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New York’s governor said schools could reopen for in-person instruction, but he left the details up to the districts. Africa surpasses a million confirmed cases, though the real number may be higher.
Right Now
President Trump said that if an aid agreement could not be reached with congressional Democrats, he would sign executive orders reinstating a national moratorium on evictions and “enhancing unemployment benefits” through the end of the year.
transcript
“It was a disappointing meeting. We reiterated in very strong terms our offer. We come down a trillion from our top number, which is 3.4. They go up a trillion from their top number, which was 1, and that way we could begin to meet in the middle. Unfortunately, they rejected it.” “So when we talk about this, this isn’t about negotiating or leverage or anything, it’s about meeting the needs of the American people. I’ve told them, come back when you are ready to give us a higher number.” “So the chief and I will recommend to the president, based upon our lack of activity today, to move forward with some executive orders. Again, we agree with the speaker. This is not the first choice, but people have run out of the enhanced unemployment, so, that is something we will recommend an executive order on. And it relates to rental foreclosures, we will recommend a executive order on that, and also student loans. So, it’s going to take a little bit of time for us to finalize these and process them, but we’ll do them as quickly as we can because the president wants action.”
Crisis negotiations between the White House and top Democrats teetered on the brink of collapse on Friday, as both sides said they remained deeply divided on an economic recovery package and President Trump indicated he was ready to act on his own to provide relief, although it was unclear if he had the authority to do so.
At a news conference Friday evening at his golf resort in Bedminister, N.J., Mr. Trump said if an aid agreement with congressional Democrats could not be reached he would sign executive orders reinstating a national moratorium on evictions, deferring student loan interest and payments “until further notice,” and “enhancing unemployment benefits” through the end of the year. He also said he would defer payroll taxes, retroactive from July 1 through the end of the year.
“If Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need,” Mr. Trump said. Speaking in front of dozens of club members who gathered in a gilded ballroom to see him, many of them holding wine glasses and forgoing masks, Mr. Trump explained that the reporters in the room had been “waiting outside for a long time” and described the back-and-forth he expected as “always a lot of fun.”
The audience even had a chance to participate, booing loudly when it was suggested by a reporter that the largely unmasked crowd in the room was violating social distancing guidelines, and then cheering when the president noted that the club’s members “know the news is fake.”
The president did not specify how the deferral would work, and it was unclear if he had the authority to take such an action without approval from Congress. Payroll taxes are intended to cover Medicare and Social Security benefits and take 7.65 percent of an employee’s income. Employers also pay 7.65 percent of their payrolls into the funds. The move, which would not aid unemployed workers, faces opposition from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress.
The news conference came after another unproductive meeting between the administration officials and Democratic leaders, which ended with no agreement and no additional talks scheduled.
Democrats, who had earlier said they would be willing to lower their spending demands to $2 trillion from $3.4 trillion, said the White House needed to return with a higher overall price tag, after Mr. Trump’s negotiators declined to accept that offer. Republicans have proposed a $1 trillion plan.
“The House is Democratic, they need a majority of Democratic votes in the Senate,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, emerging with Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the meeting. “Meet us in the middle — for God’s sake, please — for the sake of America, meet us in the middle.”
Mr. Mnuchin and Mr. Meadows demanded that Democrats agree to lower the amount of aid for state and local governments, and provide more specifics about how they were proposing to revive lapsed unemployment benefits.
“There’s both a top-line issue but also policy issues,” Mr. Mnuchin said after the meeting, which lasted more than an hour in Ms. Pelosi’s office. “I don’t want to speculate as to whether there is an agreement or not. We will continue to try to get an agreement that’s in the best interest of the people, and that’s why we’re here.”
While the executive orders have not yet been finalized, Mr. Meadows said it was likely that action would come over the weekend.
“This is not a perfect answer — we’ll be the first ones to say that,” he said. “But it is all that we can do and all the president can do within the confines of his executive power, and we’re going to encourage him to do it.”
