Newsom and lawmakers reach school opening deal
Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders announced a deal Monday on the state’s school reopening efforts offering billions of dollars in additional funding for schools that reopen by the end of March, and decreasing amounts if they bring kids back to classrooms later.
Newsom and lawmakers have been negotiating for two months over bringing kids back to school, amid mounting pressure to reopen campuses closed nearly a year by the coronavirus pandemic as evidence grows that open schools have been able to operate safely and avoid significant outbreaks.
“We incentivize opening up our schools by providing resources to reopen,” Newsom said in a news conference joined by Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.
The deal provides a total of $6.6 billion for public schools throughout the state under the proposed budget package to cover costs of reopening and of getting students caught up academically. Of that, $2 billion would fund safety measures to support in-person instruction, such as personal protective equipment, ventilation upgrades and COVID-19 testing.
The additional $4.6 billion would fund expanded learning opportunities, such as summer school, tutoring and mental health services.
“California must safely reopen schools as soon as possible,” Sen. Bill Dodd said. “This plan accelerates that goal, balancing the needs of students, families and teachers as we ramp up vaccinations and get children back in the classroom. It’s an important step toward relief and normalcy as we work to emerge from this devastating pandemic.”
All public schools would be required to offer in-person instruction for all students to grades K-2 and for high-needs students in all grades by the end of March to receive their full allotment of the funding. If they do not, for every day thereafter they would lose 1% of eligible funds.
Schools in counties whose community coronavirus infection rates are below the most restrictive widespread “purple tier” would be required to offer in-person instruction to all students in all elementary grades, and to at least one middle or high school grade, or risk the same penalty.
“Together, these requirements help ensure schools begin to reopen as soon as possible, in order to build trust and confidence to continue phased reopenings,” Newsom’s office said in a statement.
The California Teachers Association was still reviewing the proposal Monday morning.
Public schools have lagged private schools in reopening, and California districts have returned kids to classrooms slower than those in most other states.
Since schools nationwide and around the world began reopening last fall, evidence has grown that they can operate safely with measures such as face masks, physical distancing and ventilation to reduce virus transmission. There is also growing evidence that students are falling behind with remote online-only “distance learning.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, California Department of Public Health and local health officers have said schools following measures to reduce virus spread have not driven outbreaks.
But teachers unions — influential in California’s Democrat-controlled Capitol — have pushed back on efforts to reopen schools, arguing proposed plans have offered insufficient protection for teachers and staff and that they should be fully vaccinated first, or reopening delayed until virus levels subside further. Many of the largest districts also have said they can’t reopen without far more money and vaccinated teachers.
Newsom and lawmakers have agreed distance learning has proven a poor substitute for in-person instruction, and that schools need to reopen more quickly and need more money to do so. They agree school staff should be prioritized for vaccines but not necessarily all vaccinated before reopening. Newsom had earlier ordered 10% of available vaccines be set aside for teachers and school staff starting in March.
He and lawmakers have differed on whether there should be a firm return-to-school metric or date or whether districts should be left as they have been to move at their own pace but with more state money and support. Under Monday’s proposed deal, districts in the purple tier would have to return to in-person instruction at least through second grade, the Associated Press reported. Those in the second-most restrictive red tier must return to in-person instruction for all elementary school grades, plus at least one grade in middle and high school, the AP reported.
The governor’s “Safe Schools for All Plan” from December enticed schools to reopen as early as last month with promises of $2 billion in funding and guidance. Although his plan eased the bar for elementary schools to reopen even at the lower end of the state’s most restrictive purple tier for infection rates, it set no firm metric or date by which they must return kids to the classroom. It stalled in the legislature.
Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill in December — AB 10 — that would have required schools to reopen within two weeks of coming out of the purple-tier infection rate, setting a clear threshold for when in-person instruction resumes. But it too stalled.
Ting led the crafting of a new package of bills introduced Feb. 18 that would make elementary schools in counties where infection rates are below the purple tier open no later than April 15. But Newsom’s office and many school officials argued it would only complicate and delay getting students back to the classroom.
Ting and his office had no immediate comment Monday morning — he was expected to make remarks after the governor’s news conference.
Megan Bacigalupi, an Oakland Unified parent and organizer with the grassroots group Open Schools California, said she was awaiting details on the deal to be announced.