California plans to set aside 10% of first vaccine doses for educators, school staff and child care providers starting in March to help get children back in classrooms, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday.
The move is aimed at jump-starting in-person learning after nearly a year of distance learning for most of California's 6 million K-12 students. It comes a day after California's legislative leaders announced a $6.5 billion proposal aimed at reopening schools this spring. Newsom says that's not fast enough and suggested he could veto it. The Legislature’s proposal would require that counties offer teachers vaccines as part of a reopening plan, but Newsom balked at the idea. He touted his vaccine earmark as an alternative.
“I can’t support something that's going to delay the safe reopening of schools for our youngest kids,” he said during a press briefing at a mobile vaccination site at the Alameda County Office of Education in Hayward. “My fear about what was put out yesterday, it's actually going to slow down our ability to reopen schools safely."
Lawmakers didn't appear deterred by Newsom's comments and still planned to take up the school legislation Monday, said Nannette Miranda, a spokeswoman for Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, who heads the chamber's budget committee.
Vaccinating teachers has emerged as a key sticking point in negotiations between the Newsom administration, lawmakers and teachers unions.
Teachers groups have said that access to vaccines must be at the center of any effort to reopen schools for in-person instruction.
The California Federation of Teachers released a survey Friday of more than 1,200 of its members across the state, stating they “agree by overwhelming margins that vaccines and multi-layered mitigation strategies must be at the center of any effort to reopen schools for in-person instruction.”
The survey shows that 89% of members believe ensuring a vaccine is available for all educators is “extremely important or important.”
The poll was conducted at the beginning of February.
For several weeks, the governor has urged teachers not to make vaccinations a precondition.