The president of a Los Angeles teachers’ union said on Monday that the state’s plan to return to personal learning is “spreading structural racism.”
His comments came after California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday reached an agreement with state Democratic lawmakers that gives LA County schools $ 6.6 billion in incentives to reopen before April 1. .
“If you make funding conditional on the reopening of schools, that money will only go to white, wealthier schools that don’t have the transmission fees that low-income, black and brown communities have,” said UTLA President Cecily Myart- Cruz at a press conference on Monday. “This is a recipe for spreading structural racism and is deeply unfair to the students we serve.”
She added that minority communities are “being unfairly targeted by people who are not experiencing this disease in the same way that students and families are in our communities.” UTLA believes that schools should only reopen after all teachers have been vaccinated or have access to vaccines.
“If it were the disease of a rich person, we would have a very different answer. We would not have the high rates of infections and deaths, ”she said. “Now, educators are asked to sacrifice ourselves, the safety of our students and the safety of our schools.”
CALIFORNIA ANNOUNCES THE SCHOOL REOPENING BUSINESS, OFFERS $ 6.6 billion FOR DISTRICTS THAT REOPEN TO THIS DATE
While there are disparities between the number of minority residents in California and Los Angeles who hire COVID-19 compared to white residents in California and Los Angeles, studies also show that school closures are also disproportionately affecting learning skills minority students and the balance between work and personal life of minority parents.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that there are disparities between the percentage of minority communities that contract and die from COVID-19 and the percentage of minority communities among the total US population. Hispanic Americans, for example, are dying of COVID-19 at a rate disproportionate to the percentage of Hispanic Americans who make up the total population of the United States.
The same is true for LA, specifically, according to LA County Public Health.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, in the center, gestures in front of local officials when talking about the COVID-19 vaccines at Fresno Fairgrounds, Wednesday, February 10, 2021, in Fresno, California (John Walker / The Fresno Bee via AP)
Cases among Latino residents dropped from 2,400 per 100,000 people in January to 453 cases per 100,000 people in February, while black residents had almost 234 cases per 100,000 Asian and white residents and had about 180 cases per 100,000 residents during the same month.
Among COVID-19 deaths in LA between December 2020 and January 2021, 46% were Latino residents, 29% were white residents, 16% were Asian residents and 8% were black residents, according to LA County Public Health .
NEWSOM SAYS SCHOOL COVID DATA IS UPDATED REGULARLY, BUT THE SITE SHOWS JANUARY INFORMATION
But the CDC also noted that there were “unintended consequences of COVID-19 mitigation strategies”, such as the closure of schools and businesses, that hurt minority communities, leading to “lost wages, unemployment and loss of health insurance as a result of business closings, “as well as” stress and social isolation due to restrictions on social gatherings. “
A study of students in San Francisco found that black and low-income students suffered the most, as the school district maintained virtual learning in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Assessments of students’ math and reading skills in San Francisco reflect other studies that raise concerns about the backwardness of disadvantaged students. School district data for the fall of 2020 showed that low-income students were further behind than high-income students, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
Young students learning in the classroom (Photo by Tim Boyle / Getty Images)
The same disparity applied to black, Latino and Asian students compared to white students, reported the San Francisco Chronicle. The data also showed that black and Latino students were more likely to miss 60% of class time or more, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
Likewise, a study of 18 California school districts published on January 25 found that “certain groups of students, especially low-income students and English-speaking students (ELLs), are lagging behind compared to others.”
The Brookings Institute, a liberal nonprofit organization, reported that black mothers are, on average, more likely to work double shifts, both paid and unpaid, citing the United States Department of Labor and Pew Research. The pandemic has only worsened the numbers, noting that black children are more likely to live in areas with mandatory online learning and black mothers are more likely to have less access to daycare centers or unemployment opportunities, the nonprofit found.
NEWS PRESENTED BY CALIFORNIA STUDENTS ABOUT SPORT RESTRICTIONS IN HIGH SCHOOL INTERIOR
California public schools have been closed for almost a year.
Parents from more than 100 school districts in California sent a letter to Newsom and dozens of members of the state assembly calling for schools to reopen.
“Undoubtedly, the closure of schools has exacerbated existing gender, socioeconomic and racial inequalities, in addition to harming our children’s mental, emotional and physical well-being. The only way to prevent further damage is to reopen public schools now for all levels of education and give parents the choice if they would like their children to receive an education in person, “wrote the parents.
The letter noted that the Harvard Institute of Global Health issued revised recommendations for reopening schools in December, saying that schools should “be opened even with the very high levels of dissemination that we are seeing now, as long as they strictly implement infection control strategies. “.
“Our children have been out of school for 349 days. We are fast approaching the one-year mark of closing public schools. It is time for action, not more negotiations,” wrote the parents. “To that end, if you are unable to reach an agreement with the legislature to reopen schools immediately on the principles described below, we demand action by all means necessary to ensure that no children are left behind.”
Neither Newsom’s office nor UTLA responded to questions from Fox News.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION
Newsom’s $ 6.6 billion reopening plan would allocate $ 2 billion in security measures to support face-to-face learning and $ 4.6 billion in learning opportunities like summer school, private lessons and mental health services , according to the governor’s website.
“Since the height of the winter wave, we have successfully shifted the conversation from reopening schools to when,” Newsom said in a statement on Monday. “Now, our collective burden is to build momentum and local leadership and – so critically – do whatever is necessary to meet our students’ academic and mental health needs, including during the summer.”
Evie Fordham of Fox News contributed to this report.