But it was unclear how the Trump administration planned to carry out the president’s new threat to cut funding as a way to coerce state and local leaders into reopening school buildings — or whether the administration even has the authority to do that. The federal government controls only about 10 percent of funding for the nation’s schools, which includes tens of billions of dollars for low-income school districts and special education.

Vice President Mike Pence suggested on Wednesday that the administration, rather than leveraging existing funding, would instead use the next coronavirus relief package in Congress to prod states to reopen.

“As we work with Congress on the next round of state support, we’re going to be looking for ways to give states a strong incentive and encouragement to get kids back to school,” Pence said during a press briefing at the Education Department.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany at a separate briefing said that Trump wanted to “substantially bump up money for education” in the next coronavirus relief package, without offering a specific dollar amount. But she also suggested the administration wanted to tie any increased funding to school choice policies.

McEnany said the White House may propose that additional education assistance is “tied to the student and not to a district where schools are closed.” Such a voucher-like proposal is likely to be a non-starter among congressional Democrats, who on Wednesday were already blasting Trump’s threat to cut school funding.

Rep. Bobby Scott, (D-Va.), the chair of the House education committee, said that Trump’s push to “prematurely reopen” schools ignored the health experts and was “dangerous.”

“Even before the pandemic, our nation’s public schools were chronically underfunded,” Scott said. “Reopening schools now, without more investment, presents serious risks to the health and safety of our students and educators.”

Evan Hollander, spokesperson for Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that Trump “has no authority to cut off funding for these students, and threatening to do so to prop up his flailing campaign is offensive.”

Asked about cutting off funding to schools, Education Department spokesperson Liz Hill said in a statement on Wednesday that the agency is “looking at all of our options.”

“As the Secretary has said, the investment in education is a promise made to students and families,” Hill said. “If schools are not going to keep that promise, why would they get the money? Why shouldn’t that money go directly to parents to find an option for their student if the school they are assigned to refuses to open?”

On Tuesday night, DeVos said she is “very seriously” looking at withholding federal funds from schools that don’t open their doors this fall.

“Kids have got to continue learning,” she told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson during an interview. “Schools have got to open up, there has got to be concerted effort to address the needs of all kids and adults who are fear mongering and making excuses simply have got to stop doing it and turn their attention on what is right for students and for their families.”

Two former U.S. education secretaries, including a Republican, in a conference call with reporters also panned the idea of using federal funds to pressure schools to reopen.

“The federal government is a minority investor in public education,” said Margaret Spellings, who served under former President George W. Bush. “So, with the bulk of the resources coming from state and local governments — those are the folks who are being looked to for these decisions, and rightly so. It’s not really up to Washington to make pronouncements about this sort of thing based on resource allocation.”

“It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious,” said Arne Duncan, who served under former President Barack Obama. “Trump has no legal authority to withhold funds. Schools will be open. The only question is how many kids will be able to go to school versus have to go to school virtually.”

Pence acknowledged that reopening schools would not be the same in every state or school district, especially in areas with rising coronavirus cases.

“There may be some states and local communities that, given cases or positivity in that community, may adjust to either a certain set of days, or certain limitations. And we’ll be very respectful of that,” the vice president said.

DeVos said the bottom line is schools must reopen. “Ultimately, it’s not a matter of if schools should reopen, it’s simply a matter of how,” she said. “They must fully open, and they must be fully operational. And how that happens is best left to education and community leaders.”

Trump’s warning that he may cut off funding to schools came as he also publicly sparred with his own CDC over its recommendations for reopening schools. CDC Director Robert Redfield had said Tuesday that the CDC would soon be issuing updated guidelines.

Redfield on Wednesday emphasized that his agency’s guidelines are merely recommendations for school districts, not requirements.

“There’s no definition of ‘open,’” Redfield told reporters. “It could be any variety of how the schools decide to do it — whether they’re rotating how many kids are in schools, one week versus one week, whether they’re fulling engaged in on-site education, whether it’s a hybrid.”

Redfield said that the Trump administration is “going to leave it to individual school districts to figure out what’s the most feasible for them.”