It’s not about educating the kids, it’s about money.
High School Seniors in San Francisco may be allowed to go back to school this year for one day only, so the city’s public schools can qualify for $12 million in state reopening funds.
The teachers union apparently cut a deal with the district to allow students back in the classroom for one day. They won’t get any instruction, instead they’ll have “in-person supervision”.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
“In what some are calling a blatant money grab, the deal between the district and teachers union will bring seniors back “for at least one day before the end of the school year,” so the city’s public schools can qualify for $12 million in state reopening funds.
The last-minute plan for seniors was yet another disappointment for San Francisco families, health officials, political leaders and mental health experts who have argued for the reopening of district schools for months, only to face multiple delays, even as many private school students have been back since the fall.
The teachers union, which acknowledged the academic and emotional harm to many students from remote learning, argued it wasn’t safe to return until educators were vaccinated and even then resisted a fuller reopening.
Despite teachers getting priority for vaccinations, the union agreed only to allow a small group of vulnerable middle and high school students to return even as other districts — such as Berkeley and Oakland — brought a larger share of older students back...
District officials said they believed the plan would mean $12 million in state reopening grants, which by state law required districts to reopen for in-person instruction for elementary school students as well as students in a least one middle or high school grade.”
However Assemblyman Phil Ting, who authored state legislation on school reopenings, blasted San Francisco schools plan.
Ting told the San Francisco Chronicle, “Kids were supposed to come back in person. Kids were supposed to come back to learn.”