‘KIDS NEED TO LEARN’
Bill Gates finally sides with Donald Trump and says schools SHOULD reopen because ‘the benefits outweigh the costs’
BILL Gates has said he believes children should return to schools this fall because the "benefits outweigh the costs".
The Microsoft founder's comments come as Donald Trump continues to call for schools to reopen as part of measures to revive the economy following the coronavirus lockdown.
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Schools in states across the US have been closed on the orders or recommendations of state governors since the state of May.
Children appear not to be as vulnerable to coronavirus as adult, but fears have been raised that reopening schools too early could allow the virus to spread and be transmitted to parents and grandparents.
Gates, whose foundation has worked in education as well as epidemic response around the world, was asked on whether he thought schools should reopen in the fall.
"I'm a big believer that, for young children, the benefits in almost every location, particularly if you can protect the teachers well, outweigh the costs," he said.
"As you get up to ages like 13 and higher, then you'll have to look at your locale to decide what you'll do with high schools.
"And if they're not in then you have to put massive effort into trying to get there to be continued learning online.
"Our foundation has revamped our education work to really jump in and help out.
"[To] get those online capabilities up, make sure that minority students and low-income students aren't suffering the most throughout all of this.
"But it's a very tough set of trade-offs that everyone's going through."
Recent weeks have seen the president adopt a number of more cautious measures than previously in the battle to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
He has begun publicly calling for people to wear masks and last week announced that this year's Republican convention, which had been scheduled to take place in Jacksonville, Florida on August 24- 17, will be canceled.
But he has so far maintained his support for reopening schools, saying the move is an important step towards allowing more parents to return to work and the economy to recover.
Speaking last week, he said: "We would like to see schools open.
"We want to see the economy open. I would like to see the schools open -- open 100 per cent.
"And we'll do it safely. We'll do it carefully."
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The Centers for Disease Control last week called for schools to reopen, saying in a statement that the risks were low while the "harms attributed to closed schools on the social, emotional, economic well-being, and academic achievement of children" were significant.
But Democratic lawmakers have since asked government officials for their correspondence with the agency amid accusations that the Trump administration sought to apply political pressure to influence the recommendations.
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