Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says it is important for young students to return to school for in-person learning, despite the pandemic.
Gates made his comments on Tuesday during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“I’m a big believer that for young children, the benefits in almost every location — particularly if you can protect the teachers well — the benefits outweigh the costs,” the billionaire philanthropist said.
“As you get up to age, 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.”
President Donald Trump had called for a full reopening of schools across the U.S. But last week, the president acknowledged that some schools may need to delay their reopening because of the surge of COVID-19 cases.
Trump said districts in some virus hotspots “may need to delay reopening for a few weeks."
Meanwhile, Gates said his charitable foundation is changing its educational efforts in a move designed to help minority and low-income students.
“Our foundation has revamped our education work to really jump in and help ... get those online capabilities up,” he said. “Make sure that minority students and low-income students aren’t suffering the most throughout all of this.”
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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