California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials announced a deal on a $6.6 billion legislative package Monday that would support the statewide reopening of grades K-6 by the end of the month and grades 7-12 in early April.
The package includes $2 billion in grants to support safety measures for students and teachers returning to in-person classes, including personal protection equipment, improvements to classroom ventilation and regular coronavirus testing.
The remaining $4.6 billion would fund voluntary learning expansions, including extending the school year into the summer, tutoring to make up for learning lost amid the pandemic and mental health services for students.
State legislators are expected to vote on the deal by the end of the week, according to Newsom.
The reopening plan comes after months of haggling between officials in the Newsom administration, state legislators and teachers’ unions over details like required vaccinations and a reopening timeline that all sides agree is safe.
While the package does not require the vaccination of teachers before a school can reopen, Newsom underscored the state’s vaccine prioritization for teachers that began Monday, reserving 10 percent of the weekly vaccine shipments coming into the state for K-12 teachers and child care workers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have yet to deem the three vaccines currently available as safe for children under the age of 16, although modified versions of the vaccines may be available for children later this year.
However, Newsom was noncommittal about adding the vaccine to the list of those required for public school students when it becomes available, noting that any such decision will be guided by the state’s vaccine safety advisory group when the time comes.
The deal also stops short of mandating that all grades return to in-person classes across the state, instead tying those reopenings to state funding as an incentive.
The deal requires in-person instruction at public schools to resume for K-2 students and all “high-needs” students in grades K-12 — including English language learners, students in the foster care system and unhoused students — by the end of March.
Schools that do not comply would lose 1 percent of their funding per day if they are not open by then.
Schools in 35 of the state’s 58 counties have already resumed in-person classes in some form, according to the state. The plan announced Monday would incentivize in-person education in some form regardless of a county’s tier level.
48 comments
but, but, but what about the global warming covid19 pandemic??? are teachers safe from this virus that has a 99% survival rate? what about kids, who are also at low risk….
WHHAAAAA………………
love,
the union
Agreed 100% the unions are horrible and have completely used this situation for their own agenda. They need to be abolished and serve no purpose for the children which is what school is and should be about not the greedy unions or lazy teachers.
I thought we could already open schools based on case rate … so why ….
CDC says no vaccine needed to safely open.
Many many schools are open, in person, no cases.
But the California teachers union and teachers are *special*, so they need extra money to make up for their commute to work, need vaccines to be safe cause they know more than the CDC, …
Yeah, I am harping on teachers and the unions again .. cause again, MDUSD has ZERO plans to open! But I bet you take the money again …
So they get all of this money for something they should be doing as part of their job. Talk about union bribery!!!!!! Makes no sense.
If you think the teachers or their union will see one penny of that money you are high. The districts are the ones that will get the money. And as usual they will claim they have no funding and your kid will continue to use the same textbook you did.
@Xnfris- 😄 I think I’d be fine with my kids using the same textbooks I did. At least they wouldn’t be censored or re-written. Math used to be math. Numbers always added up the same way, back at Monte Gardens, in my day. But now we need different math depending on skin color. We memorized the times-tables, and I’ve never forgotten them. I can spell like a champ! Reading is my favorite hobby and I usually finish a novel in about two days. The old tried and true methods were pretty good!
@SF oh,
I totally agree. Especially History books. The funny thing about history is that it doesn’t ever change. The only reason to update history books is to add more recent events. What happened in the past can’t be changed by rewriting it. “Erasing” unpleasant historical facts is the surest way to make sure they repeat themselves.
Wonder what companies are going to get these juicy safety/testing supply contracts…
Are we going to send the bill for this to China or the Teachers Union.
Paying them to reopen.
Fear of the recall.
Follow the dollars, not the science.
I’d like to learn more about how the teacher’s unions pension funds are bolstered by this agreement, but the news doesn’t tell the truth. There is nothing I can do about it.
Guess those 1.85 million sigs on the Recall Gavin petition are starting to make Gavin sweat…
I notice it doesn’t say what counts as back to “in person”. To me that would mean 5 days a week full time. I hope MDUSD’s plan of 2 hours, twice a week doesn’t count as back to “in person”. I feel though this is just a ploy and newsom is just trying to open schools as little as possible, so he doesn’t anger his teachers union donors and at the same time during the recall election, he can say “ look I opened schools”. When in reality the school being open for in person instruction 2 hours, twice a week does not help working parents.
