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Public School Enrollment Falls; Economic Recovery Stalls; Election Officials Face Death Threats. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired December 04, 2020 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:33:43]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, school districts around the country are already facing budget cuts due to the pandemic and they're now concerned about a nationwide drop in enrollment. This could be devastating for public schools that rely heavily on state and federal aid, which uses enrollment numbers to allocate future funding.

CNN's Bianna Golodryga has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST (voice over): Ryan and Elizabeth Newhart are grateful that as of three weeks ago, their two youngest children are able to attend school in person five days a week.

ELIZABETH NEWHART, MOTHER: You absolutely take school for granted until your children are home and you're responsible for schooling them yourselves.

GOLODRYGA: Eight-year-old Ronan and six-year-old Ila (ph) began the semester virtually at a public elementary school in Oak Park, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. Right away, there were signs of trouble.

E. NEWHART: They were, you know, having tantrums toward their teachers, which would never have happened in person. And really just, you know, losing control.

GOLODRYGA: Balancing Zoom classes and their jobs, Ryan works in marketing, Elizabeth in HR, was becoming equally untenable for the middle class couple.

RYAN NEWHART, FATHER: At times both of us may be on conference calls, you know, and not having our full attention with the kids and not being professionally trained teachers, either.

[09:35:03]

GOLODRYGA: So after making some tough cuts to the family budget, they took Ronan and Ila out of public school and enrolled them at St. Giles, a nearby catholic school. Virtual learning is less of a challenge for 15-year-old Liam, who remains in public school.

E. NEWHART: We had to do a lot of number crunching, but we felt like it was something that we had to do.

GOLODRYGA: They're not alone. An increasing number of parents are looking for alternatives to virtual learning, leading to an alarming drop in public school enrollment nationwide.

DENNIS E. GOODWIN, SUPERINTENDENT, MURPHY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT: Right now people are in survival mode in my personal perspective.

GOLODRYGA: Dennis Goodwin, superintendent of the Murphy Elementary School District in Phoenix, understands why parents are making the move.

GOODWIN: Going to a charter or another school that is open to them, I completely respect and understand that and the situations they're in.

GOLODRYGA: But that doesn't make his job any easier, having just taken his district, one of Arizona's poorest, out of bankruptcy, he now faces another crisis, an 8 percent drop in enrollment this year.

GOODWIN: Some went to charters. We know some just have moved out of the area. We can't find them. And we're not alone in that.

GOLODRYGA: Fall enrollment in Chicago's Public Schools is at a 20-year low. Massachusetts has seen a nearly 4 percent drop. Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia shows enrollment this school year is down nearly 5 percent. Miami, Los Angeles, Charlotte and New York all reporting declines. Revenue is based on student enrollment. Fewer students means fewer resources allocated to school districts.

GOODWIN: You still have to provide all the same services that you've had before, but just having less dollars to be able to accomplish that.

GOLODRYGA (on camera): What are the longer-term consequences of students and teachers not being able to get the resources they need because of budget cuts?

GOODWIN: Well, the kids fall behind.

GOLODRYGA (voice over): Fewer students in public schools also contributes to a growing socioeconomic divide. Millions of families depend on schools for child care and meals, in addition to education.

GOODWIN: It just makes things a lot more difficult when you lose students.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: That was Bianna Golodryga reporting. Really devastating phenomenon out of all of this.

Well, job growth is growing -- slowing, rather. Will that get Congress to start -- really start negotiating? Where the stimulus deal stands. We'll have an update.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:41:44]

SCIUTTO: Well, the job numbers out this morning fell well short of expectations in the final employment report of the year. And 245,000 jobs added in November. It's about half of what economists had been forecasting. And things could get worse as millions of Americans face a benefit cliff, as it's being called, in weeks if there is not a stimulus deal. Notably that would happen a day after Christmas.

Joining me now, CNN economics commentator Kevin Hassett. He is a former senior economic adviser to President Trump.

Kevin, good to have you on this morning.

KEVIN HASSETT, CNN ECONOMICS COMMENTATOR: Yes, it's great to be here, Jim. Thanks.

