Thank you very much. It is an honor to be with everybody and we are at the white house, there is no place like the white house. For those of you that this is the first time, i know exactly what you are thinking. I was here the first time and it is still something i will never forget so it is great to have you in the first lady and i are pleased to welcome everybody to this wonderful place to discuss the vital importance of safety and reopening americas schools. We want to reopen the schools. Everybody wants it. It, want it, but adds want kids want it. It is time to do it. Our mortality rate is at a level people dont talk about, but it is down tenfold, tenfold, so you are looking at deaths way down from this horrible china virus and it is a disgrace that it happened. Shouldnt have happened, but it did. Is coming back and coming back strongly. Jobs are setting records. Two months ago, they set the record and again, almost 5 million new jobs in the month, which is a record and broke our last record of a month before, so the numbers are happening much faster than anybody anticipated. Much sooner than anticipated. Nasdaq hit another record today. A small amounte below what they were a very small amount below what they were. It is incredible what has happened. When you look at education, my we haveion approved over 6 million to support colleges, and another 6 billion in emergency grants for students. We waived standardized testing requirements, deferred Student Loans and interest payments. Take a look at the Student Loan Program and we have waived student loan and interest payments. That is something that people have not been hearing about and nobody talks about. It is a big deal. New treatments are dramatically improving the health outcomes. Vaccines are doing very well. Their pukes are doing very well. Therapeutic therapeutics are doing very well. Punicscines and their herapeutics. Even more important than the vaccine at this point because people get better. The numbers testing numbers are the highest they have ever been. Millionlmost up to 40 in testing. Many times, but many other country then any other country. If we did less testing, we would have far fewer cases. Look at the chart. If you look at the chart of way down. E deaths are we want to get our schools open. We want to get them open quickly, beautifully in the fall. Know, it is a horrible disease, but young people do extraordinarily well. Jersey, wer of new were talking and he mentioned a number that is there was only one person that died that was under 18 years old in the state of new jersey. Somebody i guess had a problem with perhaps diabetes or something else. But one person out of thousands of people, one person died who was under 18 years old, so that is Pretty Amazing when you think of it. But i would like to now just give the mike to our first lady. Shes going to say a few words. Then we will go with mike and karen pence. Then we will go around the room. Kellyanne conway you did a great job. So if i might, first lady, please. Good afternoon, everyone. The first pillar of my be best initiative is childrens wellbeing and taking care of children social, emotional, and physical health. It has never been more important than during the covid19 pandemic. The administration has worked aroundtheclock to protect americans from the coronavirus but many challenges for children and families can be just as invisible as the virus and just as dangerous. When children are out of school, they are missing more than just time in the classroom. They are missing the laughter of their friends, learning from their teachers, and the joy of recess and play. Disabilities,ith without access to technology, or whose homes are not a safe place, the situation can be even worse. Start of the school year, i encouraged parents, teachers, and schools to teach children about the importance of cdc guidelines and to implement them when appropriate. Childrens Mental Health and social Development Must be as much of a priority as physical health. The same is true for parents. Many will be forced to make stressful choices between caring for their children and going back to work. We must address those needs as well as their own Mental Health and wellbeing. As we continue to come together to tackle these challenges, im honored that you could all be here today to offer your thoughts. I look forward to working with americake sure that s children and families can be healthy and thriving. Thank you very much. Pres. Trump thank you very much. Governor, what a great job you are doing. Thank you for being here. And thank you, millennia. We just heard, mike was telling me that Governor Desantis is doing a terrific job. He Just Announced that schools will be open in the fall and we hope that most schools are going to be open. We dont want people to make political statements or do it for political reasons so they keep the schools close, no way, so we are going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools, to get them open, and it is very important for our country, for the wellbeing of the student and the parents. Ofwe will be putting a lot pressure on open the schools in the fall. Thank you, mr. E president. Thank you for your leadership. I have seen it day in and day out since you asked me to lead the White House Coronavirus task force. Today is just one more installment in your commitment to make sure that our states and families have all the resources they need to meet this moment. Also understanding that we got to reopen america and reopen america safely. We convene all these great leaders from around the country because you know that to open up america again, we need to open our schools again. I want to thank all those gathered here for their efforts as well. I know i speak on behalf of my wife when i express our profound gratitude to the first lady. Throughout this pandemic, her regard for families, for children, for the emotional impact this has had on every american, is so admirable. I would like to invite everyone to show your appreciation for our first lady and the work she has done. [applause] mr. President , since the moment that we asked the American People to step up, to take efforts to slow the spread, and in that 15 days that would become 45 days, we encouraged people to refrain from attending school if possible, to Engaging School from home whenever it was possible. There were two categories of heroes that emerged. One was the parents who stepped up as never before. Those that are looking on should know your president , first family, Vice President , and second family are grateful for everything youve done to be the teachers for your children, to create the structure at home where they can continue to learn even in a challenging time. I also want to say how grateful we are to the teachers. Im actually sitting next to one who i have been married to for years. She teaches in a local school in the Washington Area and i watched her go in and pack up Art Materials that children could take home to continue their learning. So i would like to invite everybody to show your appreciation for the parents and Great Teachers who have done the work of continuing to educate our children. [applause] mr. President , the American People deserve to know that while we are seeing rising cases across the sun belt, we are ensuring that states have the resources, support, supplies, and personnel that are arriving as we speak in states like texas, florida, and elsewhere. Theour point, i hope American People appreciate the point you made yesterday on the national stage, that because of what our Health Care Workers have done, the innovation and medicine weve been able to make available, we have seen fatalities decline by 90 from some of the worst moments of this pandemic and we are going to continue to keep those losses low and steady. We are going to save lives as we reopen our country. Today we spoke to the nations governor on the topic of this summit. Noweflected on the fact, as 47 governors and governors of two territories have announced plans to reopen schools across america, that is important to do so for a variety of reasons. We ought to be concerned about children falling behind academically and there is no substitute for in classroom learning, in person learning. That has been much discussed at the summit today. As the American Academy of pediatrics recently reflected, there are social costs, emotional costs, and even physical costs to our children across this country. It is important that we reopen our schools as youve directed for the academic and intellectual development of our children, but also vitally thattant that we remember 7 million American Children suffer from either Mental Illness or emotional disturbance and they principally receive care from health and Mental Services at their school. And so making sure that we are meeting the mental and emotional needs of our children as well as making advances academically is what brings us here today. The last thing i will say, to all those gathered here, from early on, you have directed our task force and the cdc to equip families and schools with the resources to operate. 12 thats early as march cdc issued its first guidance for strategies for school and child care services. Decision trees in the middle of may. Just last week, the cdc published new guidance regarding the type of testing that is appropriate and other strategies. We can bring our schools back. Next week, the cdc is going to issue five new documents, how to prepare communities, decisionmaking tools, symptom screening, face coverings, guidance, and the rest. Flowe going to continue to these resources and guidance, but as dr. Redfield told all the nations governors today, and i want to acknowledge his leadership and presence here today, what you have instructed our task force to do and the cdc to do in this moment is to say to states around the country, we are here to help. Guidance, butsued that guidance is meant to supplement and not replace state, local, territorial, or tribal guidance. Youve made it clear, we dont want to be the reason any school doesnt reopen. Parents, thethe teachers, administrators, leaders in your community, is that we are ready to work with the leaders in your School System and in your state to find a safe and responsible way to reopen your schools. That is our commitment. We are continuing to move out on that. We have to open up americas schools. The American People are taking important steps to do just that. Im truly grateful for all of those represented here. Would be happy to recognize misses pence for a few comments. Thank you. I had the privilege of addressing this Group Earlier today. I do want to say thank you to all the teachers. I know at my School Everybody quickly learned how to do online teaching. It wasnt something that our teachers were familiar with. They have worked so hard. And the parents really are the unsung heroes. They had to quickly get up to speed and it was not easy to do. But our kids are struggling. They need their friends. They need their teachers. They need their routines. This decision to open up the schools greatly impacts our children. It impacts them academically. It impacts them socially. And it impacts then emotionally. I applaud what you are doing today because our kids, for their Mental Health and academic health, they need to be back in school. So thank you. Pres. Trump thank you. I see dr. Redfield in the audience. I know you would like to see everybody coming back to school in the fall. Ive Read Everything youve written and i appreciate that very much. Thank you very much. Governor, please. Room we will go around the quickly and get everybody to say a few words. We will start with our governor. Thank you. When you come here, im honored and humbled to be here. Dreams you think about someday you never imagine being reality, but here we are. It is an honor to be here today. Let me start off by saying thanks to the president and Vice President for what they have done since theyve been in office, to say the least, but over the last 17 to 18 weeks, theyve been on the phone every week, and i dont mean for five minutes to say hello and see you later, indepth conversation with governors across the state. The Vice President has been there. With them. Ollowing the one thing they stressed every week, they are trying to do the best thing for this country and for the everyday people out there and trying to make their full support to the governors. I just want to thank you for doing that, for leading as good leaders do in times of crisis. When the president said he was going to put pressure on governors to open the schools, i will tell you this. Put few phone calls, he can a little pressure on you. Sometimes we all need a little push to get things going. What the first lady said when she talked about the kids was so important to me as a grandparent and a father. I think of all the kids that need to be in school. There is the privilege of going every day. For a lot of schoolkids, it is a safety blanket, a way to get nutrition, counseling, for somebody to help them when they cry out for help. Schoolsalso why getting back open is so important. If you want to take it one step further, it is about making sure people are qualified for the workforce of tomorrow. It as weo deal with would anything else weve dealt with in this country. Life goes on. Education is part of who we are. Kids need to get back in school. Parents need to get back involved in their schools. It is part of who we are. It is how we build the future. I also want to thank the second lady for giving me inspiration on a couple of key bills we signed in missouri. We did full reciprocity in the state of missouri and full and literary reciprocity and the lady gave me inspiration for that. Again, i just want to thank the president for his support for our state. People appreciate it. I want you to know that. Weve went through hard times before. We will be better off for it. Thank you. Pres. Trump and you wont be changing the name st. Louis, will you . No. Pres. Trump thank you much, very important. Good afternoon, mr. President. Im delighted to join you here today to talk about why it is important for children to be in school. Georgiaediatrician from and president of the American Academy of pediatrics. Children get much more than an education at school. Teachers, from peers, and School Services