Hi, I'm Dan Premack and welcome to Axios Recap.

Today's Monday, July 13th.

New home sales are up.

Dr. Fauci's standing with the White House is down,

and we're focused on the battle over reopening schools.

So we're now just weeks away from the new school year starting in certain states, but are getting further and further away from a national consensus on if and how schools should reopen.

On one side is President Trump, getting more and more vocal about how schools must reopen for in-person classes, almost without exception. He's joined on that by U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos,

who appeared on the Sunday talk shows yesterday, but basically dodged questions about lots of the

practical issues being raised by people on the other side. And those people are teachers,

school staff, school administrators,

and others who are very worried about their safety and that of their students and the family members

of those students. A lot of this comes down to the science of kids as asymptomatic spreaders,

and unfortunately, the reports there are inconsistent and inconclusive. What we do know

for sure, though, is that Washington, D.C. didn't really begin digging into this issue until way

too late, seemingly assuming that the virus would just abate by the fall. Now, something all of us

want, namely kids to go to school and to do so safely, has become politicized.

Not only does that put a generation's education at risk, but it also exacerbates our economic

difficulties, as it's hard for many parents to go to work if their kids are stuck at home.

To go deeper, we are joined by Randy Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers

to get a better understanding of where we are and where we're going.

We're joined now by Randy Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers.

So, Randy, I assume you watch Betsy DeVos on the Sunday talk shows yesterday morning.

...