SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — California Governor Gavin Newsom said Tuesday the state is mulling ways to make up for lost time by reopening schools as early as July, even as the nation marks a grim milestone with 1 million known coronavirus cases.
A potential head start on the next school year will only happen if “adaptations and modifications” are made within the state’s extensive education system and child care facilities. Newsom said the continued stabilization of hospitalization rates has led to brainstorming and conversations with education leaders about how to make up for the pandemic-shortened school year.
“As a father of four, that learning loss is very real,” Newsom said, as California’s public schools have been closed since March. “From a socioeconomic frame, a racial justice frame, this is even more compounding and more challenging. It’s incumbent upon us to think anew.”
Tuesday’s pandemic briefing likely assuaged the anxieties of millions of California parents, but it didn’t contain great news for businesses and consumers clamoring to restart the economy.
The Democratic governor said that while he expects to modify the statewide shelter-in-place order in “weeks not months” and allow “lower-risk” businesses like retailers and manufacturers to open in a limited capacity, a full reopening remains months away. Newsom signaled beauty salons, movie theaters, shopping malls, weddings and church services will remain on the backburner indefinitely, barring a vaccine or major therapeutic developments.
The Democratic governor is using a 6-point plan to guide the tiered reopening of the state’s $3 trillion economy, calling it a “pandemic roadmap.”
According to Newsom, California will reopen in four phases: the first and current stage entails improving testing/tracing and prepping hospitals for an additional surge. Stage two calls for the limited reopening of schools, retailers, business offices and public spaces. The final two stages cover so-called “high-risk workplaces” like gyms, salons, entertainment venues and concerts.
Newsom said the state is tracking progress on the six indicators and won’t act due to political pressure or actions taken elsewhere.
“Politics will not drive our decision making, protests won’t drive our decision making,” said the first-term governor. “Science, the data, public health will drive our decision making.”
Taking a long view at what restrictions might still be in place come the presidential election in November, the LA County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to send a vote-by-mail ballot to all registered voters this fall.
The permanent policy, introduced by Supervisors Janice Hahn and Sheila Kuehl, means the county’s more than 5 million voters will receive a paper ballot to return by mail for all elections moving forward.
“We don’t know what challenges we will be facing in this pandemic this fall, but by sending every voter a mail-in ballot we can ensure that everyone can cast their ballot safely, no matter what the future holds,” Hahn said in a statement.
Supervisors said the move will cost at least $9 million but won’t hamper county efforts to increase the number of polling locations or the extended 10-day voting calendar before election day.
The county is studying voting system improvements in the wake of the March 3 primary election chaos that saw high wait times and glitchy voting machines frustrate long lines of voters.
LA County Registrar Dean Logan told supervisors Tuesday that California will likely adopt a similar mail-in ballot policy statewide by the fall.
In a statement, LA County Democratic Party chair Mark Gonzalez praised the move.
“While Donald Trump and Republicans are doing everything they can to suppress the vote, our LA County leaders along with [California Secretary of State Alex Padilla] are leading the way for what should become the future of voting in this country,” Gonzalez said.