has lasting effects. Pediatricians strongly advocate that we start with the goal of having students physically present in school this fall. Of course returning to school must be done safely. We must take measures to keep everyone safe and with flexibility to adapt. The evidence we have so far indicates that children are less likely to have symptoms or severe disease resulting from coronavirus. Children are less likely to become infected and less likely to spread infections. However, missing school can have serious consequences, particularly for students with disabilities or special health care needs. Students who are in school learn more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. They learned social and emotional skills, exercise, and Mental Health support. Schools help identify and address learning deficits, abuse, depression, and suicidal ideation. These are all critical reasons to get students back to school. Reopening schools in a way that maximizes safety will clearly require new investments in our schools. We urge you to ensure that schools receive the resources necessary so that funding does not stand in the way of keeping our children safe or present at school. We look forward to working with you and all the people around this room. Pres. Trump thank you very much. Please. Thank you you, mr. President. Appreciate the invitation. Tennessee, we know that reopening schools reopens our economy. Weve got great examples where superintendents have come together to make sure parents can get back to work. Weve done an incredible job with resources. Weve opened up Free Professional Development peers and principles. I would also like to thank the first lady for her support. We had a wonderful conversation a couple weeks ago, making sure that all of our children receive a high quality Public Education as well as being served in terms of nutrition, transportation, etc. And as the proud daughter of a Police Officer and a teacher, i was raised with safety and education being fundamentals in my home. Pres. Trump thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, mr. President. Response the historic that the president has led to this unprecedented pandemic, we have the tools to reopen our workplace. We can reopen our schools and reopen health care. Weve got the tools. When we think about kids and schools, the school for our children is a center of so much of their life. It is where they get health care. It is where they get Mental Health care. It is where many of them get nutrition. It is where mandatory reporting of child abuse happens most often because of the nature of mandatory reporting requirements. The development that the kids need from a physical setting in schools. We are at a very different place now than we were two or three months ago. We have the worlds most robust testing system. We have Health System capacity and personal protective equipment to enable us to work through these outbreaks. We are advancing on therapeutics. Remdesivir, steroids, convalescent plasma to treat individuals, and just this morning the president made a major investment in an antibody that will be a treatment, if successful, could deliver hundreds of thousands of doses as early as late summer, early fall. We have three vaccine candidates in just this morning, invested 1. 6 billion in a fourth vaccine candidate that could deliver hundreds of millions of doses. It is just a very different circumstance than we ever had before. We know more about this virus. The fatality rate is going down because we are better at taking care of patients. Our fatality case rate in the United States is among the lowest in the developed world right now. Schools safelyur with what we know. It is simple practices, social distancing, wearing face coverings, practicing good personal hygiene. The tools are there to bring our kids back safely, to protect our teachers and staff, and it is time to do it now. Pres. Trump thank you. Good luck with all the therapeutics. I know you are getting close. What are your chances like in september . The one that we funded at almost half 1 billion this morning, they are one of the most advanced. We have several advanced antibody products. This basically takes that convalescent plasma and bioengineers that ineffectively unlimited supply. It is a cocktail of multiple antibodies that give your immune system immediate defense. So it is really very exciting. Pres. Trump it is basically under the abcs of what we are doing and it seems to be working. You have tests right now that say it does work . Youve got the initial trial work and that is why we are investing in the late stage development. But then we have these other three therapies. We have so many more tools than we did three months ago. We dont want anyone to get sick, but we have much better ways to take care of individuals now. Pres. Trump very exciting. We will hold you to it, september. [laughter] doctor. Please, thank you. Good afternoon. Fromatrick daly california. Just want to tell you what an honor this is, to be here this afternoon. You, the first lady, the Vice President , and second lady for your leadership during a difficult time. Very important to me. Kids,a father of four three daughters and a son, it is very important. We plan on opening. I think that we have put a plan together that is a working document with all the safety precautions and policies in place to ensure that st. Vincent depaul opens, following all the guidelines that are recommended. As you stated earlier, this should never be political. I think at times it has become political in many School Systems. Probably particularly in california. So we are very excited about the possibilities of the fall and we. Ave plans for reopening and as i mentioned earlier, if we had to go back to distancelearning, i just dont think it is beneficial to boys and 14 to 18 years of age and i really feel for the parents of elementary School Children who are trying to work and provide for their families and at the same time having to stay home and teach. It is very difficult. But i cant thank you enough for your leadership. Pres. Trump good luck with your plan and getting them open. Hopefully you can do five days instead of the two and back and forth. Thank you very much. Great job. Goodlooking person this is. Hello, mr. President. I am a student at st. Vincent depaul high school. I want to thank you for inviting me and helping to reopen schools. Coming on behalf of the students, it really means a lot to be able to get back out and it means a lot to our Emotional Health and Mental Health to be out there with our friends because a lot of us dont have that opportunity. And it helps reopen our schedules so we have something to look forward to. I run by a schedule. I just want to thank you very much for getting us back to that. Pres. Trump great job. Thank you very much. We will get you back soon. Kelly and . President , thank you very much. I listened to Cameron Vaughn and im reminded why we are here today. Believe a hallmark of the lookingration has been out for expanding opportunities, safety, and wellbeing for the forgotten child. The forgotten child took on a new meaning during this pandemic. Between the first