The Vice President believes teachers should be prioritized along with other essential workers.

The reopening of schools has been a hotly debated issue since the beginning of the year. Teachers have protested returning to in-person classes on the grounds that it is still unsafe for both them and their students, while students in remote schooling have been reporting increased stress and dissatisfaction. On this hot-button issue, Vice President Kamala Harris has decided to chime in in her first network interview since the beginning of the term.

In an interview with NBC’s TODAY show, Harris said that “Teachers should be a priority,” adding that teachers “are critical to our children’s development, they should be able to teach in a safe place and expand the minds and the opportunities of our children. So teachers should be a priority along with other front-line workers.”

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control put out a guidance note claiming that teachers do not need to be vaccinated to make a return to in-person classes safe, putting more emphasis on preventative measures like masks, social distancing, and disinfecting.

Harris wouldn’t divulge her personal feelings on the CDC’s guidance, simply saying that it was a recommendation “about how to reopen safely if they’ve been closed, how to stay open if they’ve been opened.”

“The issue here is not just about statistics — it’s about our kids, it’s about their parents,” Harris said. “It’s about the fact that every day our kids are missing essential, critical days in their educational development.”

“Each day in the life of a child is a very long time,” she continued, “And that’s why we’ve got to collectively do everything in our power to reopen our schools as quickly as possible, as safely as possible.”