AFT President Randi Weingarten joins Yahoo Finance's Alexis Christoforus and Aarthi Swaminathan to discuss the latest on education amid COVID-19.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFORUS: In an about face, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this week he will reopen elementary schools and reduce hybrid learning, letting some kids attend school in-person, five days a week. There is no timetable, by the way, on when New York City middle and high schools will reopen. Joining us now is Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers and Yahoo Finance's AarithI Swaminathan. Good to have you both with us, thank you. Randi, do you agree with Mayor de Blasio's decision to reopen New York City elementary schools the way he's planning to?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Yes. And you know what? I think what was missed out of yesterday's decision was that it's built on two pillars. One is that Governor Cuomo really controls the tackling of COVID throughout the state. And he, like Governor Newsom, has this kind of regional approach now that actually really works. So Governor Cuomo has these yellow, orange, and red zones so that you know, regionally, in a community, where you're positivity rate is, what's happening in terms of community spread, because no school is an island.

So there's a 3% regional rate now, as opposed to a city rate. And that's important because Staten Island right now is way high. The community I live in, which is Inwood, is way high. But most of the places around the city are not. So it's that issue about, you know, whether your community has exceeded 3%. And then the next piece is learning from what we've learned nationally, internationally, but particularly, in terms of the New York City experience, younger kids and kids who are at risk really need schools. Hybrid education really doesn't work.

And so, ultimately, because about a third of the elementary school parents opted for in-person, there's a way of programming schools so that there can be four or five days a week in-person for elementary and for special needs kids. And that's a really good idea.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFORUS: Randi, do your union members feel comfortable returning to the classroom right now? Or is there anything that they need to see before they do feel comfortable?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Well, that's a big question. And that depends on where we are. So for example, what we learned because of the work that the UFT did in New York City is that the suite of safeguards that were negotiated from mass to physical distancing, to ventilation, to electrostatic cleaning and testing, really worked. That needs to be a non-negotiable everywhere. And so what you see is that you saw, when community spread was low, very little spread in schools.

That gives people confidence that that schools, particularly for elementary school kids, can reopen. But if you actually go to Chicago or to Philadelphia where the ventilation systems in schools are terrible, people would look at you and say, how can you open up without having good ventilation and without having the resources? We need to have the safety protocols and the resources and then New York City has become a proof point that it can work.

AARTHI SWAMINATHAN: Randi, looking at some of the things that we learned from this process, there was a recent op-ed in the New York Times that was in October that black parents prefer remote learning in some way so they can keep an eye on their kids in case, you know, there are racial hostilities and also because of the COVID risk. So I'm wondering, how can we translate some of these learnings that we saw through virtual learning when we finally reopen schools?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: So look, trust is really, really, really, really important. And I was on on I was on a webinar earlier today when I said that about trust, and that I really blame Donald Trump for the failure of even trusting the science because of his out now lies and denials. So if what we've seen is that the communities that have been most impacted by COVID have been black and brown communities and indigenous communities.

And you know, if you're a parent and you want to make sure that if you've had COVID in your family, if, God forbid, somebody has died, you know, you're pretty skeptical about whether or not something can work. And so you have to have a proof point that it can work. And that's why the transparency around testing and that's why these protocols are so important. But trust is earned. And we're going to need a new president who talks about the data in an honest way and who tackles, in an honest way, in order to create trust amongst parents whose families have been deeply affected by COVID.

Having said that, we need to think about this as an iterative process, meaning let's make sure that we don't lose this summer. Let's have a voluntary summer school. Let's make sure we can wrap services around schools. There's about eight different things that we need to do at the same time. It requires resources. It requires following the science. It requires leadership. And it requires tackling the COVID surge right now. And we're putting out that blueprint today in an op-ed.