Ding, ding, ding. You win the prize. This is a BAD bill. This will enable a fake opening and perpetual DL.
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Agree. Why bother? Just wait for the fall semester.
I guess we’ll see.
Haha! Money changes the flow of the virus. Oh, and what’s the definition of “in person”? The lame 2.5 hours twice a week extra help from teacher? What a hoax!
Recall had nothin’ to do with it.
In case the link is not acceptable to The Mayor, look up Matt Meyer, he’s the President of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. Video of him has surfaced of him dropping off his 2-year-old daughter at private school, while he says schools need to remain closed.
https://www.ktvu.com/news/berkeley-teachers-union-president-defends-sending-daughter-to-in-person-preschool
Many of the teenagers have been through hell. They have witnessed terrible things
Mental illness is real. The teenage population will rebel against anything that is being taught. School shootings will be on the rise. It’s not like putting blinders on to see what’s happening. It’s real and it’s dangerous
Put up or shut up
But won’t we always have to be hybrid? Theres no way they will ever stack 33 kids in a classroom again. What about high school rallies, assemblies, dances, field trips with 60 kids on a bus. Will these ever happen again?
At the high school level 33 is a small class. The greedy districts pack the kids in the class. Crazy. And for high school what would be the point of going back now. Some students will stay with distance learning and the teacher will need to figure out how to run the class with some at home and some in the class. How many weeks will it take to get used to the new schedule? And by then it will be summer. Wait until fall for high school and start fresh.
“Will these ever happen again?”
Why shouldn’t they? Once 60% of the adult population is either vaccinated or has had Covid before, the virus will no longer be a public health threat. It will still be around, but will almost always produce just a cold or sniffle or less.
We closed gatherings down because Covid was killing a lot of people and sending waves of patients into hospitals. Once that’s no longer the case, why keep all those things restricted??
That said, I think it likely that CA will keep some restrictions going through next fall and winter, through it’s nanny-state tendencies and bureaucratic inertia and the effects of widespread fearmongering and goalpost moving.
Who comes first, citizens of California and their children or large voter block and large campaign contributors ? ? ?
Here’s a little flashback from January,
‘Gavin Newsom Says He Won’t Compel Schools To Reopen If Teachers Unions Refuse To Go Back’
https://tinyurl.com/477neuux
Same guy DEMs may try to run for president in 2024 appears to have less vertebral fortitude than obama, if that’s possible.
Five words,
President Reagan Air Traffic Controllers
https://recallgavin2020.com/
@Original, I was thinking the same thing! Listening to the news this evening while Newsome was talking about “incentivizing” the schools to reopen with billions of dollars (that BTW he doesn’t have), and I was thinking back to president Reagan and the air traffic controllers. Now, that’s what we need! A governor who will stand up to the teachers Union!
Oh, . . . . it gets better,
“… president of a California teacher’s union …. caught dropping off his two-year-old daughter at her private preschool…”
daily mail dot com
https://tinyurl.com/z3ujwv4j
kqed
https://tinyurl.com/3mpz3vdn
GRIFT ALERT!!!
This is NOT a deal to reopen. It is an agreement to up the ante on the opportunity to reopen. There is NO PLAN. There is no mandate. There is no ultimatum. He just promised them more money.
Why not offer an incentive for teachers, 62 & over with 20 years or more, to retire. The districts could then hire young teachers for less money.
Why retire now when you can make $100k+++ to work 3 or 4 hours from home in your underwear? You even get a free vaccine that should be going to an elderly cancer patient, but you’re a 35 year old teacher, so you get it first!
Yeh no. Keep them at home. I like driving without traffic— meep your kids at home. Hire a maid to take care for them. If you cant finance it then dont reproduce? 🤷♂️
That’s some troll-level commentary right there.
Everybody is already financing public schools, whether we like it or not,or have children or not.
It’s funny to see how crazy parents get about their kids in school. My dad was a high school principal and assistant superintendent, student teacher, dean etc. etc. Parents know nothing about teaching. Just because you have a kid doesn’t mean your opinion means anything sorry.