and third weeks of march this year, 100 of our schoolchildren across this country were taken out of their schools and stuck at home. We saw a few things happen. The Digital Divide was laid bare. So many of our students could not access basic Digital Access to allow them to complete their schoolwork and to learn and thrive. The schools are a Central Nervous system because the students are the heart and soul of our nation today your message is that all children matter in our mission is to make sure that all children can safely and securely reenter their places of learning very soon. This has also impacted our economy. I have a soft spot for single moms having been raised by one. They have been disproportionately impacted and most of them are not in jobs for which they can telecommute. That ournews is children are at low risk for transmission even as they are at high risk for maladies. As weeat news is that safely reopen our schools, we are keeping with so much of your agenda to preserve and expand educational opportunities, to respect the dignity of all students, to respond to their individual needs by expanding School Choice and educational freedom, allowing them to have more options as they go through their lives, beginning with equality. The president has said, if we can win two world wars, dig out the panama canal, put a man on the moon, we can deliver quality education to each child. That begins with reopening our schools. Thank you very much. Pres. Trump thank you very much. Im with people already patriots. Thank you. While i am with tea party myriots, i am also a mom and children are sitting right over there. Thank you for having us here today. Rightesident, you were and i hope you will trust your instincts. America is not meant to be shut down and we have to reopen schools this fall. Ive been in touch with almost 1000 doctors from around the country. I helped dr. Simone gold spearhead a letter to you signed by 800 physicians and surgeons who talked about the side effects of the lockdown. Ive done a second letter with nurses, doctors, 240 educators, national groups, and thousands of parents and concerned americans who want to see schools reopened. Schools is going to stabilize our society. I think it is the number one most important thing we can do to stabilize our society, whether it is in a local Community Just reestablishing calendars which churches, nonprofits, traffic patterns people who dont have Children Care about the calendar for schools. Kindergartners and Elementary School students simply cannot learn looking at a zoom screen. If they could, we wouldnt need schools in the first place. World a place in the middle School Student needs to be is online unsupervised by adults. They believe each other in front of teachers. You cant even imagine what is going on with social media right now. Young adults and high School Students are losing hope and optimism for the future. In february, they had so much. Now we turn on the television and we can see the destruction that is causing. Employers have to rebuild their companies. To be ablemployees to do that. We did everything we could to flatten this curve and now we have to rebuild our companies. But we cant do that when employees are dividing their time between taking care of their children indefinitely for who knows how long and trying to get their job done. I have one employee who has five children. His wife is a dental hygienist. Im granting him as much grace as i possibly can. Hes a wonderful employee, but i cant even imagine what it would be like to have five children and have to homeschool them all. And it is not even homeschooling. It is helping them with digital learning. Homeschool parents have asked that we are careful about not conflating the two. I am a single mom now. I went through financial crisis. My then husbands business failed. We lost our house, cars, everything. I cleaned houses to help make ends meet. Ive done Everything Possible to rebuild. I know what those families are facing. Timeg to divide their between taking care of their children, not knowing if their children are going to be educated, and figuring out what they are going to do with their life, it is incredibly difficult. And for people who think we can it sends at home the wrong message. Every Single Person in this country is essential. We are the United States of america. Everyone is essential. Everyone is important. Not every singlefamily can afford a computer so that their children can be online at the same time or wifi as kelly and was talking about to do zoom all at the same time. Andlies are suffering education is suffering as well. Mom, this situation is ripping me in two. You cannot be in two places at once. Im doing the best i can to take care of my children. When they are living with their father, he does a great job. But when they are with me, im doing everything i can to take care of them, dealing with whatever we have to deal with from the shutdown, and run a company and work. Do whats impossible to we need to do. So the schools must be reopened. It will stabilize our country. I cant thank you enough for doing this today and sending this message. And the doctors ive been working with want to do everything they can to help calm the fear that is permeating our country. They understand we have to have a healthy respect for the virus and live our lives. They and i will do anything we can. Thank you very much. Pres. Trump looks like you are doing a great job. Is your mother doing a good job . You said the right thing. Great job. , on behalf ofnt the great state of tennessee, i want to thank you for all the help and resources and support that you and your administration have provided us. You have been accessible and responsible and that means the world to us. Im the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of health. I am also a pediatrician and mother. That know very clearly education and Economic Prosperity are key drivers of health. We know in tennessee that kids have to get back to school and parents have to get back to work. Economyramount for our and the health of our nation. We are doing our part for that effort. Pres. Trump thank you. Thank you, mr. President , first lady, Vice President , second lady. Today was a really terrific day. It took americas children and put them in the center and said this is not going to be a unilateral, onedimensional discussion about covid19. But a discussion that transcended that single moment and brought in other issues of Mental Health. And really said that it is important to have the availability of schooling. Discussion,ng that having teachers here and students here and Health Commissioners here and secretaries here was very helpful. It not only put the child at the center, but made it clear how important these other issues are that are beyond covid19. Terrificscussion was and i think we have a way forward. Pres. Trump thank you very much. [inaudible] thank you for including me so much in todays event. I want to thank you, the Vice President , the first lady, and the second lady for all the concern youve had for our children. Ob gyntoday as a parent, physician, and managing partner of my practice. Scary buteen a very also