Recall Newsom to keep schools open
Public schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District have finally welcomed students back to campus — most students returning for the first time since March 2020 — and while I’ve long awaited this return, many parents remain anxious for September 14.
That’s when California voters will be asked if they want to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom. That ballot question could easily be rewritten to ask voters if they want to keep California schools open, or allow them to close back down indefinitely.
For me — a Democrat who voted for Gavin Newsom in 2018 — education is what this recall election boils down to: Do I want my children to have access to full, in-person learning that science has shown is safe, or do I want them to be sent back home, where they’re forced to watch their teacher instruct in a condensed day on Zoom, and fall further behind?
The reality is, just as our children were used as pawns by the United Teachers Los Angeles to extract numerous concessions, they’re now being used by the governor’s campaign.
Gov. Gavin Newsom had the power to reopen schools but chose not to. He was the first governor in the country to issue a stay-at-home order, a decision many of us applauded. He used his emergency powers to mandate restaurant closures, set masking rules, and even order a phase out of gasoline-powered vehicles. Sure, he’s said schools should reopen, but he never used his emergency powers to make that happen. In recent months he walked back his previously strong statements supporting in-person learning. Few parents who had to live through the year-and-a-half-long school closures believe schools will stay open if he’s left in office; unfortunately, he owes too much to teachers unions.
Major teachers unions in the state, particularly the United Teachers Los Angeles, have been unusually quiet about returning to the classroom, whereas even into the early months of summer, union President Cecily Myart-Cruz was demanding more giveaways in exchange for a physical reopening. She even bragged about her union’s ability to extract more than others. Even in the week preceding school openings, the union focused its public messaging on school spending, the recall election, and its support for a teacher vaccine mandate; they said nothing of back to school.
Parents can only surmise the unions quietly acquiesced as an in-kind political contribution to Newsom’s campaign. Though teachers unions are among Newsom’s top campaign contributors financially, giving over $2.23 million to help him win this election (and millions more throughout his career), returning to the classroom is the single, most-valuable gift teachers unions can make to keep him in office. That’s because many parents like myself are single-issue voters when it comes to this recall election.
Newsom and his supporters want to paint this as a Republican recall organized by angry Trump voters who question the integrity of Joe Biden’s election. But it’s far from it. I know many more Democrats who intend to vote to recall Newsom than I know who want to keep him. We campaigned for Newsom, wrote him checks, had his signs in our yards and marched alongside UTLA when it went on strike in 2019. We aren’t Republicans, we didn’t vote for Trump and we know Biden was elected fairly.
We’re parents who know that the best and safest place for students is in the classroom, just as Newsom once believed and provided for his children at an elite private school.
We’re parents who saw firsthand the emotional damage students suffered while stuck at home, and the learning loss they experienced.
We’re parents who watched the achievement gap grow, as minority children and those from low-income families fell even further behind.
We’re parents who are voting to keep schools open.
There is nothing progressive about lower-income public school kids learning on Zoom, while wealthy elites have the choice to send their kids to learn in-person.