Parents of public-school kids are now stuck fighting both the teachers’ union and City Hall — and realizing that the adults who run the school system don’t really care about the kids.
The city Department of Education can’t figure out how to make remote learning work; only drastically lowered standards — e.g., no attendance requirements even as a quarter or more of students are chronically absent at many schools — allows it to pretend success.
The United Federation of Teachers continues to resist a full reopening of in-person classes, with UFT boss Mike Mulgrew now complaining that the city track-and-trace program is inadequate.
It sure looks like he’s merely being more polite than his peers in the Windy City, where teachers over the weekend voted to defy district orders to return to school. Of course, Mulgrew’s already issued at least one public strike threat in the battle over reopening.
City Hall seems to be giving him more excuses: City teachers got to jump to the head of the vaccine line, but Team Blas can’t say how many have gotten jabbed. The union won’t even prioritize teachers who are conducting in-person classes for the vaccine. But why would it, when the real goal is to keep schools closed?
Meanwhile, de Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza just moved to ax Gifted & Talented programs citywide, infuriating parents who want their kids to learn. They’re also working to gut standards at the city’s high schools. And it’s all in the name of “equity.”
Will any candidate for mayor condemn both de Blasio’s ideological war on excellence and his constant caving to UFT’s cynical “never reopen” agenda? If not, the next mayor will be as big an enemy of the city’s children as this one has proved to be.