Today, as the country continues to debate how best to reopen schools amid the pandemic, we begin a special series about what happened in a school district that was among the first to try. It's going to be 50 degrees outside for Ghimire. It was freezing this morning. Was going to be on a crisp Friday last October.

Does anybody need deodorant? I have spray on deodorant. Oh, you're breathing hard. It's cucumber because I got tired of smelling like coconut. A notably normal scene was playing out in the old band hall of a high school in West Texas. John, how do you think the summer school had just let out for the day? And the members of the Odesa High Marching Band and me up were getting ready for their first game of the season? I need to suck it in.

Probably very good job. And they were giddy. Oh, you let my hair down. Oh, yeah.

You set me up as they pulled on their new bright red uniforms. Then filed out the door to board the bus waiting outside. This was about.

And as the bus made its seven mile journey across town to the stadium, oh, we've got to do our song that our tradition, they sang to me, it'll be over with the dogs barking in a wagon got sentimental about the passage of time.

Like just yesterday I came in as a freshman. I don't know how to play since all this was going on. I live and briefly, you know, it's crazy.

About a year ago, we probably would have never thought that would have been a pandemic. Discussed current events like maybe like when I was like middle age, you know, something would happen. But I don't really consider it like a big deal. I know. It's just kind of like it's like give up your whole life because of that. I mean, you got to keep conscious.

You know, you can't just sit there and going, oh, I'm listening in on these students. That discussion was kind of the only indication of the strangeness of this year in every other way.

The ride was remarkable for just how unremarkable it was that I know my mom will let me get it I to.

And because as other high school students across the country were logging off their computers for the evening, finishing up another day of remote learning from their beds or their kitchen tables, these students unconsciously were participating in something of an experiment on.

All the way back before the beginning of the school year, Texas was one of just four states to mandate that public schools must offer in-person learning.

Making possible moments like these reminders of what so many other students have had to sacrifice this year.

Right, the award winning high school girl, but it would only be a couple of weeks later in the aftermath of a moment of normalcy, just like this one, after a bus ride, just like this one that it would become clear that the story of Odesa high school this year, like the story of all school reopenings, is a story of tradeoffs. And I said, shut down both buses, quarantine all students, if it were up to the health department and it gets to that level, they're going to want to shut the entire band down and that this experiment was going to get a little more complicated.

As far as I could tell, we were prepared. We just didn't realize that we were not. From The New York Times, I'm Annie Brown, this is Odessa. Everybody operate a virtual school. Thirty eight years teaching does not work. This is unsafe. We should not be in those school buildings. The risk of spread in schools is low and the harm that we are doing to our children is high.

While more and more schools across the country are attempting to reopen their doors, Odessa High School has been open since August and for the past six months we've been reporting remotely through Google Hangouts and audio diaries, through phone calls and FaceTime tours documenting what happened as the experiment unfolded.

Today, in part one, the school year begins in Odessa.

You remember the first time you visited Odessa, the first time you saw it? Yeah, so I was coming in for a job interview to go meet with the board of trustees. And I remember flying into the airport and I rented a car and then drove to the city of Odessa. And the further I drove, the less interested I became.

Because I was looking to my left and looking to my right and it just didn't look like Houston or Atlanta or Charlotte or any place that I'd ever been. This is the superintendent of the school district in Odessa, Texas, his name is Scott Meeri, and before this job, he had worked in school districts in several big cities with large budgets and large metropolitan areas. Odessa, Texas, was not that so a colleague of mine made a statement, oh, you're moving to the land of no trees.

And I was like, I mean, there's no trees. And oh, yeah, there are no trees out there enough there. Not a lot of trees in this area. It is flat.

Did you see like oil rigs and things everywhere, oil rigs everywhere.

You know, this town is embedded in an oil field.

Odessa sits on the most productive oil field, not just in Texas or the United States, but in the world.

Production had been booming for several years when Scott visited and still over half of the kids in the school district qualified for free or reduced price lunch.

But then when I unpacked the situation and looked at the needs, you know, this is one of the lowest performing districts in Texas. It had the potential to be taken over by the state of Texas because it was doing so poorly. Yeah, correct. Academically, yes. Yes, yes.

Confronting challenges was not something new for Scott. He had recently led a school district in Houston through the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, and he had a demonstrated track record of helping to close achievement gaps. And so before the 2009 school year, the district in Odessa wanted him to come in and turn it around.

