Some individual districts throughout California, including in Oakland, Long Beach and San Francisco, announced similar vaccine mandates earlier this week, just before Mr. Newsom unveiled the statewide policy. For Mr. Newsom, getting children back into classrooms is a task with particularly high stakes. Next month, the state’s voters will be asked whether they want to recall the governor from office, and frustration among parents over prolonged school closures has been a significant driver of support for his ouster. On Wednesday, the president of the California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union and an affiliate of the National Education Association, said in a statement that it supported the vaccine mandate. “Educators want to be in classrooms with their students, and the best way to make sure that happens is for everyone who is medically eligible to be vaccinated, with robust testing and multitiered safety measures,” the union president, E. Toby Boyd, said, adding that the testing alternative is appropriate for educators who can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons.

Source: New York Times August 11, 2021 18:17 UTC