Biden tackles covid, school reopens, student loan debt: OnPolitics

President Joe Biden has some studies to do.
After his first visit as president to Milwaukee, Biden faces backlash from some of the comments he made about reopening schools and canceling student debt.
It is Mabinty, with your guide from the day of the bump to the news.
The debate on reopening the school is not going away
Pour one for the parents. They are frustrated. It is difficult to work and educate children at home in the midst of a pandemic. They want to know when they can send the children back to school.
President Biden was clear on Tuesday night in a CNN town hall that its goal is for most K-8 public schools to be open in person “five days a week“at the end of its first 100 days.
There has been back and forth over Biden’s target goals:
- White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week that Biden’s goal was to more than 50% of schools to have “some teaching” in person “at least one day a week” – not necessarily fully reopened – on the 100th day of his presidency.
- Then Biden backtracked on Tuesday and re-committed to the goal of fully opening most kindergarten to grade 8 schools. “I think we’ll be close to that by the end of the first 100 days,” Biden said.
This begs the question: will teachers be vaccinated? USA TODAY White House reporter Joey Garrison tweeted that Psaki says it’s not a requirement for schools to reopen.
In many states, teachers have lobbied to be among the the first to be vaccinated after healthcare workers and nursing home residents. But they also argue that vaccines alone are not enough to start schools. They say other calls for things like enforcing mask policies and weak spread in the community have gone unheeded.
So about these loans …
Don’t expect total student loan debt forgiveness anytime soon.
“I won’t make it,” Biden said when a CNN mayoral participant asked him how he would pass a $ 50,000 student debt cancellation plan.
Some Congressional Democrats have approved a student debt cancellation program that would write off up to $ 50,000 in debt for most Americans. Biden admitted that he was “ready to cancel the debt of $ 10,000 but not 50 (thousands), because I don’t think I have the authority to do it,” Biden said.
The federal government should not write off the debt of students who went to elite schools like “Harvard and Yale and Penn,” the president said.
Progressives are not happy with Biden’s comments. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “Who cares what school someone went to? Entire generations of working class children have been encouraged to take on more debt under the guise of elitism. That is false.”
Elsewhere in the political world:
Happy Ash Wednesday to those who celebrate. —Mabinty