California’s largest school districts Wednesday called Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest plan for reopening classrooms to students inadequate, arguing it fails to meet the needs of students in impoverished urban communities.
The superintendents of districts in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, Fresno and Long Beach laid out a host of criticisms of the plan Newsom unveiled Dec. 30, from funding for poor districts to clarity of safety standards.
“The plan does not address the disproportionate impact the virus is having on low-income communities of color,” the superintendents wrote. “It leaves the definition of a ‘safe school environment’ and the ‘standard for reopening classrooms’ up to the individual discretion of 1,037 school districts, creating a patchwork of safety standards in the face of a statewide health crisis.”
Under pressure from parents and educators worried that students are falling behind, Newsom on Dec. 30 unveiled a $2 billion “Safe Schools for All Plan” package of incentives for California school districts to reopen classrooms for in-person learning as early as mid-February, even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage like never before in the state.
“In the midst of this pandemic, my administration is focused on getting students back into the classroom in a way that leads with student and teacher health,” Newsom said during the announcement.”
The proposal, to be submitted to the state Legislature as an adjustment of the state budget, aims first to bring back students from transitional kindergarten to second grade as well as those with special needs, such as English learners, and homeless, foster and low-income children. Other elementary school students would follow shortly thereafter, with a goal to be “back on track across the spectrum by spring 2021.”
Districts that want to transition to in-person instruction would receive about $450 per student, and up to about $700 per low-income student, English learner and foster youth. Districts must submit a safety plan to local and state agencies, and students and staff will be required to wear masks at all times while on campus. The package also boosts spending for coronavirus testing.
Newsom’s proposal comes as his office moves to put teachers and school staff next in line for the coronavirus vaccine effort. But the inoculation effort is still behind schedule for the first priority group: health care workers and residents and staff of residential care home.
It also relaxes case metrics for schools to reopen, to a seven-day average of 28 cases per 100,000 people, from the 7 per 100,000 people standard used under the governor’s color-tiered reopening blueprint. The superintendents said Wednesday the change in criteria demonstrates the “confused nature of the state guidance on reopening.”
The superintendents also decried the governor’s plan to pay for COVID-19 testing with Proposition 98 school funds, saying the funding instead should come from public health money. And they said the state needs to provide more comprehensive data on school outbreaks by February 1 so districts and parents can make informed decisions. The state doesn’t comprehensively report or track school outbreaks or reopenings, but the governor’s plan said it will create an online dashboard to do so.
“Anecdotes, incomplete information and changing guidelines do not provide the complete picture schools need and families deserve,” they wrote.
And they said the state needs to do much more to suppress the virus, which is raging in the state’s poorer communities including Los Angeles, before schools can reopen.
“Sadly, statewide COVID numbers appear to be moving in the wrong direction in nearly every meaningful category, infections, hospitalizations and deaths,” they wrote.
The governor’s office did not respond to questions about the plan Wednesday and canceled a scheduled news conference due to unrest in the nation’s capital.
Maggie Angst and Evan Webeck contributed to this story.
