Over 210,000 educators and school workers in California have been vaccinated already – Are you ready for your shot?
On Monday Governor Newsom announced that the state had nearly tripled its goal of vaccinating 75,000 teachers, school staff, and childcare workers per week and had, in fact, vaccinated 210,000 education workers the previous week.
“This is welcome news for teachers, students and parents as more and more schools reopen safely across the state,” said Governor Newsom. “We will continue working with our local partners to accelerate this effort in communities across the state so that all school staff have access to a vaccine within weeks.”
The good news comes on the heels of the Governor following through on his commitment to set aside 10% of all vaccine supply for teachers, school staff, and childcare workers.
At present, education workers have many opportunities to access vaccine appointments: through single-use access codes that school districts are providing to employees; through mass vaccination sites at stadiums and public spaces across the state; through pharmacies that are seeing an increase in supply thanks to President Biden’s efforts to ramp up vaccine production; and directly through their own health care providers or county departments of health.
All CFT members are encouraged to get a vaccine shot as soon as one is available. Along with reducing community spread and multi-layered mitigation strategies, It is an essential element of returning to in-person instruction.
Have you gotten your shot? Are you ready for your turn? Please share a vaccine photo with us by email or share a photo online by tagging @CFTunion. We’ll share vaccine photos in an upcoming Facebook photo album.
President Biden signs the American Rescue Plan
Yesterday President Joe Biden signed the nearly $2 trillion dollar American Rescue Plan into law. The package, one of the most significant pieces of legislation in decades, provides $1,400 stimulus checks to individuals and families, increases unemployment benefits through September and provides $350 billion in state and local aid. The package also sets aside $14 billion for vaccine distribution efforts across the country.
The plan also provides for major investments in public education, including $170 billion for K-12 schools and $40 billion for higher education. California will receive $20 billion of these education dollars, with $15 billion going to our K-12 schools and $5 billion going to institutions of higher education.
The American Rescue Plan is wildly popular with Americans, with 75% supporting the plan. Despite that fact, the bill was passed out of Congress without a single Repblican Congressperson or Senator voting for the bill.
AFT President Randi Weingarten praised the American Rescue Plan, saying “Across this country, as we rebuild and recover, people need support. This bill puts resources directly into our cities and towns so the critical services that have carried us through this pandemic can continue to operate and the American people can get back on a path toward recovery. This relief package will ensure that families—no matter our color, background or ZIP code—have the vaccines, wages and financial support we need to pull through this pandemic together, and that school buildings have the resources they need to reopen for in-person learning safely and equitably.”
Sign the petition asking state education officials to waive this year’s standardized tests
If you haven’t already, please take a moment to sign the CFT petition to state education officials, urging them to pursue a waiver for the required administration of the Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) standardized tests in the spring of 2021.
California must request a waiver from testing for the ESSA standardized tests. The instability of the past year means that the test results won’t be reliable, or fair. Our students and schools would be better served by prioritizing locally developed, authentic assessments that could be used as a real baseline to help educators, students, and parents plan their work over the next year.
Please sign the petition today.
