governor Andrew Cuomo said today that there were five hundred and thirty five people hospitalized and one hundred and twenty seven in the U statewide on Sunday, the lower since the pandemic began. In March. There were two virus related fatalities. Finally, the World Health Organization is planning an extensive mission to investigate the viruses origins, starting in Wuhan, China, where the first cases were identified.

The w h O will deeply study individuals exposures and activities like travel, occupation, and daily life before they developed symptoms, all to get to the bottom of how the first cases were transmitted from animals to humans. Mike Ryan, head of the who's Emergencies Program, said the first case of an illness to be identified is not always in the

location of the first cluster. He noted that it took years to determine the animal origins for the Mirror's outbreak, and he said that the genesis of the two thousand two two thousand three stars outbreak has never been fully established. And now for today's main story. Arnie Duncan, the former U S Secretary of Education, recently warned a House panel against opening schools prematurely. He's one of a growing chorus of voices sounding the alarm about opening schools without properly

funding safety measures. The schools, they say, simply don't have the money they need to make their buildings safe for students and teachers. At the same House panel, witnesses said public schools would need two hundred billion dollars in federal aid to open safely with the virus continuing to circulate.

I talked to Skylar Woodhouse, who reports on costs and challenges of creating safe classrooms, walk us through some of these logistical hurdles schools are facing when they're considering reopening for the fall. There's a lot that schools are having

to take into consideration this upcoming fall. Abiding by all those social distancing guidelines, making sure that their mask group being worn, making sure that there's enough um like protective equipment available for students and staff, the cleaning of schools,

and I'm boiling all of these things down. Educators At this hearing that took place on Thursday with the Selective Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis, these educators came in saying that they need two hundred billion dollars in federal aid to help support these schools all across the country that

are going to have students coming into the halls. At the hearing, we heard from leaders of the country and in local you know, teachers and administrators who are like on the front lines currently preparing for the reopening of schools. And during the hearing, in this discussion of funds, was there any mention of how this funding would be distributed amongst you know, the thousands of schools in the United States.

So the funding is being asked to be sent to K through twelve schools that are going to see an influx of students going back to going back to campus. And you know, this money it's not just to you know, make sure that masks are available. This money is to make sure that cleaning can be properly done, that school buses are properly cleaned, to make sure that all of the working parts within the school system are being treated to prevent any type of possible spread of the coronavirus.

So there was no specific plan as to this is where it's going to be, just like distributed, you know, in terms of which areas would receive more than others. I'm sure that's a whole another conversation. But the number was brought up because of the stimulus talks and Congress trying to come up with an agreement to pass the next round of stimulus so that money can start to

be distributed across the country. You know, we're seeing negotiations right now between the House and the Senate, and the Republicans have proposed seventy billion for primary and secondary education, and ten percent of that seventy billion would go to

private and religious schools. So the number from Republicans, the seventy billion, that was just cathered twelve, but they actually presented one hundred and five billion, and that would also, you know, go to higher education in different education sectors around the country. And the one hundred and five billion for education that the Republicans presented is a few billion

higher than um what Democrats presented. And the Democrats had stated that when they were trying to get their piece of legislation out, they recognized that their number was lower once you know, the Republican number came out, but they just saw the urgency to get a piece of legislation passed. And among these administrators teachers who are actually facing a reopening, I mean in their local schools, what is their preparation plan. Let's say someone comes down with a case of COVID nineteen,

what what would happen? What is their feeling about that kind of threat in their schools. Well, one of the witnesses at the hearing, Angela Skillings. She was teaching summer school this past summer and one of her teachers that she was working with throughout this summer during summer school passed away from the coronavirus, and she was very vocal that schools should not be rushing to reopen at the right that they are and recognize that as much as you can do to prepare to prevent the spread of

the virus. She really just touched on how hard it is and that's just something that's not controllable right now

at this very moment. And then Robert Runcie on the superintendent, he expressed his concern for the fear that is going to come to his students and staff and parents, of students and just really the community when you learn that one kid or one faculty member has tested positive for the virus, and it creates this type of fear when you have to start notifying families around the school, you know that they have to begin quarantining because to try

and prevent a potential outbreak within a school, Why are we reopening just to reclose knowing that students and faculty will test positive and knowing and seeing the numbers that are continuing to increase, And that was a concern among um the witnesses at the hearing. Was there any discussion about whether the funds would be exclusively for in class instruction or is there an ability to use these funds potentially for online or digital education if the schools can't

be reopened. Well, part of the problem with the funding and part of the reason why this hearing was called was Secretary of Education Betsy du Bois. She said that schools that do not reopen, you know, will will be will be defunded. And the hearing was called to to let her know that that's not the case and that he doesn't have the legal authority. And with that, part

of that came from President Trump. Saying that schools that do not reopen will be defunded, and that is a worry for some schools because they feel that if we don't reopen, then we're going to miss out on that funding that they desk really need due to the impact of the coronavirus. So I really just think it presents a question that we've all been trying to figure out throughout this pandemic, is what's going to happen and what will kind of be like the final verdict in the

in the final decision that was skylar Woodhouse. And that's it for our show today. For coverage of the outbreak from one and twenty bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and if you like the show, please leave us a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is produced by topor Foreheads, Jordan's Gas Pure, Magnus Hendrickson, and

me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by skylar Woodhouse. Original music by Leo Sedgrin. Our editors are Rick Shine and Francesca Levi. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening. H