December 30, 2020
For Immediate Release
Contact: Duc Luu, dluu@publicadvocates.org, 857-373-9118
Response to Governor Newsom and Legislative Leaders Plan to Incentivize School Reopenings
From Public Advocates Managing Attorney John Affeldt:
The pandemic and remote learning are delivering a double dose of harm to California public education. Black and Brown students especially are falling further behind academically and socio-emotionally and the school system as a whole is losing credibility with the public, despite heroic efforts. The solution to both problems is getting students back on campus safely, in person with their teachers and their peers. The proposal announced today holds real promise to accelerate that effort and to avoid surrendering the whole year as lost to the pandemic.
To succeed, it will be important to reopen with equity in mind by ensuring that funding and opportunities prioritize the most-impacted students first with attention to their academic and social-emotional well-being. Secondly, community stakeholders, including parents, students and teachers, must be meaningfully involved in planning how to safely and securely return to physical classrooms.
Finally, beyond this proposal, the State must further address how it will support a restoration of the educational loss experienced by our students, beginning this summer and stretching over the coming years.
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Public Advocates is a nonprofit civil rights law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and discrimination. For nearly fifty years it has strengthened community voices in public policy and achieved tangible legal victories advancing education, housing, transportation, and climate justice.