very enlightening experience. It has been quite the challenge. The first thing i want to say is, it is so important to get our children back in school. Embedded in are so social media already. What they need is that social interaction with each other and with adults. Fear what ouri society is going to look like. The preservation of society is reliant upon the interaction of these children with each other. Anxiety of my youngest child who is here with me today. I saw her anxiety when she came home from college. The anxiety of not knowing how her education would continue, trying to set up the zoom meetings, but more importantly not having the opportunity for that in person relationship to complete her courses. And i think her courses did suffer. Shes a good student but i can only imagine what it was like for other students. My eldest child have a learning disability. To try to bring him home and do this Education Online without that in person benefit would have been a disaster to his now very good career in richmond. I just fear for that student especially. School, it isto important that we also educate these kids. They sometimes do rise above it and feel as though they dont have the mortality or morbidity or that problem of interaction with each other. My daughter will be in an apartment with three other girls. They will be the new family unit. It is important that we educate them for when they come home so they realize their elders and grandparents, that family unit has changed. But we can do this. We have to reinforce this at the College Level to keep it ongoing as a priority. I know that we can do it. Thing i believe in is herd immunity. And what im not proposing is that we put all our students in a big vat and only the survival of the fittest come out antibody positive. I do think it is important to stop this tremendous isolation that keeps the virus as the winner. We need to get out. We need to have the vaccines. We need to have the interaction so that we can protect our vulnerable and our elderly and those younger folks with comorbidities, because weve got a society that is immune to the virus and we can put the virus back in its place. And finally, i want to thank you for being here, for hearing me out, and thank you for putting education and our economy in that place. As a business owner, when i have parents who have to come late or leave early to educate their children and yet run a business at the same time, it is incredibly difficult, if not impossible. And we want to maintain their jobs, but we also want to maintain the intelligence of their children and of our future. So i thank you again for your interest and for letting us be here. Pres. Trump i think it is important to note that weve done it right. We closed up. We were amazing the way our great citizens adhered to what we wanted to do and we saved i think millions of lives. Now we want to be open. We understand the disease much better. Theres been nothing like this since 1917. That is more than a hundred years ago. But we saved tens of thousands of lives, hundreds of thousands of lives, and now we are open and we will stay open. We will put out the fires as they come out. Fires, whatever you want to call them. Hundredsed literally of thousands of lives. I was going over numbers before with the Vice President. If you looked at a million, 2 million, 2. 5 million, those are all reasonable numbers to what we could have had. Right now we are at a number far lower than that. Where would you say we are today . About 130. So we are at 130. We could be at way over a million right now and i think it could have been 2. 5 or 3 million people, but now we are open. Now we understand the vulnerable. We understand who has the biggest problem. We watch that group and that age group and also people that arent feeling so well with respect to certain diseases. We watch very closely. Weve done it right. When you look at what happened with sweden, i kept hearing about sweden. Up herd concept of opening and keeping open, all of a sudden, it exploded. You look at what is going on in brazil and other places. So weve really done it right, but now it is time to be open, to stay open, and we will put out the fires as they come up, but we have to open our schools, and what you said from a psychological standpoint with respect to staying home any longer, you cant do it. So that is where we are. We will never close. You will have certain areas that will have difficulty and they will do what they have to do. We are supplying them with tremendous materials. Weve made a lot of governors look very good. Weve made a lot of governors look very smart. Some have done a good job from the beginning. From one toe them 50 and you would be amazed. You might be surprised at some of them. But i thank you for your remarks. What you said is very important. Please. It is great to be here to represent the great state of indiana. We are indianas community college. 160,000 students across our great state. As we want to remind you, talk about Higher Education, the true workforce engine for our nation, and the students that we serve. Let me just speak a little bit. Much the 16 oras 18yearolds, but we have many traditional students. It is often the single mother that we heard about, coming back parttime, and how important it is that they have access to community college. They are also typically lower income. Those that really do need to have the opportunity for the american dream. So this has been incredibly important. We have been virtual. We were virtual this summer and as of monday we are doing completion academies on campus to ensure that those nurses and theres and all can be out , joining americas new jobs and being part of a strong economy. So we have appreciated the great support, the cares act. We will operate. We will be facetoface. We will be hybrid. We will be online. We will be virtual. For our single moms, we will even be learned anywhere. They can decide week to week. , butow we have to change we appreciate the great support of this administration. And we will continue to work on behalf of ensuring this economy has the workforce and success that it needs going forward. Pres. Trump thank you very much. Thank you, mr. President. Im a chancellor of the university of alabama system. H, and the academic medical center. It is an honor to be here. Started andndemic we had to send all of our students home, many of us were afraid that this would be the disruption of Higher Education for all time. They would learn that they could learn as well on the computer at home as they could at their campus. We are not worried about that anymore. Our students are yearning to come back to campus. They want to be there. It is reaffirmed, the value of oncampus instruction. Last month, our board of trustees committed to returning this fall all three of our campuses to in person instruction. Realizing that we could not eliminate all risk, but we can reduce and manage risk in a way that allows us to go forward. Early on, we looked to the medical experts, the researchers and scientists and doctors to try to come up with a plan to make our campus as safe as possible and weve got a four part program that allows us to do