California to reserve 10% of vaccine first doses for teachers, child care workers, Newsom says

California will set aside 10% of all vaccine first doses for teachers and child care workers starting March 1 with the goal of getting kids back into classrooms, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday.

His announcement comes a day after top Democratic lawmakers announced a school reopening plan that aims to get elementary school and special needs students back into classrooms by April 15 if their case rates are low enough.

Newsom said the Legislature’s plan will take too long and sets a case rate threshold that is too low, below what the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. He suggested he would veto the plan if lawmakers send it to him.

“We would be, if we adopted that proposal, an extreme outlier,” Newsom said. “I’ve made it crystal clear I can’t support something that’s going to delay the safe reopening of schools for our youngest kids.”

Late last year, Newsom proposed a plan to reopen schools by early spring 2021. Initially, he laid out a timetable that involved reaching an agreement with lawmakers last month so that schools would have to submit reopening plans by February 1 to access state funds to incentivize getting kids back in class.

That didn’t happen, and negotiations between the governor’s office, lawmakers and education groups have dragged on for weeks. A major sticking point has been that teachers unions are pushing for teachers to have the option of being vaccinated before they return to classrooms. Newsom has said that’s an unrealistic goal given the state’s limited vaccine supply and the importance of getting kids back into classrooms quickly.

Claudia Briggs, a spokeswoman for the California Teachers Association, praised the governor’s decision to set aside vaccines for teachers.

“The governor’s announcement today that 10% of vaccines will be set aside for educators is an important step to make sure teachers have access to the vaccine before opening schools,” she said.

But she criticized the governor’s suggestion that he would veto the lawmakers’ bill on school reopenings.

“I think that would be a big disappointment to parents, students, and educators and would really slow down the return to in person teaching and learning,” she said.

State vaccine priority rules allow teachers to get vaccinated right now. But only some counties are actually prioritizing teachers for vaccines. The state’s guidelines put teachers at the same spot in line as all Californians over 65, as well as food workers and emergency response workers, and the state does not yet have enough vaccines to inoculate everyone in that group.

Newsom said increased vaccine supply from the federal government will allow the state to set aside vaccines for teachers. In the first week of March, the state will set aside at least 75,000 doses for them, Newsom said at a Friday morning press conference at a vaccine clinic for teachers in Oakland.

He said the state’s total vaccine allocations from the federal government are set to increase to about 1.5 million per week by early March.

Newsom’s announcement about teacher vaccines came on the heels of his administration announcing that youth and recreational sports including football and water polo will be able to resume in many California counties with relatively low case rates next week.

This story was originally published February 19, 2021 at 11:28 AM.