The Orange County Board of Education voted Tuesday night to recommend in-person education starting next month. They also said that masks should not be required and social distancing should not be enforced. This comes the same day that LAUSD and San Diego Unified both announced that the school year will start remotely to keep kids safe.
“It’s 100% political. This is really just a parlor game. This is all optics,” says Orange County reporter Gustavo Arellano.
Arellano says the OC Board of Education has no power over school districts’ final decision about reopening, but that doesn’t mean the 4-1 vote was insignificant.
“More importantly, it’s about the specter of here we have the Orange County Board of Education saying it’s okay not to wear masks, it’s okay not to have social distancing,” he says.
The vote is largely opposed by teachers and liberal residents. Arellano says this vote by the Republican-led Board of Education could be bad news for conservatives in November — if kids go back to school and case numbers rise again.