that. First is to try to have all of our student tested before they return to campus. Those who need isolation can do that at home and we can begin the school year. Our people on all three of our campuses have developed a symptom tracking app that is used on the phone. It takes 20 seconds to sign up for and 10 seconds every few days to track symptoms. Traceo have a program to contacts that will allow us to manage student outbreaks during the year. Does is not only allow us to reopen our schools but to keep them open, which is going to be the hardest part. I want to thank you and the Vice President for the assistance we have received. Without those, it would have been difficult to continue, to make it through these difficult times, to allow us to have testing in place for our students this fall. We promise to do our best to provide this essential service and we greatly appreciate the assistance that you have given us. Pres. Trump thank you very much. Theres nothing like the campus. If weve learned anything, the computer will never replace the campus. They thought it would for a while, but it didnt. After about two weeks we figured out it is much better to have it the oldfashioned way. Great statement. President. U, mr. Teacher atd grade blessed Sacrament Catholic School here in washington. President ,mr. Vice you mentioned some heroes. Certainly i agree with you. I couldnt have done this for the past three months without the community of parents that we have. Heroes the teachers are in their own way. I believe the real heroes here are the students. The students that rose to the occasion. One of my students is here today. That is why im here. Incredible and all ofand spirit the gifts that god has given them. I believe the children are our future. That they are what is truly going to make America Great again. I want them to be back in school in the fall. Pres. Trump we agree. Thank you. President ,p, mr. First lady, Vice President , first i just would like you to know that i pray for you daily. Burden onmagine the your shoulders. I know that it is only through god that you can handle that. Pres. Trump it is not easy. [laughter] i so appreciate all that youve done. I am the president of our school board and the great state of ohio and we are very actively working to get our children back in school fulltime as safe as possible. We have a lot of resources and we are able to do that. My biggest concern, and i hope through your leadership we will not have overregulation at the local level, that would keep us from being able to accomplish that goal. My biggest fear is that we will get everybody back, get into a routine, and because of regulations and mandates, have to close back down. Concern. Very big that is probably my biggest concern. Im also happy to hear that university of alabama has made the statement to go back to school. I have College Athletes and we have been waiting to know what is happening at that Higher Education level. They are going into their senior years and internships were canceled and it is a scary time. That is a scary time anyway. Hope that our Higher Education institutes will make some decisions soon. Really im just honored to be here. Help, pleasen dont ever hesitate. Pres. Trump and will alabama be playing some great football . Notr. President , that is the first time weve heard that question. Thise planning to play season at the university of alabama, but understand that that creates great difficulties and complexities and we are hoping for that. We are doing our best on that one. Pres. Trump say hello to the coach. Great coach. President , i dont know about alabama, but the university of miami is going to be playing. Yes, it is a hurricane in the building. Im Johnny Taylor and i am your appointee. I want to start by saying thank you. I remember being right across the hallway when you appointed me to be your advisor, chairman of the president s board of advisors on historically black colleges and universities. There were people who questioned whether anything would come of that and if you were really committed. I remember meeting with the Vice President and you met with almost 70 of our historically black colleges and university president. I remember meeting with secretary devos early on. There was all this commitment to hbcus and the naysayers didnt think you would make good on it and you did. So let me start by thanking you for remaining committed to the countrys historically black colleges and universities and allowing me to be the chairman of the board that advises you collectively. Great by us so far. Since 2017, our budgets have increased not just financially, but the true support of our institutions. This is yet another example of your advocacy, your support of historically black colleges and universities, that is giving us the space to return safely to campus. We need to bring our students back. Frankly, without these institutions, many of our communities will suffer in ways that people cant quite put their arms around. Education, while it is wonderful, it is not as good as in person education. Themur students, many of who come from fragile communities, and many of them didnt get high quality secondary education, they need their teachers. They need to come to office hours. They need the assistance. We need to encourage these colleges to open so their students can get the best education and truly experience the american dream. Secondly, hbcus are economic drivers. In many communities they are the largest employer. Down,chools are shut theres not much opportunity going on. We need these schools to be open so that we can get the surrounding Community Back to work. A lot of those businesses are struggling if we shut these campuses down. It is also just smart business. Isally, the entire country engaged in a discussion around racial tension and the need for diversity and Corporate America wants us to do something about it. Role playing an outsized in helping solve that problem. Historically weve created disproportionately black leaders, teachers, doctors, judges, etc. They are punching above their weight. If we are going to commit longterm to addressing the racial inequities and issues of discrimination in our country, hbcus have to be part of that. You do that by getting these kids and faculty members and administrators back to work. Hbcus, as anthe american, as a father, thank you for the commitment to get our schools back and our children back safely. Thank you. Pres. Trump thank you. You are doing a great job. I dont think people know how much we have done for historically black colleges and universities. Weve done more than any administration in history and nobody knows that but maybe they will find out eventually and they will find out thank you very much. Please. Brad willer from shippensburg, pennsylvania. Thank you for being here and doing all this. Pants, and ir. Really want to thank karen pence for stealing all of my information i had written down this morning and then she did it again after i wrote the new stuff down. Appreciate it. Im going to keep this short and sweet. We are ready to go back. Students, i have three kids at home, they want to go back. It is time. Just like your