Millions Of U.S Students Affected By School Closings.
CAMEROTA: New this morning, Oregon becomes the sixth state to cancel all K-12 schools statewide because of the coronavirus, Washington, D.C. just added to the list as well. Closures across the country are now impacting more than 5 million students nationwide. CNN's Martin Savidge is live in Yonkers, New York, with more. What's happening there, Martin?</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN: Good morning, Alisyn. Schools are closed here today. Whether they'll reopen next week, that is still a question at this point. There are a number of states where schools have not shut yet, but the residents are warned by their governors that that is very much a possibility. All across the country, school districts for weeks have been planning for just this kind of an emergency. And in many places now, that emergency is here.</s>SAVIDGE: As officials try to slow this spread of the coronavirus, some states have begun shutting down their entire school systems. Maryland and Kentucky schools are down for two weeks. Ohio schools will close for three.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This action is not an action that I took lightly.</s>SAVIDGE: Elsewhere, school closures are more sporadic but no less dramatic for parents left scrambling.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really stressful that this is happening but I understand why it has to happen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it was necessary. Just listening in Italy, they were saying they wish they had done their closures a week early.</s>SAVIDGE: Across the country, thousands of schools and millions of students are expected to be affected by the closures and those numbers are expected today rise. In Seattle, one district explaining that dealing with the hardship of shutting down is still better than what could happen if they stay open.</s>ZACHARY DEWOLF, SEATTLE SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT: This is the best decision we can make based on public health guidance and to mitigate future risks to our students, families and communities.</s>SAVIDGE: Schools already on spring break are taking extra precautions to make sure their students stay healthy whenever they may return.</s>DR. BERNIE DUBRAY, SUPERINTENDENT, FOR ZUMWALT SCHOOL DISTRICT: I'm confident that we can provide safe haven for their children to be in.</s>SAVIDGE: The CDC's guidelines for schools with identified cases of coronavirus in their community leaves the decision whether or not to close to the school and local health officials. In California, officials announced that schools there would stay open but individual areas are closing schools. And for many children who rely on school food, shutting down means more than just missed classes.</s>NEWSOM: We do deem that schools are essential, not non-essential. 80 percent of that student body has a reduced meal program.</s>SAVIDGE: It's not just California. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture across the United States, millions of students rely on more than 20 million free school meals provided each day, leaving some parents to wonder when schools closed, how will their children eat?</s>SAVIDGE: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has been adamant that he says New York public schools will remain open in the city. It's not just because they're important for education, but as was pointed out, he sees it as important for meals to be served to many students, and also for some students in some places, school is the safest part of their day. John?</s>BERMAN: There are 2 million homeless children around the country who go to school. Where will they go? Martin Savidge, thank you very much. Joining me now is Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers. Randi, thank you so much for being with us. Let's just put the statistics back up on the screen so people know where we are this morning. Roughly 10,000 schools closed or scheduled to close. That's about 5 million students. This number will change drastically over the next 24 hours or by Monday. What do you think of the call to close the schools?</s>RANDI WEINGARTEN, PRESIDENT; AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: So, look, closing schools is always the last resort because of all the negative impacts. We feed kids every day for breakfast and lunch.</s>BERMAN: 30 million lunch, 11 million breakfast.</s>WEINGARTEN: Exactly. We have so many homeless kids. We actually do healthcare for kids. We have -- we often talk about how schools are the centers of community. We wash kids' clothes. We do a lot of stuff. Schools become that area where kids get not just nourishment -- not just health nourishment, not just food but nourishment cyclically. And separate and apart from that, when you close schools, what happens for parents, what happens for the first responders that are in hospitals, nurses. So there's a lot of bad impacts societally when you close schools. But the flipside is this. Without the testing, without knowing where the virus is, people are basically without facts. And so you have to reduce the vector of transmission. And that is why Ohio, Michigan, now Oregon, Kentucky, Seattle, Houston, Atlanta, that is why they have all closed schools. They've tried to do it around the spring break. But that's why they've all closed schools. And I suspect that we're going to see more and more of it because we have to reduce the vector of transmission.</s>BERMAN: I think it's so interesting that you're tying the failure in testing to school closures because these decisions have to be made within an absence of knowledge. It's the unknown that's forcing Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio, who we're going to have on next hour. They only have five cases recorded, tested in Ohio. But he's assuming it's much more than that. So do you think it's the right call to close with only five confirmed cases?</s>WEINGARTEN: Look, I think that this is the only bad decision. If somebody knows of a case and continues to expose people, that's a bad decision. Other than that, there are no bad decisions because we have no facts. So when people are saying, you look at China, you look at South Korea, they had thousands and thousands of cases, thousands and thousands of tests. And if you don't have for anybody in public health, we're the second largest teachers' union, anyone in public health will tell you that you need the facts to fight a disease and fight an infection. So I don't think that DeWine made the wrong decision and I know that people in New York City are really up and down every single day thinking about it because of all the bad impacts. Now, what New Mexico is doing is they're doing grab and go. So they're trying to keep the kitchens open so that they can have grab and go for kids. They're trying to keep the health clinics open.</s>BERMAN: It will work. We'll learn as we get through this as to what works and doesn't. Let me ask --</s>WEINGARTEN: But let me also -- I'm sorry. Let me also talk about a lot of teachers both in terms of higher ed and K-12, are really trying to get a crash course right now in online distance learning.</s>BERMAN: That's exactly what I want to talk about.</s>WEINGARTEN: Sorry.</s>BERMAN: That's exactly what I want to talk about because so many schools, including my kids' school, which is just closed for four weeks, says they're going to shift to online education. You don't just snap your fingers.</s>WEINGARTEN: And, frankly, it's -- look, all of this is about engagement. Let's just be honest. I mean, one of the things we have to do is the fear has now overcome the facts. And for us to actually be able to deal with this pandemic, we have to have honesty and transparency. What online does right now is it can be engaging. We're not going to replace schooling. And, frankly, as some of the folks said in Seattle, you have a digital divide between wealthy and non-wealthy. So why would you actually think that you're going to replace schooling with online when so many kids at home don't have Wi-Fi? END