School officials are struggling to keep schools open amid Covid outbreaks and staffing shortages. Conflicting messages from California state officials are making it even more difficult.
Brown's decision is a bitter disappointment for youth and civil rights advocates who have made eliminating suspensions for "disruption and defiance," which are disproportionately meted out to students of color, a priority.
If schools could improve their work environments, and stop the flood of teachers leaving the field, the teaching shortage would go away, according to a report from the Learning Policy Institute.