in person classes this week due to a rise in illnesses among staff and students. school officials said the drop off in attendance was due to a mixture of viruses including covid 19 and influenza. and france s education minister announced the country will ban schoolchildren from wearing the abaya, a loose fitting full length robe worn by some muslim women, in state run schools when classes begin this month. my colleague sumi somaskanda spoke this week with us education secretary miguel cardona to discuss the challenges facing students and teachers heading back to school. secretary, thank you very much forjoining us again on bbc news. i want to start with affirmative action, because the supreme court s ruling effectively ended race conscious admissions in colleges and universities. and if you look at the state of california, the uc system hasn t been able to meet its racial diversity goals despite having ended race based admissions more than two decades ago. so how do you make