Americans are too privileged because they think their opinion means something sorry unless you’re intelligent then no one cares what you have to say
Newsflash: nobody cares what you have to say either. But there’s this little thing in the state constitution about the right to an education. Should we care about that? There’s the minor fact that millions of working parents have to stay home to care for and educate their kids – should anybody care about that and its effects? There’s the pediatricians talking about mental and physical problems many times higher than normal rates – does that count as intelligent enough to care about?
Congrats on your dad being a school administrator. Wow. You must have soooooooo much more knowledge than the peasants who keep complaining. Those rubes! Buncha fools thinking they have rights and that the public institutions exist to serve them!
Riddle me this one: according to you, parents know nothing about teaching, but it’s also no biggie to keep kids at home for their learning. Does anyone but you not see the problem there??
The kids aren’t in school at all, why shouldn’t parents be upset?
Meanwhile, teachers are refusing to return to work in person, working less than ever while their feet are up on their desk at home, many people report their students get less than three hours worth of instruction a day. All the while, these teachers are jumping the line and stealing vaccines from the elderly and immunocompromised, while the teachers continue to work from the complete safety of their homes.
Every teacher who takes the vaccine in preference to others should be absolutely ashamed.
Don’t forget that many teachers in this area make $120k+ a year, with extremely generous benefits, and summers off, all while not really giving a damn about the children they are supposed to be educating. You can look up the salaries locally, it will make your jaw drop.
@S
thanks for showing how the left feels about Americans. “you guys are stupid, we are smart”
here’s an appropriate quote from Ronald Regan:
it’s not that our liberal friends don’t know anything
it’s just that so much of what they know isn’t true
God bless America
Well said Led!!!!
Schmmee knows it all bc of his daddy’s job Lol!
@anon-You must not know any teachers. They are actually working longer hours, most of them. Just because it isn’t time with your child you think they are not working. They spend hours preparing and looking at work. Also, countless meetings. Don’t know why anyone would want to be teacher. I have looked up the schedules. Some districts over $100,000, not MDUSD & Martinez.
@ Schmee
Full of yourself aren’t you good thing nobody cares what you think or have to say.
Trump talked about breaking up the big tech companies during his CPAC speech. I say we break up the schools, and the education dept at the federal level. Let’s all pull our kids out of public school and put them in private school. Along with this should come a significant tax credit for doing so. Public schools are filthy with liberalism and woke mania.
The parents and taxpayers of the MDUSD are being played.
The Union is strong and the Board of complicit.
There is no reason not to have schools open again, business as usual.
… this is where MDUSD said they would have in class instruction 2 days a week for 2 hrs each – 4 hrs a week! What a joke! Newsom is trying to take credit for that?!
How many billions of extra money did the private schools (who already spend less per student that public schools) get to re-open in the fall (when they did without issue)?
Excellent point Martinezdad!
Since Schmee knows so much more than anyone else on this thread maybe he/she/they/it/Zi/Hir/Ze/Zir can explain how private schools can do so much more with less.
So I think the teachers union is a joke. They don’t want to go back to work cause they are scared. Come on, how are they getting their groceries. By going to a non union grocery store. Are you telling me that their kids are not playing sports right now, they have not gotten a haircut or any other personal services done since 3/17/20. Are you telling me they haven’t gone a little vacation or went out to eat. I think they have done all the up above, and now they are worried. HYPOCRITES
I working in the commercial construction industry and on June 4th 2020 when they allowed us “essential workers” we had jobs up and running within a week, and we are a union firm. We have to clean our jobsites all trades have to do the same and that is not in their “PLA” to clean and be careful during a pandemic.
These teachers are taking it to a new level, they should be treated like pro athletes if they want to opt out than stay home, with out pay or a pro-rated rate so we can replace them. This is getting crazy, the kids can play sports now but they can’t go to school. I guess I am glad that MDUSD is paying north of 500K for a former superintendent and newly hired superintendent. How many teachers would that hire for us.
Good perspective: it isn’t all unions that are like this. Public sector unions and the bureaucracies that work with them are different, and not in a good way. It’s normal right now for workers and contractors to take on extra responsibilities for cleaning and safety. But not for PS teachers and staff, oh no!
The only way I can look at this is the teacher’s union and their cronies in the state are holding children hostage until their parents pay a $4.6 billion ransom.
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