President Joe Biden said he believed a majority of kindergarteners through eighth graders would be back in school five days a week by the tail end of his first 100 days in office.
Biden said at a CNN town hall Tuesday night that reports about the aim being for students to be in school just once a week was 'a mistake in the communication.'
'But what I'm talking about is, I said opening the majority of schools in K through eighth grade, because they're the easiest to open and the most needed to be opened in terms of the impact on children and families having to stay home,' Biden explained.
President Joe Biden said his administration's goal is to get K through eighth graders back in school five days a week by the end of his first 100 days in office
President Joe Biden (left) interacted with the second grade daughter of Jessica Salas, explaining that she was part of 'the safest group of people in the whole world,' in terms of coronavirus mortality rates
He said he believed 'it will be close to that at the end of the first 100 days' to get half the country's younger kids back in school.
And he said the goal was give days a week.
Biden also said he thought schools might opt to push classes into the summer.
'Like it's a different semester,' he explained.
Biden's comments come after White House press secretary Jen Psaki seemed to dramatically scale back the administration's goal of half the schools reopened by the end of the president's first 100 days, when she suggested open meant only one day a week.
'His goal that he set is to have the majority of schools — so, more than 50% — open by day 100 of his presidency,' Psaki said last week. 'And that means some teaching in classrooms. So, at least one day a week. Hopefully, it’s more.'
Her comment attracted criticism because the bar was so low.
'The administration doesn’t have to exert much effort to meet this goal,' Jonathan Butcher, an education fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told the Associated Press.
When CNN's Anderson Cooper mentioned the one-day-a-week caveat, Biden pushed back.
'No, that's not true,' Biden said, explaining that the actual administration goal was getting kids in classrooms closer to full-time.
Biden also interacted with a second grader at the town hall, telling her not to be scared and explaining that as a child 'you're the safest group of people in the whole world' in terms of mortality from the coronavirus.
The president guessed how hold the youngster was, saying first grade, before settling on the correct answer of second.
'Oh, you're getting old,' Biden joked.
He made the point to the youngster that it's also not good for kids to be out of school.
'That's kind of a scary thing too,' the president said. 'You don't get to go to school, you don't get to see your friends.'
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