One day a week? Psaki pressed for lowering bar for Biden reopening of classrooms

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki faced questions on Wednesday after she said during a briefing on Tuesday that President Biden's objective is to have more than half of all schools open by his 100th day in office, which Psaki said would entail having a minimum of one day of in-person learning each week. 

"His goal that he set is to have the majority of schools, so more than 50%, open by day 100 of his presidency. And that means some teaching in classrooms. So at least one day a week, hopefully it's more. And obviously it is as much as is safe in each school and local district," Psaki said during the Tuesday press briefing at the White House. 

A reporter on Wednesday questioned Psaki about why the Biden administration's goal is just one day per week rather than a higher target.

"Well, certainly we are not planning to celebrate at a hundred days if we reach that goal," Psaki said, explaining that it is an attempt to lay out an "ambitious agenda for how we're going to measure ourselves and progress. But we certainly hope to build from that even at a hundred days. And from there our objective, the president's objectives is for all schools to reopen, to stay open, to be open five days a week, for kids to be learning. That's what our focus is on. This is simply a goal for a hundred days."

The reporter pressed Psaki on the matter further, saying that "a lot of schools are already doing that and for working parents one day a week doesn't help a whole lot."

"That's again, the bar of where we'd like the majority of schools across the country to be, which they're not at this point in time," Psaki said, adding that the administration desires to "build from there." 

Another reporter asked Psaki why President Biden did not "mention the small print" that the goal only entailed one day of in-person learning each week.

Psaki responded that Biden "set a goal of reopening the majority of schools within a hundred days, and when you asked what that meant, I answered the question." She said that the objective does not represent "the ceiling" but "the bar we're trying to leap over and exceed."