newsom education covid school-closures learning-loss class-analysis CTA teacher-unions working-class private-schools reopening
related: Charter Schools and the Billionaire Reform Movement | Education - Donors and Backers | _Gavin Newsom Master Profile donors: CTA - California Teachers Association
The Record
California had some of the longest public school closures in the United States during COVID. Schools closed in March 2020. Most California public school students did not return to in-person learning until fall 2021 — over a year of remote instruction for the majority of the state’s 6 million K-12 students. Some districts, particularly in urban areas, remained remote even longer.
Newsom’s administration deferred heavily to local districts and teacher unions on reopening timelines. When the Biden administration and CDC updated guidance in spring 2021 pushing for reopening, Newsom was slower than most Democratic governors to translate that guidance into state-level pressure on districts. California’s reopening pace was among the slowest in the nation.
The Class Division This Created
This is the sharpest class war dimension of Newsom’s education record.
Private schools stayed open. Many California private schools — including those serving the children of Sacramento politicians and wealthy Bay Area and Los Angeles families — returned to in-person learning in fall 2020 or by early 2021. The children of people with the resources to pay private school tuition, hire tutors, or form learning pods were in classrooms. Public school children — the children of working-class and poor families who cannot pay private tuition — were on Zoom.
Contradiction
Newsom’s own children. Newsom’s children attended a private school in Sacramento that was offering in-person learning while he was telling California parents that schools needed to remain closed. This was reported in late 2020 and became a significant political controversy. He acknowledged it and said it was a mistake. The larger point is not personal hypocrisy — it is structural: the people in the room making decisions about public school closures were people whose own children had access to private alternatives. The families absorbing the consequences had no voice in those decisions.
Learning loss data. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data published after 2021 showed California students suffered significant learning loss, particularly in math. Low-income students and English language learners — who were already behind and who had the least ability to compensate through private resources — suffered the most. California’s learning loss was worse than the national average in several metrics.
The CTA Role
The California Teachers Association opposed in-person reopening until vaccination was widely available, citing teacher safety. Teacher safety is a legitimate concern — teachers are workers, and their safety matters. But the CTA’s position also reflected institutional interests: remote instruction was safer for teachers and maintained their employment without requiring in-person exposure.
The class conflict here is precise: teacher safety (working-class worker protection) vs. student learning (working-class child outcomes). Newsom, with CTA as a major donor and institutional ally, aligned with CTA on the timeline. The students who paid the cost were disproportionately working-class.
This is not an argument that Newsom was wrong to prioritize teacher safety. It is an argument about who had power in that decision-making process and whose interests were centered.
The $6.6 Billion Incentive
In February 2021, Newsom announced a $6.6 billion incentive package to encourage districts to reopen for in-person instruction by the end of March 2021. This was the most aggressive state-level pressure he applied on reopening. Most districts did not meet the March timeline. The funds were eventually distributed more broadly.
The incentive approach — paying districts to reopen rather than requiring it — reflects the limits of state power over local school governance and Newsom’s unwillingness to create a direct conflict with district leadership and teacher unions.
The Private School Moment as Content
Newsom’s children attending in-person private school while he maintained public school closures is a content segment that writes itself through the class lens — not as an attack on him personally, but as a visual demonstration of how class position insulates decision-makers from the consequences of their decisions. The families who couldn’t opt out paid the cost. He didn’t.
Key Quotes
“We will get our kids back in school safely and as quickly as possible.” — Newsom, 2020, repeated throughout the closure period.