economy, which is the greatest economy. I appreciate that. You have to slow it down. The momentum was gone. Did the same thing to our students. They were rolling. They were a well oiled machine. Sudden, you had to throw it in park. If we have to change gears a little bit, that is one thing we can do. To throw it in park again, i do not like that option. Pres. Trump thank you. Youre right. Thank you very much. I am the president s domestic policy chief. When i sit and listen to everyone, i am struck. I do not know that the world understands. I think it is so important. We have a president who was arguably one of the most successful businessman in the history of our country, the first lady who had spent her time and talent and extraordinary skill focusing on the wellbeing of children, we have a Vice President who is one of the most successful governors and a first lady who is focused on being a teacher. This is the dream team. I do not know there will ever be another Leadership Team to greater heights. Students,75 million their lives and their families lives were upended. Just a couple months later, here we are in the east room of the white house with some of the countrys greatest educators, leaders. Hbcus leaders coming together to figure out how to get the schools reopened, how to do it in safeway and how to do it children first. The doctors here from the American Pediatric Society association. An analysis of 45 studies showed the preponderance of evidence indicates that children are less likely to be symptomatic, have the severe disease or be susceptible and transmit covid19. For the week ending june 27, schoolage children accounted for 1. 3 of covid19 related hospitalizations. The evidence a showing it is time for these kids to get back to school. It is about the Mental Health, the wellbeing and the Emotional Wellbeing of these kids but also focusing on is this president has done the forgotten americans, the vulnerable americans who are most susceptible to the ravages that happens when we do not get lives back to normal. A fifth grader, seventh grader, eighth grader and 10th grader, there is no doubt in my mind we would love for our kids to get back to school. It is about so much more than that. It is about the wellbeing and safety and Economic Prosperity of this country. Having this dream team and secretary devos and as are, this country needs to know we are fighting every day for every american and to ensure we can reopen safely and to ensure it is done in the proper way. Pres. Trump thank you very much. Mr. President , mr. Vice president , it is an honor to be here represent in Forsyth County schools in forsyth, georgia. We serve 52,000 students. We are ready to go. We are going to open our doors august 6. We have been planning and preparing all summer. We will have guidelines in place. I am proud of our teachers and students, how well they performed last spring. Said, oure has students need to be back in school. We will be prepared august 6. Pres. Trump that is great. Thank. Thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , thank you for your bold leadership and convening us here today for this vital conversation. It is clear our nations schools must fully reopen and operate this school year. Anything short of that robs students, not to mention taxpayers, of their futures. Their futures represent our nations future. It is just a question of how. We had a good discussion today on how to ensure schools reopened and education continues in ways that keep students and teachers healthy and safe. Under the president s strong leadership, our economy is growing back. Our schools must do the same. This is the moment for american educators to meet the needs of every student. Students cannot afford to fall further behind. Even before the virus, too many were trapped in schools that do not meet their needs. This is the time to reopen schools, to rethink schools, to be more nimble, more responsive in 21stnts needs century world. We have done whatever it takes before. As kelly and said earlier and as you have often said, we dug out the panama canal. We have won world wars. Thanks to you, we defeated isis. With great, termination and grace, we can do what is with grit, termination and grace, we can ensure they are back in school. Pres. Trump very nice. Good afternoon. President , Vice President pence. It is an honor to be here. My name is nicole washington. I am a trustee at the Florida Agricultural and mechanical university as well as Miamidade College in florida. Our schools did not close. In many ways, the pandemic accelerated a trajectory we were already on to use technology to expand services and programs. It has not been easy. I had the pleasure of teaching a class this summer. I applaud all of the faculty and staff who have had to pivot on a dime and provide these services to students. Going to invite all our students back in the fall. The board made the decision based on a survey that found only one third of our students would likely stay if we chose to remain remote online for the fall. Y students would choose either better Online Options students would choose either better Online Options are more costeffective measures. We do we are going to reopen. We do want to reopen. There are concerns either way. If we remain virtual, we have enrollment concerns. Student engagement concerns as well as budgetary concerns. If we open, we have to be cognizant and vigilant about health and safety, liability, as well as the cost associated with reopening. We are thankful for the cares tracing,esting, sanitation. That will be a reoccurring cost going forward. What i would like to close on is the pandemic dispels a myth that Higher Education can change on a dime. Our institutions are printing ppe. We expanded services online. Our students are creating apps. I hope we encourage those innovations to continue after we returned to the new normal and provide High Quality Services to accommodate our students and their schedules. Pres. Trump thank you very much. Please. You, mr. President , first lady, mr. Vice president and misses pence for the honor of being here today. I am the student trustee at middle tennessee university. I was homeschooled all my life by choice, not because of the pandemic. I understand what people have been going through. Thes an honor to receive buchanan scholarship, which is the highest i can excel or given to incoming freshmen. I was heavily involved on campus. I know the extreme importance that the campus environment has on student success. My fellow students across the nation have lost a lot this year. It is important to all of us to safely return to campus this fall. My university has done an exceptional job of updating the students, of reassuring them they are tirelessly working for ourselves our safe return to campus and i am honored to be included in this discussion and i am excited to take back what i learned to my fellow student body. Pres. Trump thank you very much. Afternoon, fries president , first lady. She is an mtsu student. I am the president of middle Tennessee State university. We attract the best and the brightest. Not only in the state of tennessee but from around the United States. Like all the participants here, i am honored to be a part of this important conversation regarding the reopening of schools, colleges and universities. For the past 20 years, i have served as president of this great institution. We have we are 37 miles southeast of nashville. Our university was established in 1911. We are right now one of the largest undergraduate universities in the state of tennessee. We have grown tremendously over the years. Be one of theo Princeton Review 2020 300 plus best universities in the United States of america. We are doing some incredible things. We have 22,000 students, a very diverse student body. 38 of our freshman class is first generation. We are proud of that. 40 are low income. Is one of theore highest in the state of tennessee. We are a major comprehensive university. Each year, for the state of tennessee, we produce more degrees than any university. 