New York State expanded vaccine eligibility
to teachers this week. But in New York City,
the nation’s largest school district, with 1.1
million students, Mayor Bill de Blasio said
that middle and high schools will remain
closed indefinitely.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed
a $2 billion plan to pay for testing, protective
equipment and other safety enhancements to
reopen the lowest grades as soon as Feb. 16.
But educators said it is too soon to know
when California’s 600,000 teachers can expect
to be vaccinated. Jeff Freitas, president of
the California Federation of Teachers, said
vaccinations have to come first, then schools can
talk about reopening.
“We cannot put our own lives, the lives of our
students, and our communities at risk during
what is clearly an escalating crisis in our state,”
the union leader said.
California’s rollout of vaccines has been slower
than anticipated, with the first phase, involving
health care workers and nursing home residents,
still underway.
Chiefs of Change, a bipartisan group of school
administrators, called on state and federal
officials to make teachers and other school
employees immediately eligible for vaccinations
and provide more resources to conduct testing
and contact tracing in school districts.
“Those individuals are very uncomfortable and
they’re very scared about coming back into
school, no matter how safe we make it,” said
Robert Runcie, superintendent of public schools
in Broward County, Florida.
Image: Lynne Sladky