California teacher unions fight calls to reopen schools
By Howard Blume
As parents express widespread dissatisfaction with distance learning, two influential California teachers unions are pushing against growing momentum to reopen schools in many communities, saying that campuses are not yet safe enough amid the pandemic.
Leaders with the California Teachers Assn., with 300,000 members, and United Teachers Los Angeles, representing 30,000 in the state’s largest school district, said that districts do not have the resources to provide the level of protection they say is needed to bring teachers and children together in classrooms. . .
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“More and more research is showing that reopening schools will not overly endanger students and staff,” said Lance Izumi, senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute. Izumi cited research from Brown University suggesting that “schools are not super spreaders and school infection rates are low even in places with high community rates.”
Separately, researchers at Yale concluded that child care could be offered with relative safety. . .
