Jason Esteves, Atlanta Board of Education Chairman, Discusses Atlanta Public Schools Begin School Year Online Only, Pushing Back School Start Date
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: This is the conversation everywhere, not just in Fulton County, but all across Georgia and all across the country and all across economic perspectives and livelihoods in the sense. If you have a child -- I have a rising fourth grader and she's dealing with this. In the "Atlanta Constitution," there's a piece today about an Atlanta school board member saying she's received hundreds of e-mails from parents with questions about the reopening plan. It goes on to talk about it's very much a struggle for working parents across the city. They don't feel capable of being there and teaching their kids. This is complicated, I know, and you wrestle with it every day. How do you help the working parents who can't be home and now their children are home for nine weeks at the start of the new year or maybe they can be home but they're working from home and they don't feel they can give the time and resources necessary?</s>JASON ESTEVES, CHAIRMAN, ATLANTA BOARD OF EDUCATION: Well, look, I am one of those working parents. My wife and I work full time and we have a kindergartner that's coming into Atlanta public schools this year. So I feel for those parents. And no decision that we could have made at this point would have satisfied everyone. But what the district is doing is that we are working with our community, working with partners to provide our family with resources. And not only that, but the superintendent, Dr. Lisa Herring, recommended that we push back the start date to August 24th and the board approved that recommendation on first read on Monday. And that's going to allow our teachers time to plan and to develop professionally in anticipation of a virtual start. But it's also going to allow the school district to focus on the students and families. Assess them and provide them with resources and train parents on virtual learning. And, John, one of the critical things that we'll be providing for our students during that time are the basic resources that we know that they rely on schools for, like food. Our food program starts on August 10th even though school doesn't start until August 24th.</s>KING: Schools are a local decision. You're making a decision for Atlanta. You have other school boards around the state making decisions in their communities. This is a big national conversation. The federal government his more resources financially and access to the data. And I want you to listen to the president and to two of his top scientists. They sound different when they talk about the issue of schools.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATED: We have to get the schools open. We have to get everything open. A lot of people don't want to do that for political reasons and not for other reasons.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We should try as a default to get the kids to stay in school.</s>DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: Let's all work together and find out how we can find common ground to get these schools open.</s>KING: Are you getting help? The CDC is right there in your hometown. Are you getting help, whether it's scientific data, whether it's other research, whether it's guidelines for safety in the schools or suggestions from the Education Department about how to improve the remote learning the last few months? Are you getting anything from Washington or do you feel you're on your own?</s>ESTEVES: Well, look, at the end of the day, every school district is different. Every city is experiencing the impacts of COVID-19 differently. And each local school system should make a decision that's best for their constituents. And in Atlanta, we are in substantial spread. If it was a situation where we were low or moderate spread, the decision and the recommendation from the superintendent would have been different. But at the end of the day, the governor in Georgia has supported local decision making. And Atlanta public schools have to place the safety of our students, our teachers and their families first. And that's what we're doing in Atlanta.</s>KING: Of the many, many countless coronavirus challenges, you are dealing with one of the most important, our children. Jason Estevez, we appreciate your time and insights. Best of luck as you go through this in the weeks ahead. We really appreciate your time.</s>ESTEVES: Thank you so much for having me.</s>KING: Thank you. Up next for us, the CDC director offers up a theory on what is causing that spike in southern states but does the data back up that theory?