San Diego City Wire

Parent groups have unified to pressure elected officials in the state to reopen schools that have been shuttered for nearly a year during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reopen SDUSD and Reopen Schools CA are two groups that have been formed and are taking action to get students back in the classroom.

Gov. Gavin Newson, who is facing a threat of a recall, said last week he is open to reopening schools and would put 10% of vaccines aside for teachers, ABC News reported, but there has been pushback by the teacher's union.

This week Newsom announced schools are close to reopening, but no timetable has been given and questions still remain on many fronts include teacher vaccinations, Fox 11 reported.

One parent group, Reopen SDUSD, told the San Diego City Wire that children are suffering as a result of schools being closed and action is needed by elected officials to reopen schools

"Children are suffering tremendous academic, developmental, social/emotional and, in many cases, physical harms due to school closures. Families are suffering. Women, in particular, are being forced out of the workforce in order to facilitate distance learning creating long-term wage-earning and well-being disparities for these families," Emily Diaz, a parent and member of Reopen SDUSD, said.

"It is inequitable that the 100,000 students at SDUSD do not have the option for in-person instruction when San Diego County, the California Department of Public Health, the CDC and the WHO say in-person instruction can be done safely," Diaz said.

While Newsom has spoken about reopening schools, no agreement has been reached. State legislators have issued their own set of conditions for schools to reopen without Newsom's support, EdSource reported. Senate Bill 86 and Assembly Bill 86, identical bills, were introduced last week and include $2 billion in incentives for districts to sign on and certain safety and testing requirements for districts. 

Diaz, when asked if state and local officials are beginning to move in the direction of opening schools said, "'Moving' implies action; all we've seen is talk from Sacramento or the governor. Action we support includes a mandate that districts must open five days/week for all students when public health allows. Legislators have actually created the inverse by continuing to fund school districts for their pre-pandemic headcount. San Diego Unified has taken in as much funding for students who are no longer enrolled as they got from the CARES Act. They have no incentive to work with parents because the money flows even if the students go elsewhere for an education."

Newsom's actions on reopening certain aspects of the state economy came after the recall effort gained steam and nearly enough signatures. Whether the recall effort is now causing him to support reopening schools is not clear.

Diaz said as "our elected leader, Gov. Newsom should support reopening schools because California students and families are unnecessarily suffering - the science has proven schools can be safely reopened."

According to Diaz, many parents who in the past supported Newsom and also supported public schools "are so fed up with the system that they are looking for change."

"Public health guidelines allowed San Diego Unified to open last September but they didn't," Diaz said. "Since then we've watched over 150,000 kids from neighboring districts, private and charter schools in San Diego County go to school in-person, every day, safely. It truly feels like our children are being held hostage based on ZIP code."

Another parent group, Reopen Schools CA, said in a news release they oppose the Legislature's AB 86 and SB 86 and indicated it was a "weak attempt" at reopening public schools.

"The legislative 'deal' underscores the continued failure of Sacramento to get all of our children back into their classrooms,” said Ernesto Falcon, parent advocate with OpenSchools California. “AB 86 and SB 86 are a weak attempt to appease parents across the state. The bills fall short by failing to require five days of in-person education for all grades, ignoring the science and data that shows it is safe and necessary to reopen schools."

"It has been 343 days since many schools in California have been shuttered," Falcon said. "We hope that Gov. Newsom will put children first, and mandate that all students can return to their classrooms before we approach the one-year anniversary of school closures."