SCIUTTO: So this job report today was disappointing. Why do you think this shortfall?

HASSETT: Right. Well, I think, you know, you highlighted a really important thing, which is that there is going to be a cliff for the extra unemployment insurance benefits that's going to kick in at the end of the month and it's absolutely essential that Republicans and Democrats get together and at least pass a stimulus bill that gets us into next year so that President-elect Biden and the new team potentially in March could then extend it for the rest of the year.

But right now we need another stimulus. And the reason is not that the data that we're seeing are so bad. So the jobs report was super disappointing, you're right, but it was still a positive number. But the thing is that what's happening is that the cases have skyrocketed so much. We were above 200,000 a day and there's a vaccine coming, so it's very prudent for people to be even more cautious because a month or two from now maybe they get a vaccine.

So we all expect that starting really, you know, in December, late December, going into January and February that we're going to have a slowdown that's not as big as what we saw in the second quarter when we had the biggest decline since World War II, but it's going to be comparable. So the first quarter's very unlikely not to look like a big recession again. And so it's very important to have a stimulus.

And so I think that this sort of creeping down in the jobs number that you saw here, it's the first glimpse of something you said could but I'm going to say would. It's a -- like it's almost sure -- surely it's going to be the case that if we don't pass a stimulus, that January numbers are going to be huge and negative.

SCIUTTO: OK. There's a lot of experts who looked at the past stimulus packages and said the money that really worked was the money you immediately got into people's pockets, right, whether they be direct stimulus checks or unemployment benefits. This current compromise bill puts $300 on top of state unemployment benefits, so half of what it was before.

HASSETT: Right.

SCIUTTO: Is that where you believe the money should be focused?

HASSETT: Yes, I like -- so what I would do is I would extend the PPP program, which is loans to small businesses, which are easy to forgive if they just keep their workers around and stay open, even if they have to shut down a lot in January as they wait for a vaccine, and expanded UI benefits. Those two things have been, you know, tried and proven. They've gotten bipartisan support in the past. And I can think of, you know, great ideas to add to the stimulus bill other than that.

But it's too late for that. It's the lame duck session. We need to look at things that we've already agreed to in the past and just extend them through March or so and then the next Congress can come together in March and think about what next.

But I do think that the light is, you know, really quite visible at the end of the tunnel. We've got vaccines that are very close to approval. That, we've got, you know, airlines getting ready to move them all around, so as soon as they're approved, within a day or two people are going to start getting vaccinated. And then once that gets going, I expect maybe 50, 100 million people a month next year are going to get vaccinated so that by the late spring we really should see finally a chance to get back to normal.

[09:45:09]

You know, I miss being in the studio with you, Jim. I do.

SCIUTTO: I hear you. Well, we all miss face-to-face.

HASSETT: (INAUDIBLE). Yes.

SCIUTTO: Where is the president in all this? You say you need to have compromise between Democrats and Republicans on stimulus. The president's tweeting about, you know, false claims of election fraud. Should he be involved in pushing for a deal?

HASSETT: You know, focusing on the stimulus that, as you remember, I left the White House and thought I was done with it, but I went back for a few months to help on the economic response to the pandemic. And I thought that -- in fact, I even said on your show while I was still at the White House that I was almost sure that we were going to have a stimulus bill last July or so.

And then I think everything fell apart because that's politics, you know, and, you know, maybe Democrats thought that they shouldn't let Trump have a victory before the election and they put a lot of what I would call poison pills in the bill at the end.

But the fact is now politics is kind of mostly behind us. That there's -- you know, that there's an economy that needs our help and I think that there's bipartisan agreement on The Hill that they can find things that they agree about, like the UI benefit of $300 and the PPP. SCIUTTO: Yes.

HASSETT: And so I really expect this time -- you know, maybe it's Lucy and the football, but I expect this time they're going to do it and they're going to do it soon.

And, you know, the president is for sure, you know, still out there contesting. But the fact is that, you know, he loves the country, too, and he wants the economy to be strong. And if the bill comes to the White House, you know, there's every expectation that he'll sign it.

SCIUTTO: Yes or no, is it time for the president to concede this election?

