Newsom suggests he’ll veto Dems’ bill to reopen schools.
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested Friday that he would veto a schools reopening plan that Democratic legislators intend to advance next week because, he said, it sets a bar for resuming inperson instruction that is far higher than what scientists say is safe.
“I made it crystal clear,”
Newsom said during a visit to a mobile clinic providing vaccinations to educators in Alameda County. “I can’t support something that’s going to delay the safe reopening of schools for our youngest kids.”
Newsom said he wants to get the youngest students — those in transitional kindergarten through second grade, and then third grade through sixth grade — back into the classroom as soon as possible. The reopening bill proposed by San Francisco Assembly Member Phil Ting and other Democrats envisions a return date of April 15 for inperson instruction, which the governor said is too late.
Based on guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Newsom said, it is safe for California to get the youngest students back in classes now, because the average daily rate of new coronavirus cases in the state has dropped below 25 per 100,000 people. The average now ranges from about 9 to 18 cases a day per 100,000 people in the nine Bay Area counties.
But the legislative plan would not require schools to open for those lower grades until their counties hit the state’s red tier, where the new case rate is less than 7 per 100,000 people. Only six of California’s 58 counties have reached that level, none in the Bay Area.
“My fear about what was put out yesterday is it’s actually going to slow down our ability to reopen schools safely,” Newsom said.
That sets Newsom on a possible collision course with legislative leaders, who stuck by their approach Friday. A
spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, DLakewood (Los Angeles County), said the Assembly would go ahead with a vote on Monday, a potential show of strength as negotiations continue.
Newsom had hoped to begin reopening schools by midFebruary. In a plan introduced in late December, he proposed advancing school districts $2 billion, up to $750 per student, to start bringing the youngest students back into classrooms, with transitional kindergarten through sixth grade available by midMarch.
But that plan stalled, as teachers unions pushed back on resuming inperson instruction without first getting vaccinated and school districts questioned whether they could meet the governor’s safety requirements.
The proposal that Ting and other legislators put forth this week would require counties to make vaccines available to educators before schools can reopen. Newsom has resisted such a requirement, warning that it could prevent students from returning to campuses this spring.
However, Newsom announced Friday that California will set aside 10% of first vaccine doses every week for teachers and support staff, starting with 75,000 doses on March 1. He said the shots would be for those who wish to return to inperson instruction.
“The reason we can do that more formally,” he said, “is the window of visibility into the future with more vaccinations that we know are now coming from the Biden administration.”
Teachers unions continue to demand vaccines, low transmissions rates and testing protocols before returning to the classroom.
Claudia Briggs, a spokesperson for the California Teachers Association, said the union appreciated that the reopening plan proposed by Ting and other legislative Democrats “allows time for school districts and local educators to negotiate and submit safety plans that ensure required safety measures are in place.” She called Newsom’s announcement of dedicated vaccine doses an “important step.”
Besides setting case-rate targets for elementary school reopenings, Ting’s bill would give districts early access to additional funding if they adopted a plan to reopen all schools by April 15 for the most atrisk students, including those who are chronically absent, homeless or learning English.
Once their counties entered the red tier, the schools would be required to make inperson instruction available to every elementary school student. Families could continue with distance learning if they wanted.
A spokesperson for Ting declined to comment on Newsom’s objections to the legislative approach, but Ting later wrote wrote on Twitter, “School reopening only works if teachers, administrators and staff feel safe.”
He added, “Our plan opens up schools in the fastest and safest time frame.”