California Gov. Gavin Newsom approving the allocation of $2 billion to address learning loss from COVID lockdowns is a “stark admission of failure,” a Chino Valley school board president told Fox News Digital.
“The recent settlement in which California agreed to spend $2 billion to help children most impacted by lost learning and mental health issues caused by the school closures is a stark admission of the failures that occurred,” Chino Valley Unified School District Board President Sonia Shaw told Fox News Digital.
California is being forced to spend $2 billion to help students recover from learning loss after the case Cayla J. v. California was settled in February. Newsom approved the allocation of funds on June 29 through Senate Bill 153.
Nearly every school in California was locked down for in-person learning and students attended school remotely from home during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to non-profit law firm Public Counsel, who was involved in the case, the Golden State will spend what’s left of COVID-19 relief funds on tutoring and other efforts to help students recover from learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom approving the spending of $2 billion to address learning loss is a “stark admission of failure,” a California school board president told Fox News Digital. (Tayfun Coskun)
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An attorney from Morrison Foerster, another law firm involved in the lawsuit, told Fox News Digital in February that they proved that school shutdowns during the coronavirus pandemic were a detriment to low-income students and students of color who experienced learning loss.
Shaw, a parent of two students in Chino Valley Unified School District, went on to say, “Unfortunately, the damage is done, and this should have been a priority to the Department of Education and the Governor. I’m grateful to those who never gave up to ensure resources are used to help students.”
She continued, “This wound was inflicted by poor leadership and misguided policies. Our children suffered immeasurably because of these decisions, and it is outrageous that it took a lawsuit to recognize and address the damage.”
Lance Christensen, a father of four currently enrolled in the Wheatland School District, told Fox News: “Rather than acknowledge how our state’s elected officials have consistently failed millions of children in our public schools, the legislature passed and the governor signed a bill that will not only send more money into our sub-par government schools, but have no real accountability other than reports that no one will read or seriously consider.”
He added, “It’s time for the legislature to cut its ties with teachers’ unions who regularly rebuff any opportunities for educational reform. Parents who have no real resources or options for their children in poor performing public schools will see funds go to bureaucrats rather than programs they know will benefit their children.”
The lawsuit explained further that the federal government granted public school districts more than $190 billion to address learning loss from March 2020 to March 2021.
The plaintiffs argued that California failed to ensure local districts used that money for students who needed the most help.
California is being forced to spend $2 billion to help students recover from learning loss after a legal settlement in February. Newsom approved the agreement from the settlement on June 29. (Getty Images)
Therefore, the settlement requires existing funds from the Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant to go toward hiring tutors and taking other steps to help students rebound from learning loss.
The funding is to be used to help students already facing adverse education outcomes, often children from low-income households and minorities.
The Heritage Foundation’s education policy research fellow Jason Bedrick told Fox News Digital that California lawmakers created the problem.
“California policymakers created this problem by keeping schools shut down far too long. Now they’re throwing money at the problem in a vain attempt to reverse the damage they’ve done,” he said.
“A far better use of this money would be to directly empower families to choose the learning environments that work best for their children—whether private schools, district schools, or home schools.”
Regarded by Public Counsel as “one of the largest education-related settlements in U.S. history,” California has also agreed to propose a new law enabling funds to be spent on “community organizations with a proven track record of improving student success.”
Nearly every school in California was locked down for in-person learning and students attended school remotely from home during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Getty Images)
The law mandates that local education agencies operate under a Local Control and Accountability Plan, requiring them to report on the success of any program created to help students who experience learning loss.
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A California Dept. of Education spokesperson said that the proposal includes changes that the administration believes are “appropriate at this stage coming out of the pandemic to focus on the students who were most impacted and continued to need support.”
American Federation For Children senior fellow Corey DeAngelis told Fox News Digital that Newsom is “now essentially an arsonist pretending to be a firefighter.”
“He allowed teachers unions to keep California’s government schools closed and now he’s rewarding them for their failures. Teachers unions held children’s education hostage in California. Gavin Newsom is now giving them additional ransom payments as a reward for hurting the hostages,” he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the California Department of Education and Gov. Newsom’s office for comment, but did not receive immediate responses.