“It was a mistake, and I apologize.” — Newsom, on his children attending in-person private school, November 2020.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Mar 2020 | California public schools close statewide |
| Fall 2020 | Most California public schools remain remote; many private schools reopen |
| Nov 2020 | Newsom children’s private school in-person attendance reported; Newsom apologizes |
| Feb 2021 | Newsom announces $6.6B incentive to reopen by March 2021 |
| Spring 2021 | CDC updates guidance pushing for reopening; California slow to respond |
| Fall 2021 | Most California public school students return to in-person learning |
| 2022–2023 | NAEP data documents significant learning loss, worse for low-income students |
Money
Ed-Tech and Remote Learning Platform Profits: Extended public school closures (March 2020–Fall 2021, longer in some districts) drove massive demand for remote learning platforms: Zoom, Google Meet, Schoology, Canvas, and related ed-tech infrastructure. Tech companies profited substantially from the shift to remote instruction. Newsom’s slow, deferential approach to reopening — prioritizing CTA timeline over CDC guidance — kept California schools remote longer than most states, extending the period of platform usage and vendor dependency. The class division here: working-class public school students absorbed the learning loss while ed-tech companies captured institutional lock-in.
Donation-to-Policy Timeline
| Date | Event/Contribution | Amount | Policy Action/Outcome | Time Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | CTA (California Teachers Association) major donor | $5M+ | Newsom defers to CTA on school closure timeline; slow reopening follows | Ongoing |
| March 2020 | California public schools close statewide | — | Closures begin; private schools remain partially open | — |
| Fall 2020 | Most CA public schools stay remote; private schools reopen | — | Class division emerges: wealthy families access in-person; working-class on Zoom | — |
| Nov 2020 | Newsom’s children attend in-person private school; reported | — | Newsom acknowledges “mistake”; symbolic moment of class insulation | — |
| Feb 2021 | Newsom announces $6.6B reopening incentive | — | Weak pressure on districts; incentive-based rather than directive | — |
| Spring 2021 | CDC updates guidance for reopening; CA slow to respond | — | Newsom defers to local control; CTA continues opposition | — |
| Fall 2021 | Most CA students finally return to in-person learning | — | 18+ months of remote instruction for majority of CA’s 6M K-12 students | 18 months |
| 2022–2023 | NAEP data documents significant learning loss | — | Low-income and ELL students hardest hit; gaps widened | 2+ years |
Contradiction
Newsom tells California families schools need to stay closed for safety while his own children attend in-person private school. The structural issue: people making school closure decisions had access to private alternatives. Families without those resources had no choice.
Analytical Patterns
The Genuine Win + Structural Limit
Teacher safety is a genuine concern — teachers are workers, and they deserved protection from COVID exposure. Prioritizing that protection was legitimate. The structural limit: the choice was presented as binary (closed schools for teacher safety vs. open schools risking teachers) when the actual choice was about who bore the costs. Wealthy families who could afford private schools, tutors, or learning pods (including the governor’s family) had a third option. Working-class families did not. The genuinely safe reopening would have required either rapid vaccination, proper ventilation, or small cohort instruction — none of which were adequately resourced. Instead, the choice became: teachers safe (working-class students lose) vs. students in-person (working-class teachers exposed).
The Villain Framing
The villain is never the bureaucratic failure to secure adequate resources for safe in-person instruction. Instead, the villain is implicitly “people who want schools open without proper precautions.” Newsom’s deference to local control and CTA’s timeline reframes closure as a public health necessity rather than a political choice about who bears costs. The actual villain — inadequate federal COVID response, inadequate state resources for ventilation and vaccination — remains off-screen.
The Two-Audience Problem
To teachers and unions, Newsom says “I’m protecting your safety” (closure and slow reopening). To business groups and the public frustrated with closures, he says “we’re following CDC guidance and local input” (not my decision, it’s community-driven). Both can believe they won because Newsom has managed to blame external factors while deferring to the union constituency he needed most.
The Class Division as the Content
The Newsom-private-school moment is valuable not as personal hypocrisy but as structural revelation. It shows which families had exits from the system and which didn’t. That visual — the governor’s children in classrooms while public school children zoom — is the distilled version of who bears the costs of public policy. It’s not available to working-class families to “opt out” of.
Sources
- LA Times: Newsom children’s private school attendance (Tier 2)
- CalMatters: Newsom, lawmakers unveil plan to push schools to reopen (Tier 2)
- Education Week: California reopening pace compared nationally (Tier 2)
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