SACRAMENTO, California, November 2, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Democratic California governor Gavin Newsom revealed at a press conference on Friday that his children have returned to their private school classrooms for in-person instruction. However, public school students in the district in which he lives, as well as throughout most of California, remain locked out of their schools.
Newsom said:
My children, they started to phase in, my four-year-old, my seven-year-old, nine-year-old, so they’re phasing back into school and we are phasing out of our very challenging distance learning that we’ve been doing, so many parents are doing up and down the state.
According to Politico, “Newson’s children attend a private school in Sacramento County that has a hybrid schedule that alternates remote and in-person education.” The school will return to normal operation next month. The article also says that all of the public schools in Sacramento County legally are allowed to reopen their classrooms:
But the county’s large public school districts — including San Juan Unified, which serves Newsom’s neighborhood — have yet to do so. Some Sacramento County districts plan to reopen elementary schools next month, while San Juan has a January goal date. Sacramento City Unified has yet to propose a reopening date.
The biggest push-back against opening schools comes from the California Teachers Association, the union representing teachers from across the state, who say it’s not safe to reopen classrooms without the ability to routinely test students and staff. In a letter to Newsom and other elected leaders, the CTA expressed the demand that the state ensure that “robust testing, tracing, and isolation support, along with the other prevention measures, are in place before additional students, their educators and support personnel return to in-person teaching and learning.”
Newsom’s press conference was held at the opening of a $25-million laboratory that tests for COVID-19, and increased testing should lead districts to reopen schools. He said he is eager for all schools to reopen, because the social and emotional learning that takes place in the classroom means that “the classroom is best place for our kids.” Those students who are not able to attend private schools and must settle for online instruction only often suffer academically, and that leads to a widening of the achievement gap.
According to The Daily Wire:
Pradeep Shankar, a radiologist and public health policy expert, said on Twitter that the “rich and elite will have children that will advance for more than those in public schools…and years from now, we will wonder with great concern about why we have a massive income gap[.]”