SACRAMENTO
Local control likely preserved
Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers are primed to unveil this week an elementary school reopening plan — one that seems likely to preserve the current model of local school districts negotiating agreements with teachers unions, raising questions as to whether the deal will actually accelerate students’ return to campus.
Newsom at a Tuesday press conference emphasized that “we can safely get back our youngest children … into schools in small cohorts.” But the question of teacher vaccinations — the main sticking point in reopening negotiations — appears likely to be resolved on a district-by-district basis, suggesting that the state’s patchwork of school reopenings won’t be replaced by a standardized system anytime soon.
How soon teachers can expect to get vaccinated will depend largely on where they live, CalMatters’ Ricardo Cano reports. While Marin County and the city of Long Beach have already begun vaccinating some teachers, others — including Santa Clara and San Mateo counties — have no estimate of when teachers might get vaccinated. And districts differ on vaccination policies. Alameda Unified plans to bring back K-5 students on March 8 without vaccinating teachers, whereas the superintendent of Los Angeles Unified sees vaccinating all teachers as a prerequisite to reopening schools.
The upcoming proposal appears likely to retain local control, “recognizing that each county is uniquely positioned as it relates to this pandemic,” Newsom said.
Newsom: The plan “would allow for collective bargaining, allow for localism, but at the same time set up expectations that our default and our priority is to get our kids safely back into school.”
Still, Newsom acknowledged “it’s very unlikely” all teachers will be able to receive a vaccine “before the end of the school year” — suggesting that districts with such a requirement could remain shuttered through the spring.
Meanwhile, another educational challenge is brewing. Thousands of California families chose to keep their kids out of kindergarten amid the pandemic — and many will enter first grade next school year behind the curve, putting immense pressure on an already strained system, CalMatters’ Elizabeth Aguilera reports.
—Hoeven, CALMatters
SACRAMENTO
Panel recommends big criminal justice changes
California should allow all inmates except those on Death Row and those serving life sentences without the chance of parole to request lighter sentences after they spend at least 15 years behind bars, a Newsom advisory committee recommended in a Tuesday report.
Among the committee’s other suggestions were ending mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent crimes, reducing fees for certain traffic offenses and limiting the use of sentence enhancements. The report came a day after a judge blocked Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s ban on sentence enhancements, arguing that it violates California law. But the committee members said enhancements, which can lengthen defendants’ prison sentences under certain circumstances, are imposed with “extreme racial disparities.”
Lawmakers have already introduced several bills to limit sentence enhancements, and state Sen. Dave Cortese, a San Jose Democrat, introduced a bill Tuesday that would remove the mandatory penalty of death or life without parole for certain inmates and allow them to petition the court for resentencing.
—CALMatters
Gov. Newsom statement on President Biden’s nomination of Julie Su as deputy secretary of labor at the U.S. Department of Labor
SACRAMENTO
Gov. Newsom statement on President Biden’s nomination of Julie Su
Gov. Gavin Newsom today issued the following statement regarding President Biden’s nomination of Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency Julie A. Su to serve as Deputy Secretary of Labor at the U.S. Department of Labor:
“Julie has been with me from the very start. Throughout her service to California, and amid the challenging circumstances presented by COVID-19 and the resulting recession, Julie has done extraordinary work to create pathways to quality jobs in emerging fields like clean energy, help ensure workers can stay healthy on the job and guide our transition to the future of work.
“With a leader like Julie at the helm—a tireless fighter for working Americans and a voice for the voiceless—the U.S. Department of Labor will play a central role in guiding us through recovery toward becoming a safer, more equitable and more prosperous nation.”