HASSETT: Oh, that's not -- that's my job. I'm an economist. So I'm not going to wade into all that stuff. But, yes, you know, bring in political scientists to look -- you know, who weigh all the evidence and talk about that. But, you know, talking about the economy, it's time for --

SCIUTTO: Weighing the evidence?

HASSETT: It's time for him to sign a stimulus bill.

SCIUTTO: All right. Time for the president to sign a stimulus bill.

Kevin Hassett, thanks very much.

HASSETT: Yes. Thanks. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: In Georgia, election officials, including the secretary of state, have faced death threats in the wake of the president's baseless election fraud claims and attacks. How will the president be received when he goes to Georgia this weekend?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:51:40]

SCIUTTO: President Trump has raised more than $207 million since he lost the election, primarily by pushing baseless election fraud claims to his supporters. There is a real and dangerous cost to this to the people he is targeting with those lies.

This weekend, the president will head to Georgia, whose Republican governor and secretary of state he has attacked for weeks now. Trump has called Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger an enemy of the people, accused him of taking part in an election fraud. Since then, Raffensperger and his wife have received death threats. And they are not alone. A top election official in the state, a Republican, pleaded for the rhetoric to stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GABRIEL STERLING (R), GEORGIA VOTING SYSTEMS MANAGER: Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone's going to get hurt. Someone's going to get shot. Someone's going to get killed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: That official, Gabriel Sterling, now has police protections around his homes due to threats he has received as well.

A young election worker in Georgia, accused of treason, found a noose left outside his house. And members of his family, election officials say, have received death threats as well.

Both Republican Georgia senators up for re-election and the Trump campaign have now condemned the threats. The White House press secretary, too, condemned them. But so far there has been silence from the president himself.

And this just isn't happening in Georgia. A PBS "Frontline" investigation reports that election officials and poll workers in as many as five states have faced threats. Michigan's attorney general is investigating threats made against members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers.

Arizona's Democratic Secretary of State Katy Hobbs issued a statement saying she will continue to do her job despite ongoing and escalating threats to her and her family. Al Schmidt, Republican city commissioner of Philadelphia, told "60 Minutes" his office has also received death threats.

This is happening across the country to Democrats and to Republicans, to Americans simply doing their jobs. This is not normal. It's not acceptable. So as the president gets set to hold his first post- election rally in Georgia, understandably, many are on edge.

Our Ryan Young is covering it all.

Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, just a lot of questions right now about what the next 48 hours will bring to the state of Georgia. Look, in the last two weeks we have actually seen large protests outside the state capitol, people who are basically saying they plan not to even vote for the Republicans because they feel like the election is already rigged. So they do believe with Donald Trump coming to town could sway a lot of people back into this election process.

You're talking about two seats that are open for control of the Senate. So all eyes are on the state of Georgia. And over $300 million has already been spent with this election in terms of advertising. When you turn the TV on here, you're plastered with these ads that are attacking each other back and forth.

But then you have Mike Pence also coming here today, Friday. He will be here in Savannah for a large defend the Senate rally. And then, of course, Donald Trump will be here tomorrow.

But the big question is whether or not he'll stay on message. We've seen really big name Republicans who are reaching out to the president hoping that he will stay on message when it comes to making sure this Senate race goes the way a lot of Republicans want to see.

[09:55:01]

It was a surprise for some folks to see the state of Georgia go from red to blue. And, of course, Stacey Abrams and Barack Obama will be holding their virtual events today as well to make sure that Georgia voters, Democrats, are still in the fight here.

But, of course, all eyes will be tomorrow on Donald Trump as he tries to come back for his first political rally despite all this rancor.

And one last thing here, Jim, to show you how sort of crazy this has gotten. There's a video that's circulating the Internet right now that shows something in Fulton County with the computer and the state has basically said there's no voting irregularities. But, still, this miss messaging is spreading all over the Internet, causing so many questions right now in a state that typically voted red.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, that (INAUDIBLE) the president sharing have already been debunked yet he continues to share them.

Ryan Young, thanks very much.

With coronavirus records being set every day, the president-elect has a plan to slow the spread. We'll give you details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:09]

SCIUTTO: Very good Friday