Assembly members offer reopening plan as students protest distance learning.

SACRAMENTO — California Assembly members have announced a $12.6 billion plan to reopen schools to inperson learning, a proposal that could come up for a vote next week with or without the blessing of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Their bill, SB86, would give schools access to the full funding if they adopt a plan to reopen by no later than April 15, with strict masking, social distancing and students in stable cohorts.

Assembly Member Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat who chairs the Budget Committee, said Thursday that the plan would require districts that receive the funding to reopen inperson classrooms to all elementary school students once their counties enter the red tier, the secondmost restrictive level on the state’s colorcoded pandemic reopening scale.

“We think that this is a plan that superintendents, teachers, staff can all work with,” Ting said.

It would also apply to all K12 schools with students most in need of support, including those who are chronically absent, Englishlanguage learners, homeless or otherwise considered atrisk. This would apply even to schools in counties that are in the purple, most restrictive tier.

Districts that cannot meet the reopening plan would be allowed to opt out of the state aid. Schools would also be required to continue offering distance learning for families that want it.

Ting said the full Assembly expects to vote on the bill even though Newsom hasn’t agreed to it. The governor said last week that a deal on a school reopening plan could be imminent, but those talks stalled.

“I don’t know — you’d have to talk to (him),” Ting said. “Our intention is to pass the bill on Monday.”

Newsom pushed back Thursday night, saying his plan to accelerate school reopenings has been on legislators’ desks “since the first week of this year.”

“While the Legislature’s proposal represents a step in the right direction, it doesn’t go far enough or fast enough,” he said in a statement.

The governor has touted a $2 billion proposal to reopen schools for elementary school students by midFebruary, but

the plan fizzled over disputes about when teachers could receive coronavirus vaccines and what safety measures schools would have to take.

The new bill would require the state Department of Public Health to prioritize vaccinations for school employees.

The California Teachers Association said it was reviewing the bill.

“Vaccinating teachers and classified personnel, coupled with the multilayered safety protocols, including testing, will help address some of the fear and anxiety, especially with the multiple variants posing an even greater threat,” a union spokesperson said.

Ting is carrying the bill with fellow Democratic Assembly members Patrick O’Donnell of Long Beach, who chairs the Education Committee, and Kevin McCarty of Sacramento, who chairs the Budget subcommittee on education finance.

However, it’s unclear how much Senate support the measure has. Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, DSan Diego, said the proposal would “keep the conversation going.”