Education Roundup
Schools across New York can reopen for in-person instruction this fall, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Friday, solidifying New York’s role as one of the few states in America that has a coronavirus transmission rate low enough to bring children back into classrooms — not only in its rural communities but also in the country’s biggest city.
Just a few months after New York City became a global center of the pandemic, the governor opened the door for millions of students across the state to return to classrooms, even as most public school students in the country will start the school year remotely.
Under the governor’s announcement, schools can decide to open as long as they are in a region where the average rate of positive tests is below 5 percent over a two- weeks period, based on reporting from all the state’s counties. Most of the state, including New York City, has maintained a positivity rate of about 1 percent. Mayor Bill de Blasio has said schools can only open in the city if the positivity rate is below 3 percent.
But Mr. Cuomo’s announcement does not guarantee that school buildings in the state’s roughly 700 local districts will actually reopen in the coming weeks. It is now up to local politicians and superintendents to decide whether to reopen, and how to do so. Their in-person reopening plans must also be approved by the state’s education and health departments in the coming weeks.
Though Mr. Cuomo has frequently wielded his power over school closures throughout the pandemic, in some cases contradicting Mr. de Blasio on key decisions, he has signaled that his role in the debate over reopening will be limited to setting the threshold for a safe reopening, and unilaterally shutting down schools if that threshold is reached.
The governor directed districts on Friday to publicly post their plans for testing teachers and students after the school year begins — a demand from the teachers’ union that New York City has not released significant details on. Mr. Cuomo also asked all districts to post their protocols for when someone in a school tests positive. Mr. de Blasio outlined the city’s plan for that last week: Just two cases in different classrooms of the same school could force its closing for two weeks.
And Mr. Cuomo said school districts must hold more virtual meetings with parents and teachers throughout August to answer questions.
Mr. Cuomo is leaving most of the other details about how to actually reopen safely to individual school districts. Districts across the state are tentatively planning to reopen late in August or early next month. New York City, the nation’s largest school district and the only major district planning to reopen even part-time, is scheduled to start school on Sept. 10.
Many teachers and parents across the state have expressed alarm about returning to school buildings as the virus has spiked in other states. But families across New York say they are desperate for schools and child care centers to open so that they can return to work. About 75 percent of New York City students are low-income and many of their parents are essential workers or employees who cannot work from home.
New York City and other districts across the state are still finalizing strategies that allow for social distancing in school buildings, trying to find enough nurses to staff school buildings, and upgrading or replacing ventilation systems in classrooms.
Here are some other key education developments:
In some places in the United States, including Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, students have begun some school as early as last week, with quarantines quickly following. The Times spoke to students about their experiences. One who tested positive said she “was a little scared.”
The health officer of Montgomery County, Md., Dr. Travis Gayles, backed away from a confrontation with Gov. Larry Hogan on Friday, rescinding an order prohibiting private schools from in-person instruction. The governor had countermanded the order on Monday and the issue was headed to federal court. A statement by the county said Dr. Gayles continued to “strongly advise schools against in-person learning.”
Johns Hopkins University and Princeton University became the latest academic institutions to rescind plans for in-person classes this fall, announcing that they would instead conduct undergraduate instruction entirely online because of the virus’s effect on their surrounding communities.
Hannah Watters, the 15-year-old student at North Paulding High School in Dallas, Ga., who received a five-day suspension for posting photos of packed hallways on the first day back to classes, said Friday that administrators had lifted the suspension. “My mom has always told me that she won’t get mad at us if we get in trouble as long as it’s ‘good trouble,’” Hannah said in an interview, invoking the famous phrase of Representative John Lewis, the civil rights leader who was laid to rest in Atlanta last week.
Some educators say students and parents can expect much less in-person instruction than was initially hoped for this school year. Teachers are finding themselves unprepared, leading to questions about whether schools missed a chance to fix remote learning.
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