The problem solver and me, you know, that's an interesting challenge. You know, if I could do something to help prevent that, that's interesting to me.

So despite the notary's and the oil rigs everywhere, he took the job.

This was a board that recognized their school district is in crisis and they're willing to do whatever it takes.

Of course, they had no idea then that they'd be facing a much greater crisis than they'd imagined. Within months, covid hit and school scrambled to transition to remote learning, and Scott watched as his students slid even further behind.

In fact, we have evidence that suggests that especially our kids of poverty and this is across the country, could have lost up to one year of learning. It just it just can't happen.

And so even though the covid numbers in Odessa were higher than in much of the country, with the positivity rate climbing to 19 percent during the summer, when the governor of Texas announced that public schools were required to offer in-person instruction, Scott was on board.

Our kids were already behind their peers across the state. And we as a system have to be committed to bringing as many of our kids back in a face to face environment as we can.

So late last summer, as the district prepared to face students back into the classroom. Scott agreed to let us follow along.

But if we see numbers in any area starting to increase because of actions that we've taken as a school district, then we will reverse our course. We've told our folks all along, you know, yes, we're turning school on face to face, but we could just as easily turn it off over a weekend.

All right, all right, ladies, appreciate you. Thank you so much. Have a good rest of the day. All ready to go. Bye bye bye. One of the first people the district connected us to was a teacher, a teacher who sort of on the front lines of this mission to not let students fall further behind this year.

It's August 12th. Twenty twenty first day of school. I'm actually calm this morning on the drive to work. I was jamming to the radio, singing along. People were looking at me weird. I don't care. It was good. Deep breaths. Yeah. Ready or not, the kids are going to show up some.

So this is Naomi or better known as Miss Fuentes. Let me tell you, I love the face shield. You know why? Because I don't have to worry about my hair so super fast to get ready in the morning. Just put it up in a bun.

A relentlessly cheery college prep teacher at Odessa High School who started sending us audio diaries and hopping on Google needs as she got ready for classes to begin.

Let me show you around the room so you can kind of see what we have to do. So we flip the camera. OK, please excuse the Blair Witch vibe going on.

I or my husband, I should say, put up a clear shower curtain around my desk. So when I have to conference with my students, there's at least a little barrier. She had created a protected space around her desk and got some special supplies.

We've got some cleaner sanitizer tissue.

But what I immediately noticed on our Google Hangout was just her special touch. Is that a tombstone that I see behind you? Yes, on the floor there's a rest in peace tombstone on the wall. It says mausoleum.

I have a Chucky doll decorated for every season and y'all should see my dolls.

They're scary. Like, my dolls are scary and they're even noise sensors.

So when you slam a door, they'll speak Naomi Love's morbid things, but can't quite explain why.

Maybe if I analyze myself, it's the whole parents being strict on religion thing and I'm like rebelling, but I love it and people always mess with me. They're like, well, you're the happiest dark person I know.

But behind this cheeriness, behind the tombstones and the 64 ounce bottle of hand sanitizer.

Yeah, I'm really scared, nervous, overwhelmed. Don't know what to expect.

She's scared. Naomi's husband is considered high risk and she has a one year old grandbaby at home who recently had heart surgery. But like Scott, she has her own reasons for being on board with this plan. Did you think about potentially not going back because of how nervous you were?

Actually? No. Yeah, I don't think I would ever just leave. Even as scared as I am. I wouldn't leave. OHSU is my home and it's OHSU and nothing else. Naomi herself went to Odessa High School nearly 30 years ago, and for as long as she can remember, the school has had a reputation of struggling.

Today, not only does Odessa High sit in one of the poorest performing districts in Texas, but based on its test scores and college readiness, it was also ranked in twenty nineteen by an education nonprofit as the third worst high school in the entire state.

It's almost like that's how they were raised. You're going to OHSU. That's the sucky school, I guess. And the kids feel that that the kids. That's been ingrained in in our locals minds here. So despite her fear of the virus, Neomi is determined to show up for her students.

I was always told that your body reacts the same when you're nervous and scared and frightened as it does when it's excited. So I'm going to say I'm excited for this new school year and all that it entails, no matter how we're feeling. We got to put the kids first and we got to take care of the kids. And that's what we do naturally. That's why we're teachers. The kids, you know, we're going to teach. The kids are going to love the kids.

