California’s childhood vaccination rates have been falling in recent years. That’s not entirely surprising given the deep politicization of vaccines during the pandemic. If some people are convinced vaccinations amount to microchipping or the “mark of the beast,” it follows they’d be less likely to subject their children to it.
The trend is, however, deeply troubling, especially against the backdrop of the resurgence of diseases once virtually extinct. A massive measles outbreak in Texas, for example, has sickened nearly 700 and led to the death of two children.
A new EdSource project presents a fascinating overview of vaccination rates at California schools. The outlet compiled both the overall vaccination rates, and MMR (a vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination rates at 6,580 schools and found that rates are lowest at public charters and private schools. EdSource reports that while charter schools are themselves public schools and, like traditional public schools, are subject to statewide vaccine mandates, their unique enrollment laws make it difficult for leaders to enforce said mandates.
San Diego County schools demonstrate that trend quite clearly. All 12 of the local schools that have vaccination rates lower than 70 percent are either private schools or charters.
At Heritage Christian School, a private school that partner with parents to homeschool their kids and requires them to “make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ,” prior to enrollment, only 5 percent of students are vaccinated. That’s tied for the third lowest vaccination rate of all schools included in EdSource’s database.
That 5 percent vaccination rate is slightly lower than the 95 percent experts have found is required to establish herd immunity, a pattern by which enough people are vaccinated to prevent diseases from readily spreading. I reached out to Heritage Christian officials to ask why they thought their vaccination rates are so low. They did not respond.
But there are some hints.
Even before the pandemic, when vaccine politics took center stage at school board meeting across the country, a rising number of families opting for homeschooling did not vaccinate their children. California does not require vaccines for children who are homeschooled. After the pandemic, the number of families homeschooling rose dramatically – more than doubling.
Data about the post-Covid homeschooling boom shows there’s been an increase in the number of liberal parents choosing to homeschool their children, complicating the traditional narrative that homeschooling is almost exclusive to conservative religious families.
I wrote about that trend about a year and a half ago. And while some parents I spoke to had systematic frustrations about traditional public schools, like concerns they hadn’t met the needs of their children, what leapt out to me was how rooted in political beliefs many parents’ decisions were. Some said the pandemic, and their sense that public schools were liberal indoctrination machines, pushed them to pull their kids out and homeschool them. Those parents also tended to inject conspiracy theories into their reasoning.
One conversation I had with a parent still sticks out to me: a mother told me she aims to have her children think critically about subjects that have long been presented in a one-sided way. When I asked for examples, she brought up the moon landing.
“I told my kids ‘You know what, (the moon landing) is kind of a controversial topic. Some people think we landed on the moon, some people think we didn’t land on the moon. Why don’t you guys research it and figure it out and come to your own conclusions and let me know what you think,’” she said.
I asked the mother what conclusion her kids came to – did we actually land on the moon? She answered my question but asked not to be quoted.
The community schools model has bubbled up here and there for years, but California’s 2022 grant program helped to thrust it fully back into the spotlight. The term describes schools that focus not just on academics but also work to provide wraparound services that meet a whole slew of student needs.
That may mean connecting students to mental health resources, providing dental health care or even creating a food pantry at a school. The model is specifically geared toward helping remove the barriers to success for students in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities.
Ever since that grant program launched, San Diego Unified has gone all in on community schools. District officials minted 25 community schools over the first three grant cohorts, and last week, leaders announced they’d selected an 10 additional schools for consideration – bringing the total number of schools in the pipeline up to 35. As it stands, about 23,551 San Diego Unified students attend a community school.
(Here’s a map of all the schools.)
The schools added in the latest cohort are scattered across the district and include Penn Elementary in Paradise Hills, Kimbrough in Grant Hill and Chesterton Elementary in Linda Vista.
Thus far, the state is set to fork over more than $51 million in implementation grants for San Diego Unified’s community schools, while the district is on the hook to match the state grants to the tune of $17 million. Should the pending cohort be approved, that would add nearly $7 million more to the state’s tab and require the district to chip in another $2 million.
Those state funds are only around for five years, meaning the community schools programs in the district’s first cohort will shift over to being completely funded by San Diego Unified in the 2027-28 school year, followed the next year by the second cohort and so on.
That’s a hefty price tag, especially once the district is required to foot the bill for all nearly three dozen community schools. But the programs have had some big impacts on the communities they serve. I spent some time at Chollas-Mead Elementary School in February and saw some of the changes myself. The program brought everything from after school activities to a food pantry to a community garden to the school and even yielded some transformational results for parents.
Despite the significant investments from the district – and the state – San Diego Unified’s budget deficit has made some nervous about the program’s future. The decision to pursue more grants and district leaders’ continued endorsement of the program from district leaders like Interim Superintendent Fabiola Bagula, seems to put that worry to rest, at least for now.
“Through feedback from those most closely associated with a particular school, we know Community Schools are already having a positive impact, and we’re committed to sustaining and expanding that progress,” Bagula wrote in a district press release.
In an additional statement, San Diego Unified Interim Deputy Superintendent Nicole Dewitt emphasized that the program will continue beyond state funding, writing “San Diego Unified is committed to sustaining the Community Schools model after the expiration of grant funds. The intent of the grant is to build systems and structures within each Community School to provide services and supports to our students and families year-over-year through partnerships with local community organizations.”
What We’re Writing
At Thursday’s board meeting, trustees chose not to rescind layoff notices that have sparked outrage among community members. Those community members have responded by launching a recall effort against four of the district’s board members.
For more than two decades, Albert Einstein Academies Charter has grown rapidly thanks to two unique offerings: a German language immersion program and an International Baccalaureate curriculum. In recent years, however, the schools’ German program has degraded, and parents aren’t happy. The conflict underscores a deeper conflict about what exactly Einstein is for.
Last week, Southwestern College added the most high-tech weapon yet to its AI-powered fraudster detection toolkit: AI. I spoke to the CEO of the company that created that tool to better understand what the tool does, why they designed it and what the future of education and AI looks like.
