Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo predicted Monday that schools throughout the state will reopen for in-personal learning in September and he will set a statewide policy. His comments came after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city’s schools will fully reopen in the fall with no remote learning option.
During a news conference at Jones Beach State Park, Cuomo said that barring a “dramatic change in the COVID trajectory,” the schools will open.
“We have to get back to school,” Cuomo said, pointing toward the statewide daily infection rate hovering around 1%. “And behind the current trajectory there is no reason we can’t open schools statewide in September.”
While Cuomo said the state would set policy regarding the use of remote learning in all school districts, he seemed to indicate a preference against allowing virtual education, arguing that it discriminated against poorer, minority households.
“Remote learning sounds fine and worked fine enough for some students,” Cuomo said. “But some students paid a very heavy price for remote learning. Remote learning only works if you’re in a home that has equipment; in a home that has access to Internet; if you’re in a home where there’s someone who can help the student with issues.”
Cuomo’s comments came hours after de Blasio, his frequent political rival, announced that city schools would ditch remote learning when the school year begins Sept. 13.
“It’s time for everyone to come back. It’s time for us all to be together,” de Blasio said during a City Hall news briefing. “It’s time to do doing things the way they were meant to be done. All the kids in the classroom together.”
The mayor pointed to the city’s low COVID-19 positivity rate and millions of vaccine doses disseminated as evidence the virus is “plummeting in this city,” making the full reopening of schools possible.
New York City had a positivity rate of 0.6% as of Saturday, while providers located in the five boroughs had distributed nearly four million complete vaccine series as of then, according to state data.
Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter said that, based on current recommendations set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, masks and social distancing will remain mandatory in city schools.
“We would not be doing this if our schools were not safe,” Ross Porter said, noting that positivity rates in schools are 0.16%. “We would not be taking any risks with our most important assets, which are our school children.”
The mayor said parents seeking reassurance about the reopening will be invited in June, and throughout the summer, to visit their children’s schools to see how they are prepared.
Even amid unknowns about coronavirus variants, de Blasio said it was extremely unlikely the city schools would have to fall back on remote learning again.
“I can’t conceive of it based on all the facts we know now,” de blasio said. ” … We’ve got to understand we’re leaving COVID behind … It’s going to be in our past.”
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, supported the decision.
“There is no substitute for in-person instruction,” Mulgrew said in a statement. “NYC educators want their students physically in front of them. We want as many students back in school as safely possible. We are glad the Department of Education will hold open houses to show parents how safe our schools are.”
But the union leader said he has concerns about the safety of a small number of students with extreme medical challenges.
“For that small group of students, a remote option may still be necessary,” he said.
De Blasio said children with “particular, severe circumstances” will be accommodated as they were under pre-pandemic rules.
During the current school year, families have been given the choice to keep their children in all-remote learning, or to send them to school buildings with an option to leave again if they changed their minds. School buildings closed again in November when the virus surged, before again reopening.
With John Valenti and Matthew Chayes
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Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
