This is. . . School?
After two delays and dangerously close approaches in dangerous October, New York City’s public schools opened for private learning this week. I admit I don’t think they will.
My mistake was to believe what Mayor Bill de Blasio was saying about what we need to do to open schools. Announcing the second delay at the individual school on September 17, de Blasio said, “I announce today, in addition to the 2,000 teachers we announced several days ago, we are going to add 2,500 more; 2,000 original, 2,500 more, magnificent A total of 4,500 additional teachers have been immediately added to our schools and classrooms. “
So 4,500 new teachers in 12 days? It will be difficult for competent administration, not to mention having taken a long nap since March. If 4,500 new teachers had been hired the schools would not have opened in any way.
But then – poof: it’s not going to be the goal anymore. And it shows.
On Thursday, Politico reported that de Blasio “refused to say how many teachers he has hired to meet the city’s shortage.”
The mayor and his education department invented the world’s most convincing plan to open schools. We would divide the classes into smaller groups, put the children on a restrained part-time schedule, hire different teachers to teach in the distant days, do hockey-pokie and turn themselves around and somehow teach this school.
The result has been firmly mixed. I have talked to parents in all five boroughs with children of different ages. Some children are in school two to three days a week and then get some live instruction from a different teacher from the days they are at home.
That is the very best case scenario. But for most of the parents ’kids I’ve talked to, their kids are only in school one or two days a week and there’s no live instruction on their distance-learning days. My own sons have two to three days for personal education and live instruction in “specials” like art and music in their distant days.
But it’s much less like live instruction, especially when it comes to major topics like math and writing. This is not learning.
For those who emphasize equity in education, De Blasio and school chancellor Richard Carenza take pride in delivering quality products to New York school children.
“We did something that other cities around this country could only dream of, because we’ve been fighting this epidemic for so long,” De Blasio laughed.
“This is the key moment of our rebirth. And a lot of people said it couldn’t happen. And it was hard, but we did it. “
Of course, it all depends on the definition of “it”. Enough parents feel they haven’t really done enough that City Councilman J B Borelli (R-SI) is suing the Department of Education to reopen more comprehensive schools for individual education.
“In New York,” Borelli told me, “adequate public education is a constitutional right of the state. It doesn’t just go away because of the ability of COVID or our mayor and chancellor to manage the school system. No other district is seeing as many problems as we are, and the inability of the system is not a legal defense. ”
I really wanted schools to open because the children needed a school – it was an essential service, and Vijbhara said it was a safer attempt than opening other things. For example, it makes no sense to open bars and nail salons before schools.
Now that the schools are open, I am relieved and optimistic. I want them to be open. I don’t complain for that. I am thrilled and proud that we are the only major city to open schools. But that doesn’t mean we’re doing it well.
The problem is that instead of doing a fairly clear task, we have devised a mad, reckless plan: to open schools for full-time, personal education.
There’s nothing “safe” about having kids spread across the city, whether it’s in capsules or child care, or just having game dates in their remote days instead of attending full-time school.
New York Step 1 cleared: We opened schools. Now let’s open them up the way they should be.
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