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'Propagating structural racism': LA teachers union head blasts state's school reopening plan — and 'white, wealthy parents' for rushing return

NEWS

UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz also said if COVID-19 were a 'rich person's disease, we would've seen a very different response'

DAVE URBANSKI

MARCH 02, 2021

   

Image source: YouTube screenshot

The president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles blasted California's school reopening plan Monday, characterizing an element of it as "a recipe for propagating structural racism" — and also called out "white, wealthy parents" for "driving the push" to reopen schools too soon.

What are the details?

UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz uttered her words just hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Democratic lawmakers presented their reopening plan — a year after the state shut down schools over the COVID-19 pandemic, Politico said.

More from the outlet:

The much anticipated school reopening plan finalized over the weekend does not require schools to open but instead offers $2 billion in financial incentives for those that open before April 1. The proposal offers grants to schools that open transitional kindergarten through second grade by the end of March, as well as at-risk students in all grades. That includes districts in counties that are still in the state's purple tier, with infection rates higher than what teachers unions have said are too unsafe for reopening.

Myrat-Cruz pushed back hard on the money aspect, saying lower-income communities will suffer because they already have higher infection rates.

"If you condition funding on the reopening of schools, that money will only go to white and wealthier schools that do not have the transmission rates that low-income black and brown communities do," she said. "This is a recipe for propagating structural racism, and it is deeply unfair to the students we serve."

Los Angeles Unified is the second largest district in America with about 600,000 students, Politico said, adding that it's by far the largest in the state with roughly 10 percent of California's public schoolchildren.

"We are being unfairly targeted by people who are not experiencing this disease in the same ways as students and families are in our communities. If this was a rich person's disease, we would've seen a very different response. We would not have the high rate of infections and deaths," Myart-Cruz said. "Now educators are asked instead to sacrifice ourselves, the safety of our students, and the safety of our schools."

She said the union wants staff fully vaccinated from COVID-19 or be provided full access to vaccinations before schools reopen.

Myart-Cruz also said "some voices are being allowed to speak louder than others. We have to call out the privilege behind the largely white, wealthy parents driving the push for a rushed return."