And that's it, period. We'll see what happens. OK. For many people, not enough to pay for nothing as students start phasing in.

Naomi has somewhere between one and eight students who actually show up in the classroom each day, another dozen or so Sinon remotely musical.

And while we wait, because while teachers had little choice about returning to the classroom, students and families did, and many of them opted to stay home with Armondo, which means her job is to straddle teaching the students in person and the students online.

And through her voice memos, let's go get started. We hear how it goes. OK, Maria, we're going to start with you. Can you read us a quick. Maria, I see now, because I'm too involved with a lot of things being honest, honest answer. Armando. Is I mean, do I get stressed, like, you know, my armpits start sweating a little bit, I'm like, are you there? What's going on?

Just answer move on that later. Andre, did you get to do the quick right?

Yes, but how about you? In my mind, I'm thinking, OK, I know it doesn't take that long to unmuted.

You're awfully quiet. You didn't go take a nap.

Nanny, how about you dump me in the corner?

Naomi rarely knows what her students are doing on the other side of the screen because they almost always have their videos off because they'll show up.

OK, Bill, all we did was we watched the not working on my computer and she doesn't require videos to be on because it would take too much bandwidth.

Thirty nine percent of kids in the school district don't have access to reliable Internet.

Yes, mom. Like nothing.

It sounded to me like, OK, yeah, that's something weird happening there. OK. For the first several weeks of school, the virtual students are requiring a lot of Naomi's attention. You can see her struggling to figure out how to split her time.

So those of you online when you're done, just remember Wednesday, OK, like it looks like I'm paying attention to both at the same time. When when in reality, when I'm focused on answering questions in the chat, I kind of can't worry about the kids in front of me.

All right. So now my my face to face piece. OK, Alexis. Well, I did. Yeah.

And then someone would in front of me would ask a question so I'd step away. I'd be like, OK, I'm going to step away and then go help them.

And I would forget not really to prejudice, but I have kids online still. Yes.

This 20 years old.

I'm saying it's safe to said I don't know if I mentioned this because it happened Friday, but I taught for ten minutes on mute until one of the kids chirped up in the chat and they were like, is she talking to us or just the kids in the classroom?

This one is your speed isn't changing at all.

And it's not OK because he couldn't hear me. I was muted the whole time.

I see it now. It's been awesome. OK, so let's start over.

By the beginning of October, it was clear that this toggling back and forth between in-person and virtual students was a problem for many teachers across the system. The resounding message coming from district leaders was, we have to do better. But Naomi was feeling at a loss for how exactly to do that.

OK, you want us to be up and engaging to the face to face kids? I get it. But most of us, most of us don't know what that looks like. Train us. We've gotten virtual training on how to do that virtually. And we know how to do that face to face. But how the hell do you blend it? How the hell do you blend it? There's this and I'll email it to you.

There's this ticktock going around with with a clip from Schitt's Creek, which I love that freakin show.

Next step is to fold in the cheese. What does that mean? What does folding the cheese mean? He holds it in.

It's like the enchiladas first. You're making enchiladas.

I understand that. But how how do you fold it? Do you fold it in half like a piece of paper and drop it in the pot?

Or what do you do? I cannot show you everything. OK, well, can you show me one thing? You just switch or do you just fold it in? OK, I don't know how to fold broken cheese like that and I don't know how to be any clearer.

You take that thing that's in your hair, huh?

And you if you say fold in one more time, fold it in this Tic-Tac is like this is what we're feeling. It's what we're feeling. I haven't even seen how it's supposed to look. And maybe I missed an email or I missed a training or something. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I know I say that a lot, but I truly don't know. Of course, she hadn't missed some intensive training. There was no email that could explain how to do this, leaving teachers like Naomi feeling like they were navigating this for the first time on their own.

I don't it's I feel very inadequate, I feel like I'm not doing well at all and I don't know I don't know what the secret is. That's what is killing me because I'm them.

You know, these kids, like a lot of her students growing up, no one in Naomi's family had been to college. And now she teaches students who need a little extra support in getting there. And she knows how the small things like having a connection with just one teacher can make the difference.

I feel bad because usually I know a lot about all of them. And I don't this year, like, if I were just to see them in front of me, I'd be like, Who are you? Because I've just seen your picture, you know? And that's sad. It's it's the magic is not happening. This is not what teaching is. I don't know. I have that imposter syndrome, like, OK, I don't ever think of myself that way, that I'm great or I'm good, but this is kind of like brought it out in the open.

