Good Morning.
It has been a month since Governor Gavin Newsom presented his Safe Schools for All plan, in which he plans to reopen schools for face-to-face learning in February or March.
However, with the February 16 deadline to open schools approaching, there is no telling how many districts actually signed up to adopt the plan. Educational leaders and teachers have openly criticized, and negotiations on the details appear to be stalled. Parents, eager for their children to return to face-to-face learning this year, have organized a campaign to reopen schools safely when the number of cases decreases.
The debate echoes what is happening across the country, as President Biden’s pressure to open schools in their first 100 days was met with caution by teacher unions, which want to contain expectations that students will be back to classrooms before the end of the school year.
Here’s what we know about the state of school reopening so far.
Newsom’s plan risks failing.
This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that schools could be opened safely, but the message came with a warning: It is safe only if other precautions are taken to prevent it from spreading through the community. That means tightening, not loosening, restrictions, as Newsom did this week.
Emily Oster, professor of economics and public policy at Brown University, told my colleague Roni Caryn Rabin that the low case rates in the community make it possible to keep schools running safely.
“Prioritizing schools will mean limiting some of these other activities and deciding that we want to make some of these sacrifices to keep schools open, because we have decided as a society that schools are important in relation to other things,” said Dr Oster.
The governor’s plan calls for schools to reopen as soon as the infection rate drops to 25 positive cases per 100,000 county residents.
Although cases in California are decreasing, hospitalization rates are still higher than when the most stringent blocking measures were announced. Currently, most of the state’s population falls into the most restrictive purple layer.
In addition, the plan’s $ 2 billion grant fund, which amounts to $ 450 per student, falls short of what is needed for schools to function safely, some say. In large part, because the plan calls for an increase in virus tests on students and staff, which individual schools would have to pay for.
Leaders from four of the state’s largest school districts criticized the plan in a letter, saying it does not meet the needs of urban school districts, all with students living below the poverty level. They also called for public health resources, not the money that was already programmed for education, to be used to pay for additional security measures and mentioned the lack of clear and consistent guidelines from leaders.
Parents and lawmakers are increasing the pressure to open schools.
This month, lawmakers moved forward with Bill 10 of the Assembly as emergency legislation that, if passed, would require public schools to reopen within two weeks after the purple layer leaves.
It was created in response to the fact that some school districts did not reopen for face-to-face classes, despite being eligible last year.
The project calls for schools to open their doors as soon as they reach the red level, which means having significantly fewer cases than predicted by the governor’s plan.
Proponents of the project point to the fact that low-income families have struggled to access the technology needed to sustain virtual learning, leading to a deepening of the socioeconomic divide. Private schools, like the one Newsom’s children attend, have been open for face-to-face learning for months.
Also supporting the project are parents, who recently organized themselves into a group called Open Schools California and started a public campaign to reopen schools.
They cite studies showing low transmission rates of Covid-19 in schools and anecdotal evidence from their own children, who they say have been harmed by distance learning.
Teachers are demanding more leadership and protection.
Many teachers and school staff say they are not going back to face-to-face learning in the current climate, with cases still at extremely high levels and more variants emerging.
Another critical point is vaccines, which many say are not negotiable for returning to classrooms. The California Teachers’ Association stipulated the need for vaccines and said no to the reopening of schools while they were in the purple layer in a letter to the governor on Wednesday.
Newsom said that teachers will be included in the priority list for next month’s photos. However, there are not enough vaccines for every day.
“The virus is in charge now and does not have a calendar,” said members of the CTA. “We can’t just choose an artificial calendar date and expect to change the switch to reopen all schools for face-to-face education.”
(This article is part of the California Today Newsletter. sign up to have it delivered to your inbox.)
Here’s what else you should know today
On Thursday, Shirley Weber was confirmed as California’s next Secretary of State, filling the vacancy left by Alex Padilla. The photos showed the moment when the unanimous vote came, with Mrs. Weber tearing about the news. When she takes office on Friday, she will be the first black woman to serve as head of electoral authority.
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Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from UC Berkeley and has done reporting across the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles – but she always wants to see more. Follow here or Twitter.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from UC Berkeley.