President Donald Trump is pushing for schools to reopen this fall, but Sen. Marco Rubio said Tuesday he thinks it's clear that states and educational leaders won't do that as long as coronavirus infection rates remain at a certain level, which puts the onus on "all of us" to get infection rates under control.
"There are the benefits of closing schools, [but] the community spread that we are seeing in the outbreaks, I understand it's not inconsequential and it's a real threat," the Florida Republican said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
The costs of staying closed are also significant, said Rubio, and will have an impact not only economically, but on learning and in the long-term, long after the pandemic has passed.
"There will always be risks as long as there is no immunity from this virus so we will have to do the best we can and be flexible," said Rubio. "But at some point, schools really do need to reopen."
The harm to children also needs to be weighed when determining if schools can reopen, said Rubio. "A lot of the child-abuse occurrences in the country are identified in schools when you see kids showing up with bruises and other injuries," said Rubio.
However, there has to be a "nonschool option" as well for teachers and students who could be put in harm's way by going to school, but the people who will be most impacted by decisions on going to school will be the working or low-income families who don't have many options open to them.
But in Florida, where there are hundreds of thousands of cases of coronavirus infections, there is still a way to get children back in their classes, said Rubio.
"Florida is an enormous state," said Rubio, and there are a number of counties without high rates of COVID-19.
"Those counties should move forward with the ability to start school on time," said Rubio. "We are never going to be at 100%."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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