Like, see, you're really not that good of a teacher because, look, you can't even adjust to virtual teaching.

So, yeah, that's that's my thought right now.

Hmm. Do you have the sense that other teachers are also struggling?

Yes, I do. But I don't I don't know. Even though I know they're struggling. I do. I know they're struggling. I still feel like I'm not. I'm still not as good as them. Yeah, but I do try to you know, I do try to be positive, like I'm all about things will get better. This is just temporary. And as soon as you figure it out, it's. Yeah, but it is tough.

It's tough to have that. That mentality right now. Yeah. What's good for society can also be good for your bottom line, and with iShares sustainable ETFs, you can do more to build a strong portfolio for the long term ISARE. Sustainable ETFs seek to deliver long term outcomes by providing access to quality companies that may be better positioned to manage sustainability risks. Get a new perspective on your portfolio with iShares Sustainable ETFs. Learn more at iShares Dotcom slash Sustainable.

If you find yourself bewildered by this moment where there's so much reason for despair and so much reason to hope all at the same time. Let me say I hear you. I'm Ezra Klein from New York Times, opinion host of the Ezra Klein Show. And for me, the best way to beat back that bewildered feeling is to talk it out with the people who have ideas and frameworks for making sense of it. From my days at The Washington Post to my time as editor in chief at Vox and now as an opinion columnist at The New York Times, I've tried to ask the questions that matter to the people at the heart of those matters, like how do we address climate change if the political system fails to act?

Has the logic of markets infiltrated too many aspects of our lives? What do psychedelics teach us about consciousness and what does sci fi understand about our present that we miss? This is the Ezra Klein show and there is going to be plenty to talk about. You can find new episodes every Tuesday and Friday wherever you get your podcasts. Have you already turned it in or is that something you need to talk to the teacher about in years past?

Naomi says that she's seen her role not just as a teacher, but as a kind of counselor to her students to are they're part of the problem is that now she doesn't even know what's going on in their lives. They won't talk about how they're feeling. But sometimes when they don't show up, either online or in class, that's when I'm like, I wonder if something happened.

Because I know oil field is big here, like it is so big here and so I know the majority of the kids, they're struggling with that maybe their dad was laid off of the oil field or it slowed down like my husband wasn't laid off, but it's slowed down, way down from what it used to be.

They're having to deal with that, having to make extra money for their parents. A lot of them are having to work. A lot of them log in from work if their job lets them.

How do you know that kids are working jobs?

Well, I see them when they log in. I'm like, where are you? And they're like, Oh, I'm at work because there's stuff happening in the background. They're not in a quiet still place.

I did ask, like, I did go through and ask all of them. And so I did like a little survey.

I'm like, hey, do you work? Where do you work? How many hours a week do you work?

How unusual is it to have kids working? Like, was this happening like that before? covid?

No, I don't think so. I don't remember these many. Many kids working definitely not during the day. Yeah, no, definitely not. I would, you know, go into work, I would call in at 12 in the afternoon and so I'm already in a class the classes that I don't have to have my camera on or my microphone on, I would just like have my earbuds in and they kind of had my phone and be in class and still be working, be making the smoothies, are taking people orders for kids like Joanna Lopez, a senior at Odesa High School.

The problem with working your first job during class time is that it's hard to listen to your econ class while trying to remember how to make a mango magic.

I always mix up these two orders, which is the Bye-Bye and the very delicious because they sound the same and they look the same. There is this one time it was like really busy. There was like a lot of people waiting on their order and I think I was supposed to be making a bye bye. Instead, I was making a very delicious and no one has like the meal powder and like it has protein and everything. And a lot of people are picky about that.

There are still people in line screaming at me. I was trying to listen to my teacher. It was just it was a lot it was stressful that they.

Did your colleagues know? Yes. Because they were also in school. Joanna is one of the students who opted to go vote this year, who was balancing work and school simultaneously. She was 17 when we first started our calls with her.

We went to high real light outside their. Yes, that is amazing. She would sit cross-legged on her bed after school, her dark straight hair parted down the middle, frequently checking for notifications from the many group chats she's on and sounding a lot like any teenager bored with her hometown.

There's not a lot of things to do here in Odessa. Basically, the only thing there is to do is like the mall or just go to target and walk around and see where you can find.

