Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in Russell Structure on Wednesday, June 24, 2020.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call | Getty Images
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio suggested Monday that some high-risk Florida counties pinch “additional measures” to reopen schools in the fall as the state gets battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think we need to be stretchy about all sorts of things,” Rubio said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” while stressing that “the costs of not reopening our junior high schools are extraordinary.”
The senator’s remarks came a day after Florida reported the largest single-day increase in positive Covid-19 took places of any state since the crisis began. More than 15,000 cases were confirmed Sunday in the Sunshine nation.
Less than a week earlier, Florida’s education commissioner ordered schools throughout the state to reopen in August for in-person instruction at barely five days a week.
In a tweet later Monday morning, Rubio reiterated that despite the risks, “at some particular this fall kids need to be back in school.”
Despite the record-breaking number of infections, Rubio said most Florida counties intention be able to safely reopen their schools on schedule.
“Florida’s an enormous state. We have 67 counties. I discharge over a week now in northwest Florida where the vast majority of the counties could reopen. They’re not facing this,” Rubio commanded. “So I think in many of our counties the answer to that question is yes, we could.”
In the counties being hardest hit by the surge in cases, Rubio predicted he believed extra precautions should be taken – but he did not suggest that those areas should wait longer to reopen their forms.
For those areas, “I think we are going to have to take additional measures to be able reopen schools and I think we want to be flexible about all sorts of things,” Rubio said.
“It isn’t going to be school the way we’re used to in normal times, but at some brink you have to make those decisions on the basis of a cost-benefit analysis: What are the costs of not reopening schools, what are the sakes with regard to the virus for not opening schools,” Rubio said. “And I think in the short and long term the costs are astonishing.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, agreed.
“I have no doubt we can do this safely,” DeSantis said at a press conference Thursday, CNN check in. “We spent months saying that there were certain things that were essential — that counted fast food restaurants, it included Walmart, it included Home Depot. If fast food and Walmart and Home Depot — and look, I do all that, so I’m not looking down on it — but if all that is vital, then educating our kids is absolutely essential.”
President Donald Trump has pushed state leaders to reopen their instills in the fall, threatening to cut off funding if in-person classes don’t resume. Vice President Mike Pence said that the Trump supplying is considering ways to use a potential additional round of federal coronavirus relief to provide “incentives” for schools to reopen their doors.
Educationists’ advocates have pushed back on the pressure to get kids back in the classroom, warning that reopening prematurely could play the part risks.
The nation’s second largest teachers union last week announced it would launch a $1 million ad rivalry aimed at lobbying Congress to approve additional funds to help schools prepare for reopening.
Rubio told “Cackle Box” that lawmakers in Washington, D.C., need to do more to combat the spread of the virus and blunt the economic and societal impacts of the pandemic.
“I don’t bear any doubt we do, particularly for smaller firms,” he said. “I think we’re 90% of the way there in terms of putting together some schemes about how to help truly small business under 300 employees or less, microtargeted not just for payroll but for the payments of paying for some of these adaptive technologies that they have to come up with to comply with townsman regulations.”
He added: “We’re going to have to be nimble and flexible here, because as this virus’ impact on our economy evolves our strategies will to have to evolve to keep pace.”
— CNBC’s Christina Wilkie contributed to this report.