The White House is doubling down on President Biden's goal to reopen schools for in-person learning in the first 100 days of his presidency...for one day per week. In fact, Press Secretary Jen Psaki is calling the goal "bold and ambitious."
"You said the goal was for more than 50 percent of schools to have some teaching in person, at least one day a week, you said you hoped it would be higher but why is the administration setting the goal at one day a week? Why not go higher?" Psaki was asked.
"Well certainly we are not planning to celebrate at 100 days if we reach that goal. That is our own effort to make, set our own marking, set a bold and ambitious agenda for how we are going to measure ourselves and progress," she said. "But we certainly hope to build from that at 100 days."
Psaki was also pressed about why Biden wasn't more specific when he promised to open schools within 100 days of his administration.
"When President Biden talked for the last couple months, particularly during the transition about reopening schools within the first 100 days, why didn't he ever mention the small print that that was just going to be for one day a week as a goal," she was asked.
"Well again, the President made a goal of reopening the majority of schools within 100 days and when you asked what that meant, I answered the question. That is not the ceiling, it is the bar we are trying to leap over and exceed," Psaki said. "The President wants not just to open schools he wants them to stay reopen."
Psaki's remarks come as teachers unions around the country continue their refusal to get back into the classroom, despite CDC data showing schools are not a place of Wuhan coronavirus spread.