Nearly two-thirds of Americans fear it will be unsafe to send children back to school this year, according to a new poll for the Financial Times that showed deepening pessimism about the course of the coronavirus pandemic in the US.

Washington Post: “Before the pandemic, it was called ‘the homework gap,’ because of the growing number of teachers who assigned homework that required Internet access. Now, as the pandemic forces many schools to switch to remote learning, disconnected students will miss more than homework. They’ll miss all of school.”

New York Times: “By some estimates, at least half of the nation’s children will now spend a significant portion of the fall, or longer, learning in front of their laptops.”

“Rising infection rates were clearly the major driver of the move to continue remote learning. But Mr. Trump’s aggressive, often bellicose demands for reopening classrooms helped to harden the views of many educators that it would be unsafe — and give their powerful unions fodder to demand stronger safety measures or to resist efforts to physically reopen.”

“Indeed, as the president has pushed for schools to reopen, key constituencies — parents and educators — have largely moved in the other direction.”

New York Times: “In Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Indiana and elsewhere, some schools, mainly in suburban and rural areas, have been open for almost two weeks. Their experience reveals the perils of returning to classrooms in places where the coronavirus has hardly been tamed.”

“Students and teachers have immediately tested positive, sending others into two-week quarantines and creating whiplash for schools that were eager to open, only to consider closing again right away. All of this has only further divided communities where parents and teachers have passionately disagreed over the safety of reopening.”

A new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds 59% of Americans said they oppose fully reopening K-12 schools for the beginning of the academic year, up from 53% last month.

“In the six days that Cherokee County schools have been in session, the north Georgia district has had to direct 826 students to quarantine due to possible exposure to COVID-19, along with 42 teachers,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

The Georgia high school that became infamous for hallways crowded with unmasked students reported a half-dozen students and three staffers in the school with COVID-19, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Jerry Falwell Jr. will take an indefinite leave of absence from Liberty University after posting a racy photo to social media from his vacation where his pants were unzipped, his midriff was out, and he is standing next to a woman holding a glass of dark liquid, the Washington Post reports.

Axios: “The picture, which has since been deleted, drew backlash and charges of hypocrisy from conservative political figures because the university’s honor code strictly prohibits students from having ‘sexual relations outside of a biblically-ordained marriage,’ and recommends they dress with ‘appropriateness’ and ‘modesty.'”

New York Times: “Students from Liberty University expressed outrage about the photo on social media. Several pointed out that it was in direct violation of the school’s code of conduct.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said all New York schools can reopen because of the state’s low coronavirus infection rate, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Mr. Cuomo’s highly anticipated decision clears the way for New York City, the largest school district in the nation, to go forward with its plans to offer students a hybrid of optional in-person classes and remote-learning instruction in the fall.”

Said Cuomo: “We have the best infection situation in the country. If any state can do it, this state can do it.”

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. posted — and then apparently deleted — a bizarre Instagram post in which he appeared with his shirt hiked up and his pants unzipped, standing next to a woman identified as a “friend,” Relevant Magazine reports.

In the caption, Falwell wrote the drink he was holding was “just black water” and a “prop only.”

The largest school district in Georgia reported that 260 employees have tested positive for the coronavirus or are in quarantine because of possible exposure as they prepare for the new school year, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

“The second-largest teachers’ union in the United States announced on Tuesday that it would support its 1.7 million members if they choose to strike in districts and states that move to reopen classrooms without adequate health and safety measures,” the New York Times reports.

Said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten: “If authorities don’t protect the safety and health of those we represent and those we serve, as our executive council voted last week, nothing is off the table.”

“As a mother of four children, I do not trust this president with their lives.”

— Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D), quoted by The Hill, criticizing President Trump’s push for schools to reopen in the fall amid surging coronavirus cases.

“The school attended by President Trump’s son will not fully reopen in September out of concern over the coronavirus pandemic despite the president’s insistence that students across the country be brought back to classrooms in the fall,” the New York Times reports.

“St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, a private school in Washington’s Maryland suburbs, said in a letter to parents that it was still deciding whether to adopt a hybrid model for the fall that would allow limited in-person education or to resume holding all classes completely online as was done in the spring. The school will decide early next month which option to follow.”