Justice
De Blasio's Decision to Keep New York Schools Open Demeans Teachers
The mayor's failure to declare snow days puts outsized pressure on educators and their students.
Over the last decade or so, the defining narrative in urban education has been one that blames teachers and absolves society. And so a press conference today where New York City’s new mayor and schools chancellor defended their decision to keep schools open—despite 9.5 inches of snow and still falling—proved especially telling.
"Many of our kids don’t get a hot lunch and, in many cases breakfast, unless they go to school," chancellor Carmen Fariña told ABC. "So it's still a parent’s decision whether they send their kids to school or not. My decision is where the kids are safest and the most taken care of, and the answer to that is in schools."