News Release
CONTACT: Shannon Haber, 213-393-1289
Los Angeles Unified Outlines Legislative and Advocacy Priorities
LOS ANGELES (Feb. 9, 2021) – The Board of Education today discussed Los Angeles Unified’s legislative and advocacy priorities for the coming year. The school district will also continue to advocate for and implement policies and practices to help respond to the crisis presented by COVID-19.
Los Angeles Unified will work with elected officials and policy-makers at the local, state and federal level to help find solutions to these issues. School districts in California continue to struggle with many of the symptoms of inadequate funding – spending per student is about $17,000 a year in California compared with about $30,000 in New York. The lack of adequacy presents a challenge to providing the best possible education to the children in school today and an existential threat to the future of California as a whole.
Major areas of advocacy include:
- Equitable funding to address learning loss and provide all students with additional time at school to provide all students with additional time at school to recover lost learning opportunities and deal with the trauma the pandemic has brought into their homes and our communities.
- Increased funding for P-12, including early childhood education, to address the inequities and impacts of the pandemic, including COVID-19 testing, vaccination and food relief efforts.
- Authorize school-based credentialing programs for school nurses.
- Adequate funding for students with disabilities from preschool through 12th Grade.
- Commitments and funding from all levels of government to address the digital divide.
- Increased funding for mental health support in schools and a permanent extension of federal and state policies that allow the expanded use of telehealth to provide care.
“Elected leaders from Washington D.C. to Sacramento to Los Angeles City Hall and the County Hall of Administration need to put deeds behind their words and take the steps necessary to put schools and the children they serve first,” Superintendent Austin Beutner said. “The crisis is creating extraordinary needs among the students and families served by our schools and the impact is being felt disproportionately by many of the low-income families we serve. Our nation has responded with extraordinary funding and support for the healthcare system to mitigate the impacts of job loss and foster economic recovery. Now is the time to do the same for the children in public schools.”
Since the COVID-19 crisis began, Los Angeles Unified has met the needs of the school community on a dramatic scale, operating community relief efforts at schools which have provided about 102 million meals along with 24 million items of much-needed supplies, made sure 500,000 students have the computers and internet access to stay connected with their school community and continue learning, and operated COVID testing centers at schools that have administered about 500,000 free tests to staff members, students and their families.
“Now more than ever, as we face unprecedented challenges in responding to the pandemic, we need support from our federal, state and local governments,” Board President Kelly Gonez said. “These priorities lay out the resources and legislative changes required to help us meet the holistic needs of our students and families now and in the coming year.”
“As we work hard to reopen our schools and help the many students who have suffered learning losses during the pandemic, we need more funds and resources from Sacramento,” Board Member Dr. George J. McKenna III said.
“We are committed to the communities we serve today more than ever,” Board Member Mónica García said. “Now is the time to align our demands with our priorities to ensure every level of government is held accountable in closing the gaps that existed before the COVID-19 crisis and those that transpired thereafter.”
“In the midst of this pandemic our students, families and Los Angeles Unified employees have struggled and experienced an overwhelming amount of economic instability and personal loss,” Board Member Scott M. Schmerelson said. “To protect and support the health and wellbeing of our school community, we created a nation-leading school- based relief effort and testing program. As we continue to prepare for a possible reopening of schools, we need to double our advocacy efforts and work with our public health officials, local, state, and federal government to increase funding, address learning losses and close the achievement gap for all our students.”
“As we seek much-needed resources and support to help our school communities recover from this crisis, I appreciate this advocacy plan to respond to the pandemic,” Board Member Nick Melvoin said. “We will continue to push for the necessary funding and policies to mitigate learning loss, address the digital divide, support sustainable funding for students with special needs, expand access to early education opportunities, and more.”
“Additional state funding will change the lives of our students as they recover from the challenges of learning when schools were closed during the pandemic,” Board Member Jackie Goldberg said. “In Sacramento, I chaired the Assembly Education Committee. I know what a difference appropriate state action can make.”
“Our highest-need students, especially those without broadband internet, will greatly benefit from our shared efforts to close the digital divide,” said Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin. “I want to especially thank our community partners who spoke today and who have been consistently advocating for equitable educational access for nearly a year of distance learning. When local, state and federal governments center our communities that have historically been pushed to the margins, we can achieve educational equity.”