Almost every waiver application for in-person instruction for grades K-6 has been approved by the state for schools in counties deemed a high risk. But private schools comprise an overwhelming majority of those schools, creating an equity problem.
Diana Marrone felt alone and out of options.
The single mother of a 5-year-old kindergartener had struggled to balance her full-time job while guiding her daughter’s remote learning. Marrone’s mother would ordinarily assist with childcare, but coronavirus exposure concerns ruled that out. Still, Marrone balked at the idea of sitting her daughter, Sienna, out for a year, worried she would fall behind academically and resent school.
So Marrone, who lives in the East Bay suburb of Oakley, pulled her daughter out of the public district school in Antioch she’d been attending remotely. At a monthly tuition of $579, Marrone enrolled Sienna at a private Christian school within the Antioch district’s boundaries that had begun bringing elementary students back on campus.
“I was very desperate,” Marrone said. She remembered thinking to herself, “What am I going to do? Am I going to quit my job and Zoom from my car and be homeless?”
The private school, Cornerstone Christian Academy, was able to reopen after the county and state approved their application for an elementary waiver. These waivers, which the state introduced in early August, allow public and private schools in restricted counties to offer in-person instruction to students in kindergarten through sixth grade if they prove they will take strict safety precautions and demonstrate they have support from teachers and families to reopen.
But nearly two months since the waivers’ debut, a disparate picture has emerged: California’s private schools make up an overwhelming share of approved applications.
More than 500 private schools have had waivers approved, according to a running list published by the California Department of Public Health, compared with roughly four dozen public school districts and charters comprising more than 120 campuses.
When student enrollment data factored, the private-public disparity appears starker. The private schools that have so far been granted waivers account for at least 25% of the state’s K-6 private-school enrollment, based on a CalMatters analysis. The public schools that have been granted waiver as of Tuesday account for about 1.6% of the state’s total K-6 public-school enrollment.
The boxes that need to be checked for a waiver approval are no different for public schools than for private schools, and overall, few submitted applications have been denied so far. But experts say that, despite interest from some school districts in applying for waivers, meeting the requirements present less challenges for private schools.
Whereas public school districts must demonstrate that they have community-wide buy-in to physically reopen campuses, private schools are often only required to engage “tiny subsets of those communities,” said Kevin Gordon, a veteran Capitol lobbyist who represents school districts.
Whereas most public schools must show they have support from teachers unions that wield heavy influence in crafting plans for reopening and remote learning through collective bargaining agreements, private schools that mostly operate without organized labor “don’t have to have that conversation,” Gordon said.
“It’s not necessarily a bad thing because the unions are doing their job, and their job is to look out for the interest of the employees they represent,” Gordon said. “And in private schools, they (teachers) are not represented.”
Equity disparity
In 12 counties, including Contra Costa County where Marrone lives, private schools make up the entirety of approved waivers so far.
In the Central Valley county of Kings, for example, all five of its private schools have been granted elementary waivers while the 14 public school districts there remain educating students remotely. As of this week, all of the approved waivers in Ventura County have come from private schools, though some districts there have indicated they plan to apply for waivers.
“This program inadvertently is not producing a tremendous amount of equity,” Dr. Robert Levin, Ventura County’s public health officer, said of the elementary waivers.
Levin said the health benefits of bringing back students to socialize with their classmates and teachers under strict safety measures outweigh the fears and risks of reopening campuses. He said he remains concerned for students with special needs and English learners who’ve been served poorly by months-long campus closures, calling it “a shame” and “a crime” that public-school students who are disadvantaged “are not able to avail themselves of in-person education.”
“The bottom line is education is an important part of public health,” Levin said, “and if we’re educating kids in private schools and not educating kids in public schools, then what’s going to come of that is an education and class difference, ultimately.”
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