But I do think we will get parents and educators to come around if we follow the science with fidelity and people still see, after this surge, low rates, particularly for elementary school kids and special needs kids.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFORUS: Randi, you mentioned the new president. Top Democrats see you as a candidate for Secretary of Education in President-elect Biden's administration. Is that something you would be interested in?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Look, first off, I'm interested in doing my job. I'm interested in reopening schools safely for kids, making sure that teachers don't have the tremendous heartburn and, really, I mean, they've been working in a Herculean way but it's not sustainable. And they are really, really, really at a breaking point. So I'm interested in doing the work I can do for children, for families, for communities, for creating a middle class, for expanding a middle class. And frankly, I'm honored to do it as the president of the AFT.

If you were me, who has worked your entire life to help families, help educators, and help lift up the middle class, obviously it's an honor to be mentioned. But it's not something that I ever sought. It's something that it's just an honor to be mentioned. So you know, we'll see what happens.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFORUS: Randi, if if the stars align and this happens and you become the chief education person there in the administration, what would be the first thing you would do during this pandemic?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: OK, let me just make sure it's clear. I am not running for this job. I love the job that I am in. So this is what I would do whether I was secretary of education or whether I was the president of the teachers union. We need to make sure that small businesses continue and are not hurt by this pandemic. We need to make sure that schools continue and are not hurt by this pandemic. We need to make sure that states are not hurt by this pandemic, that the unemployed are not hurt by this pandemic, that people can get fed, that people can actually pay their rent.

So number one, we need to actually have a stimulus. Number two, we need to make sure that we can reopen schools safely for the second semester and have a really big voluntary summer plan and program. Number three, we need to make sure that that this cliff that is happening for student loans on December 31, that cliff is dealt with. Because so many kids and young adults who have had their student loans deferred for a while, that ends on December 31, another kind of sabotage, unfortunately, that the Trump administration has done.

So, immediately, we need to help create as normal a process as possible for parents and for educators. And we need to actually create some credibility, transparency, and deal with the student loan issues for young adults. Those are the things you need to do immediately. Long-term, there's a whole lot of things we need to do to make sure that every single student in America has a chance to thrive. And that requires public schools that are well funded, that actually are addressing the needs of kids and actually really lifting up their passions.

AARTHI SWAMINATHAN: Randi, that's a long list of things and I'm sure that the list will get even longer. But let me ask you this question. I think I'm very curious to hear you answer. What legacy does Betsy DeVos leave behind? And how much of reversing that will be part of this plan?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: So, look, Betsy DeVos never cared about public education that 90% of kids go to. She basically cared about undermining it, and dismantling it, and destabilizing it. And so, you know, she leaves a legacy of basically just undermining what people tried to do as educators. She's made a mess of the student loan program. What she inherited was not fabulous. But she made a mess of it. Ask anyone who has tried to get public service loan forgiveness or is trying to figure out what their repayment plan is.

She didn't care about the civil rights of kids. She just cared, ideologically, to have private schools. Now, I'm a religious person. My wife is a rabbi. I actually go to religious services by Zoom almost every week these days. This is not about-- you know, she tried to pit religion versus everything else. And there's a way in which we have to actually lift up all the values of Americans and of America.

And that's part of what our schools do. It's a place where you have diversity, where you bring people together, where you bring American values together. And unfortunately, she never cared about that. And so I don't know whether it was her disdain for those values or whether it was incompetence. But, you know, she created quite a mess.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFORUS: Randi, real quick in the 30 seconds I have left, do you want teachers to be among the first groups to get a vaccine when it is indeed available?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: I do. But I think it's really important that health care workers have the first priority. Our health care workers right now are absolutely exhausted. They've been in the front lines of COVID it for eight months. And they're facing a surge right now. So first and foremost, have to be health care. And then, ultimately, there's a whole bunch of other essentials that we need, including schooling. And so that's why I think that educators should be part of that prioritization after health care.

We have to stop saying something is a priority and not acting like its priority. If we say it's a priority, we got to act like it's a priority. And that's where schooling comes in.