Though a handful of schools have already
reopened for in-person learning, the
majority
have not. Earlier this week Governor
Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders
announced a new deal to try and help
grease the wheels on that front.
More now from Laurel Rosenhall of
CalMatters
Laurel, it's great to have you back with
us. Great to be here. Thank you.
Now, I want to talk very soon about the
deal that was reached and announced this
week. But I think it might be good here
to get a little bit of context. There has
been,
as you write, months of negotiations as
politicians all throughout the state
have faced a lot of pressure
from their parent constituents back at
home. Kind of
give us a sense of how long the back and
forth has been going on for
and what have been some of the main
points of contention.
Governor Newsom came out with this
budget plan at the end of december that
he said would help reopen schools
and there's been, you know, basically
negotiations ongoing
since then. So it's been a couple months
um and
a major sticking point has been the
amount of
requirements that would come from the
state versus the amount of flexibility
that local school districts would have.
Obviously, schools are, you know, locally
controlled,
and yet um a lot of school districts
wanted guidance from the state. So there
was a lot of tension over that.
One of the big areas was around vaccines
for teachers.
Yeah and they finally reached this deal.
And just on that, vaccines for teacher
front right, the CDC
making recommendations that no you don't
necessarily need to,
need to have all teachers vaccinated to
reopen to in-person learning. So
summarize, for us, I know that there was a
lot in this big announcement. We just saw
Governor Gavin Newsom there
earlier this week in Elk Grove, but what
are some of the the key points, in terms
of the deal that they reached.
Well, on the issue of teacher vaccination,
the deal basically um
makes it more likely that teachers can
get vaccinated before they return to the
classroom because it puts in law this
plan that
the governor put in place already which
was setting aside
10 percent of the state's vaccine allotments for
educators and creating some dedicated
days at the mass back sites in LA and
Oakland
that are specifically for educators. So,
it's going to make it easier for for
teachers to get vaccines,
and they were largely satisfied with
that. But it does not go
so far as to require that teachers be
vaccinated before they go back to school.
That was something that teachers
originally asked for that they
and the governor said, you know, no. That
would slow things down for districts
that have already opened
like the one in your report that you
just showed, you know, they probably
reopened before they figured that out.
And many districts around the state
mostly small ones,
um, but they have figured out agreements
and they haven't required vaccines. So
newsom didn't want to roll back the
progress in places that have been able
to make it.
Yeah, so Laurel there is money on the
line here for schools who are able to
meet
you know certain requirements in terms
of reopening. Can you break down for us
how much money is available
and and what these schools need to do in
order to get their hands on that grant
funding?
Yeah so it's important for everyone to
understand that this deal does not
require that any schools reopen
again. That is a local decision that your
local school board is going to make.
Um, but what it does is it basically
dangles $2 billion dollars as an
incentive
for districts that districts would get a
piece of that $2 billion dollars if
they reopen,
following certain conditions. So the
state wants to see,
um, districts reopening for grades
preschool through grade
two um by April 1. So by the end of
this month if they want to get a share
of that money.
And then at the older grades that's
dependent on counties hitting the
so-called
red tier for coronavirus transmission.
And at that point, schools would have to
have one
grade of middle or high school returning
to in-person instruction
in order to get the money. Yeah and and
there is also the requirement there's so
much to keep track of here because, of
course, there are some
families who say no, no, no, I'm not ready
for my kid to go back to in-person
learning. So there's also a requirement
for,
even when schools do reopen, to
allow that distance learning to continue.
I know
part of the issue here and and the
governor and
many of the legislators have said that
they you have to really make sure that
equity is an important part of that and
based on your reporting, I see that
there's some,
there are some moved moves baked in here
to make sure that that certain
communities
have their educational goals met too. Can
you tell us a little bit more about
those efforts?
Well, the deal also includes $4.6 billion,
which is to address, what they
call, learning loss. So that would be
money for
schools to, you know, lengthen their
school year or add on summer school or
provide extra tutoring or mental health
services.
And then another thing to keep in mind
is that the, um,
the $2 billion pot of money does
require
that student that school districts bring
back some of the most vulnerable
students including
those who are in foster care or homeless
or English-language learners.
And so, there really is an emphasis on
getting the neediest students back
in the classroom soonest. Laurel, in an
ideal world,
this entire conversation would be just
about education
and health and safety, but as you well
know,
politics also plays a huge role in all
of this. What's kind of been the response
to the deal that was announced
especially from these two key camps
parents and teachers.
So, um teachers have had a mixed response
the state level teachers unions seem to
be
okay with it, but not thrilled, you know,
they didn't really get as much as they
hoped for in the way of
statewide safety standards. On the other
hand,
they did get more assurance on the
vaccines, and they also got to preserve
local control which is really
important to them. But we're not seeing
that teachers, you know, across all of
California, are happy with it,
and I'm sure your audience in Los
Angeles knows that the Los Angeles
teachers union has been one of the most
outspoken against this,
saying that this plan, you know, will
propagate structural racism because it
gives money to the districts that can
figure out how to reopen,
and it doesn't give the money to the
districts that can't.
So, the mixed review from the teachers
um and you know. Parents, there have been
parents who are fighting for reopening
the schools and aggressively, you know,
marching in the streets demanding that
schools reopen.
They're not satisfied with this plan.
That doesn't mean that all parents in
California are not satisfied, but those
vocal parents who are taking to the
streets on this issue
say that this plan is a failure because
it does not mandate
anyone reopen the schools and the return
to in-person instruction can be quite
minimal and still meet the requirements
of this. So, no one should expect that,
you know, by April 1, their kids are
going to be back in school five days a
week.
Highly unlikely. Highly unlikely, indeed.
Laurel Rosenhall of CalMatters. It is
always great speaking with you. Thank you
so much.
Thank you for having me. Great to be here.