California teachers tell Gov. Newsom they need vaccines before reopening classrooms

California’s powerful teachers’ union in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom this week reiterated that it wants school employees to have a COVID-19 vaccine before the state more widely reopens classrooms.

“Vaccines for employees are a key element to safe in-person school reopening,” the California Teachers Association wrote in the letter Wednesday.

Newsom has made it a priority to get children back in classrooms this year after more than 10 months of school closures. He introduced a proposal last month offering schools $2 billion for testing and protective gear to reopen schools in the short term.

Many teachers insist the state needs to ramp up vaccination before reopening is safe.

Educators as essential workers are eligible to receive the vaccine. But, at the current rate of vaccinations, many of them will be waiting months for a shot.

“This turn in our public health crisis calls for renewed urgency. California needs to have an aggressive plan focused on statewide safety measures to slow the spread along with a more rapid and effective vaccine rollout for essential workers, for educators, and for parents/guardians who work in critical infrastructure industries like food and agriculture as well as live in vulnerable communities,” the letter said.

The CTA called on Newsom to improve the vaccination rollout, and suggested that schools could be used as vaccination sites for school staff, their household members and members of the community who are essential workers and senior citizens.

“CTA has said from the beginning: low community transmission rates, a strong public health infrastructure, and layered prevention measures within schools that are effectively maintained, tracked and enforced are the path forward,” the group wrote. “Those actions,combined with an effective vaccine rollout, are necessary to get our schools open for in-person education.”

The letter comes less than a week before the governor’s deadline for school districts to apply for reopening grants. The administration has laid out a set of standards that districts must meet in order to reopen, and in return would help educators with asymptomatic testing and personal protective supplies.

But teachers and some district leaders say it’s not enough. Without a more robust public health response across the state, and vaccines for educators, reopening schools remains improbably and risky, some say.

This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 3:55 PM.