And when she talks about growing up in Odessa, it's clear that her life has been tied to the cycles of boom and bust that define the city.

My dad, ever since I was little, he moved from company to company, but he would be doing the same thing. She remembers her dad coming home from his job in the oil field, his boots smelling of oil.

And she remembers noticing when she was 11 or 12 that the industry seemed to be taking off.

I mean, there is a point where it was a really big thing where we got a lot of oil and so people were making a lot of money and that's when people were starting to come here for the money. My dad had boundaries and I think he got in a higher position. So he was making pretty good money. So we were at a very comfortable spot. How did you know that things were more comfortable?

Yeah, we used to live in a trailer park and like a duplex, but then there was like a trailer park behind us. So it wasn't really like a good neighborhood to live in because there was a lot of stuff going on. So when my dad got that raise, we were looking into houses and we found one.

They moved into a one storey red brick house with an awning over the front door. Joanna was excited to have her own room for the first time. Did you move to this house that you're in? Yes, I used to think it was so big. And she remembers a shift in the family's approach to everyday things. You know, we didn't really worry about going to the store and be like, we can't afford this or we might not have enough.

And so I guess that's when I realized, like, we're good. And this is how things had been for the family for the last few years. Things felt possible. Joanna had been talking about becoming the first member of her family to complete college, to become a psychologist or a veterinarian. But this, of course, was only one half of the boom bust cycle and medicines are all too familiar with the other half.

It's like someone hit the switch and all of a sudden layoffs already start. All of a sudden, the city starts to slow down and you can literally feel workers skip town and for sale signs appear on lawns and in the windows of shops.

I think what we're in right now is kind of an emotional Free-For-All. I'd like to have it over with. Could we please get to where the bottom is?

The cycle is so familiar to Addisons that after a particularly bad bust in the 80s, a bumper sticker became popular in town that read God, grant me one more oil boom and I promise not to screw it up. U.S. oil prices plunged below zero on Monday, hitting a new record low, a penny a barrel.

I mean, this is something that most people on the street didn't even think was possible. Never seen anything like it. It closed at negative. Thirty seven bucks per barrel. Wow.

But coupled with the public health crisis, nothing had prepared Odesa for the kind of economic devastation the pandemic brought over the summer. The sharp decline in demand for oil and the city's dependency on it meant that as the American economy was shutting down in response to the pandemic, Odessa's was cratering.

As of June, we have the highest unemployment rate in the state of Texas. The unemployment rate tonight is the highest in the state, sitting at thirteen percent. Just a stark difference from where we were just a few months ago, having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state.

I think I was like in my room doing homework and my dad came home early, he was just like, you know, sad. I kind of just over here the conversations, because my room is like right next to the living room, so I kind of just overheard. Do you remember what you heard? I just remember my dad telling my mom that he got laid off and that he's going to try to get an unemployment, but he was struggling a lot with that.

So he was like, might as well just try to look for another job. How did you feel overhearing that in your room?

I mean, seeing my dad sad kind of made me sad. Mm hmm. I guess that's when I also realized, like, this whole thing is very serious. You know, they also told me, like, you need to start working also. And so that's when I started looking for a job.

It was late spring when things started getting tight for the Lopez family. So Joanna began working at the smoothie shop to help pay for her car. And when the summer ended and Joanna had a choice to make about whether to go back in person or stay home, she chose to stay home and started signing into classes from behind the smoothie bar. How do you learn anything if you're not actually in the class?

I would say I didn't really learn anything. I was kind of there for my attendance. I kind of do struggle a lot with keeping up with my schoolwork. So I feel like I would have been easier for me to go to school. Yeah, it's very hard for me to try to keep up. And so I'm just struggling. Joanna said she had started turning in assignments late or not at all. Do you have the sense that other kids are also turning in stuff late?

Yes, I see it all over Snapchat. Like, how does it show up on Snapchat? Like the other poster grades? I'm like, that's not something I oppose. I would have put my grades. I would be embarrassed. I mean, they're not ashamed. Good for them.

But do you feel shame? Sometimes I do, because I feel like I'm not working hard enough.

Is that what you think the problem is, that you're not working hard enough? Maybe, but I don't I can't find the motivation to, like, sit down and actually do my schoolwork. Oh, like, you can't just, like, lay down and bed on your phone and, like, I'll just do it later. At the end of the first six weeks of school, Superintendent Scott Murie started to get some actual data back about how kids across the district were doing academically, the grading period ends in a couple of weeks.

