On July 8, the California Teachers Association (CTA), the most powerful public-sector union in the Golden State, issued a statement asserting that, due to coronavirus concerns, state schools should not open this fall. The following day, the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) released a 17-page “research paper” in which concerns about coronavirus were secondary to sweeping political demands—including Medicare for All, guaranteed housing, a wealth tax, a millionaire’s tax, defunding the police, financial support for illegal immigrants, and a moratorium on charter schools. The UTLA ended its manifesto by asserting, without evidence, “the only people guaranteed to benefit from the premature physical reopening of schools amidst a rapidly accelerating pandemic are billionaires and the politicians they’ve purchased.”
The Los Angeles Unified School District fell into line on July 13, announcing that students will not return to the classroom in the fall because of the virus. The circle was completed on July 17, when Governor Gavin Newsom shut down in-person education in 33 of the Golden State’s 58 most densely populated counties, which account for over 80 percent of the state’s school-age population. But in a confusing twist—the details buried in a press-release footnote—individual counties can apply for a waiver for elementary school students, exempting them from the shutdown.
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