5000 degrees each year. Highlights of our decision to reopen. We stepped out. We were the First University in the state of tennessee to announce we are going to reopen for the fall. In person classes. In reality, mr. President , we never closed because of the nature of our student population. Many of our students had nowhere to go in march when a lot of schools closed down. Halls ur residents our Residence Halls open. We provided the same service, obviously taking into consideration the virus. We feel we have the experience of actually operating a university in pandemic. We regard the health and safety of our students and employees as a priority. It was interesting. As we were making this decision, we have a very active parents facebook page. Sometimes too active. We have a very active student body facebook page. We surveyed our parents and our students. We asked of them their feelings about returning. The vast majority of both our parents and students from that survey indicated to us that they would want our university to be opened. Team made these decisions, including the doctor of our health center. We decided we were going to put together a plan that would make our parents and our students confident. We cannot guarantee anything with regard to the virus. We thought we would communicate with them and put a mitigation plan together. I have two of my colleagues here from the state of tennessee. My university had a meeting was it last week . She brought her stuff down. We put together a strong mitigation plan that deals with testing, Contact Tracing and isolation and quarantine if needed for our students. I want to give a brief overview of how the care is money helped our the cares money helped our university. From inok at pivoting remote, wenline and always had a Strong Technology operation. We needed to build a stronger one that would provide the quality education. Million, 3. 4 of the 6. 9 came from the cares act. Tos investment allowed us purchase the newest Instructional Technology to facilitate teaching and learning at the university. What does this mean . Regardless of where a student is, each every single class at our university is going to be captured electronically. It is going to be archived. Students will be able to access those lectures at any time, anywhere. That means if a student gets sick or they have 210 to a sick parent and they cannot they have to attend to a sick parent and they cannot make it to a class, they are not going to be disadvantaged as a result of this technology. That it is inieve the best interest of our students to open up, to provide top quality education. We feel that for our students, our university provided 459 free laptops for our students. Hotspots free. Laptops, 235101 internet hotspots. I close with this. We must understand the demographics. We must understand our community. Indeed, we must understand some of the challenges that we are going to face in Higher Education. Because of the demographics of our student population, we have worked very hard to address the issue of the desperate and disappropriate amount of minorities and low income who have been affected by the virus. We have partnered with one of the sororities. They have put together an incredible package of information that will be given out to our students. Thank you so much for having us. To thisforward conversation. I learned quite a bit today. Pres. Trump thank you very much. Great job. I went to thank everybody. I want to thank everybody. We want the schools open. It is going to be a much Better Climate than it is right now. We are on the right side of things. I think we can say that. We understand what we are doing very well. Mortality rate, the lowest anywhere in the world. We want to get our country going again. Economically, we are doing well. We want to do well with the education. I see harvard announced they are closing for the season or for the year. I think it is an easy way out. I think they ought to be ashamed of themselves. I noticed that today. Probably others are doing that. That is called the easy way out. I do not know if people are helping them. I guess their endowment is plenty big. That is not what we want to do. It is important so many of the parents and instructors said the children at this age especially that they are together on campus. That is what we are striving for. We will be strong on that. We are going to be powerful on that view. We want our schools open in the fall. Tomorrow, i am meeting with the president of mexico. I say that to the media because it is going to be quite a meeting. He is a friend of mine. We have a great relationship with mexico. Thank you all very much. Thank you very much. Congratulations, everybody. Mr. President , you have a message . [indiscernible americas future is in our hands, and ladies and gentlemen, the best is yet to come. A rallydent is hosting in portsmouth, new hampshire. Watch our live coverage saturday at 8 00 eastern on cspan, on demand at cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. This is a crisis. People are losing their lives. With Police Reform taking center stage in congress, watch our live coverage of the latest developments. Plus the governments response to the coronavirus pandemic. From were going down 30,000 to 25,000 to 20,000, and then we stayed flat, and now we are going up. And briefings from the white house on Foreign Affairs i do think there is a line one should not cross where governmental power is used extensively for personal benefits. We will stand proud and we will stand tall. The latest from the campaign 2020 trail. Join in the conversation every day on our live callin Program Washington journal. And if you miss any of our live coverage, watch anytime on demand on cspan. Org or listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. , a look at russia under the leadership of president vladimir putin. The Atlantic Council discusses Foreign Policy agenda, new opinion polls on his popularity, and the recent approval of a referendum that would allow him to remain in power until 2036. This is just under one hour. Afternoon on the east coast, good on the west coast, and good evening to those of you joining us in europe and russia and across eurasia. I am damon wilson the executive Vice President at the council and we are delighted to have all