And so we're seeing some data that is a bit disturbing. The learning is not happening in a way that it should.

And what it showed was that what Joanna and the students and Mrs. Fuentes's class were experiencing was happening across the district.

The in-person teaching seemed to be helping, but only to an extent.

So the failure rate is higher among our virtual kids than it is face to face. And that's simply because they're not turning in assignments. You know, we have to continue to exhaust every pathway to figure out how we cut the learning losses for kids and accelerate learning a bit more. It was striking that for a school that had reopened six weeks into the school year, the problems they were facing were not about the health risks posed by the kids who came back, but about the learning loss, especially for students who chose to stay home.

It wasn't clear what Scott would try and do to change things, but we have to give extra attention to our seniors this year to keep them engaged. Some of them are so close that, you know, they may or may not graduate.

What was missing for so many students was the motivation, those seniors that need extra motivation in order to come to school every day and in this case, in order to turn their computer on. Sometimes for those seniors, the motivator is a teacher in the building, or it is the social interaction that they have in the building, or it is the extracurricular that they engage with in the building. And for some of those kids that are at risk, that that doesn't exist.

They were missing the points of connection.

And I'm afraid it may be a bit easier for those kids just to drop out or fall off the radar. And that is disturbing. This cannot be a reason that our kids fall further and further behind their peers. But there was one thing that was motivating Joanna to come to school every day. Same thing that would lead her to being on a bus, headed to a stadium on a crisp October Friday.

I love Ben so much. Coming up on Odesa, well, our high covid numbers are triggering some changes around Medical Center Hospital in Odessa while the city faces a growing health crisis.

The ICU at Odessa Regional Medical Center in Odessa, Texas, is at its capacity with covid-19 patients. We continue following the school district's experiment.

And right now, we're seeing some things that we don't like.

The number of cases is on the rise in our community and the debate not just over reopening schools, but restarting the football season, but no one on. This specific area, and you have seen Friday Night Lights, right? So, you know, this specific area, how important high school football is, I don't think there's any part of this world where it's as important as it is in west Texas. I think that there were too many people invested too heavily in that to actually be able to shut down something that big.

So make sure that's part of what you guys are thinking about and what that means to them. Sure. How much that means to them?

Yeah, we will we will make sure not to miss that with the Brocklehurst.

Odessa is produced and reported by Sindhu Yanez, someone, Soraya Shockley and MI. With help from Mitch Borden and Diana Wynne, edited by Liz Oberlin and Lisa Tobin, engineered by Chris Wood, fact checking by Ben Feiglin, original composition by Dan Powell and Marianne Lozano, special thanks to Larissa Anderson, Cliff Levy, Dana Goldstein, Kate Taylor, Clifford Krauss, Apoorva Mandeville's, Ken Belson, Laura Kim, Nora Keller and Lauren Jackson. Do you need a modern infrastructure to address your most demanding artificial intelligence and machine learning needs?

Super Micro delivers better, faster and greener server and storage systems to optimize your animal workflows. Do your users demand fast access to company data? Do you want to outperform your competitors with more insightful business decisions? Super Microsystems featuring Intel processors deliver A.I. optimized performance, reduce environmental impact and save on your energy costs. Learn more at Super Micro Dotcom.

Here's what else you need to know. On Thursday, President Biden celebrated what he called a major milestone in the response to the pandemic. Fifty million vaccine doses administered since he took office. Biden has promised to administer 100 million doses in his first 100 days.

Today, I'm here to report we're halfway there, 50 million shots in just 37 days since I've become president. That's weeks ahead of schedule.

Biden said that with approval of a third vaccine from Johnson and Johnson expected in the coming days, he has instructed his administration to help the company roll out the vaccine as quickly and as broadly as possible.

This is not a victory lap. This everything is not fixed. We have a long way to go.

That's it for the day. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you on Monday. This podcast is supported by CarMax, the new Love Your Car guarantee from CarMax takes car buying confidence to the next level, starting with a 24 hour test drive, drive it to work, to school and to the grocery store before you buy. And if it feels right, you've got a full month and 1500 miles to keep on driving with their new 30 day money back guarantee. Learn more about the new love your car guarantee from CarMax at CarMax Dotcom.