Biden wants back to face-to-face classes, but they must make "investments," says White House secretary general

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(CNN) -

US President Joe Biden wants schools to reopen, but believes Congress must make the necessary investments to safely return to in-person learning, the House's secretary-general said Tuesday. Blanca, Ron Klain, following last minute canceled reopenings of several school districts.

A government study indicated that the return of children to face-to-face classes is possible with adequate precautions.

"I'll tell you a word: money," Klain told CNN's Erin Burnett when asked why he thought some public schools across the country were still closed in places where private schools are open.

"That's why the president of the United States sent a plan to Congress, even before he took office, to make the necessary investments to make schools safe."

Klain referenced a study published Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in which researchers analyzed data from 17 K-12 schools in rural Wood County, Wisconsin. who did the in-person learning last fall.

The study found lower rates of covid-19 cases than in the general community and few cases of transmission at school.

Cohorts of 11 to 20 students from the same grade level gathered for classes and lunch indoors, where students often sat next to the same person.

“Students in very small groups, classes of around 11 or 12, keeping physical distance, in a rural area, they can go to school safely and the governors made those investments,” Klain said, adding that “in other states, we have not seen that type of investment.

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Biden's plan to reopen face-to-face classes

"President Biden sent a plan to Congress that will ensure that most of our schools can be open within 100 days," he continued.

“We need Congress to pass that plan so that we can do the kinds of things that need to be done to make schools safe, so teachers can be safe, so students can be safe;

sadly, it costs money. '

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Klain also defended the Biden administration's ambitious goal of vaccinating one million people a day in his first 100 days in office, even after criticism from some observers who say the administration is not being ambitious enough.

“We've been here for seven days, we've increased capacity more than ever.

We are moving into states faster with more certainty and clarity, ”he said.

"But there are some limitations in this process, the president has been very honest, we are inheriting a system that was built with limited capacity."

He added: “We are asking drug manufacturers to tune in, they are the only ones who can expedite this.

So we are increasing this, as you said, increasing the capacity starting next week and the following week.

We expect capacity to increase further in March. "

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When pressed on Biden's comments Monday that he hopes the U.S. will soon be able to vaccinate 1.5 million people a day, raising the bar by roughly 500,000 more daily vaccinations - and if vaccines daily could be increased further, Klain pointed to vaccination efforts that had been made previously.

“Our goal is to reach a million, 100 days out of 100;

no country in the history of the world has done that, it has never happened before, so it is quite an ambitious goal, "he said.

“Obviously the president is pushing us to see if we can do better than that, we hope we can do better.

But if we hit those 100 million shots in the first 100 days, that will be something that no one has ever done before. "

Klain added: “No one is going to limit vaccines, we are going to put as many vaccines in as many arms as we can.

We believe that 100 million vaccines in 100 days is an ambitious goal.

If we can do better than that, of course we will.

- CNN's Lauren Mascarenhas and Zachary B. Wolf contributed to this report.