The Question of Reopening Schools in NYC

By: Layla Hussein

​The New York City Department of Education, simply referred to as the DOE, is the largest school system across the nation, with a whopping 1.1 million students in approximately 1,866 schools, including 260 charter schools. Given these statistics, a typical school day contains crowded hallways, lunch rooms, staircases, and in some cases, classrooms. The mode of transportation for most students involves taking MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) buses and trains with a free student MetroCard provided by their school. Mornings are frenetic; students and workers surge into their desired buses and trains to avoid being late, squeezing themselves into the vehicle while struggling to clutch a nearby pole for balance. On unlucky, yet frequent days, MTA trains experience delays, whether it results from construction at a train station or an incident, thus leading to additional congested vehicles as more people wait at their nearest bus stop or train station.

​The commute for some students can range from a 10 minute bus ride to an hour train ride, depending if they are travelling to a different borough or if the school is simply too far from their house. Consequently, NYC students wake up at unreasonable time frames, such as 5 AM, to prepare themselves for their school day, and reach home at around 6 PM, if involved in extracurriculars or the school has late dismissal times.

From the moment the DOE was founded in 2002, this became a normal routine for students and teachers. As the fourth most populous state, crowded trains and schools are inevitable in NYC. This is our lifestyle that other states fail to understand, and it is impossible to think of something different.

As COVID-19 cases gradually entered NYC, Mayor Bill de Blasio temporarily closed all NYC public schools on March 15, 2020 to April 20, 2020. Weeks before returning back to school, Bill de Blasio announced the return date would extended to May. Weeks later, the mayor concluded that NYC schools would continue remote instruction until the end of the school year.

Plans on reopening schools have stirred contentious conversations between students, teachers, and administrators, as well as the governor, mayor, press, and authorities outside NYC. Above all the various difficulties that would prompt a difficult transition to a classroom environment, safety is of cardinal concern. Some particular ideas suggested by the mayor include reducing the classroom size, spacing out desks, requiring masks, and having a blend of remote learning and attending school. Realistically speaking, these alternatives would likely contribute to a second wave of COVID-19 in NYC. As the largest public school system in the US, attempting to control classroom sizes and crowded school hallways is nearly impossible. The reality is that NYC schools were not created for social distancing.

Mayor de Blasio is confident that if schools are kept in a sanitary condition while strictly social distancing, it would be safe to resume an in-person atmosphere. However, some history of NYC schools have not fulfilled its safety requirements. In 2017, 18-year-old Abel Cedeno was convicted of manslaughter after stabbing two fellow students at the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Preservation. In 2019, a teacher at Belmont Preparatory High School was arrested for child pornography cases. What’s more, sexual misconduct cases between students and staffers have risen to 50 percent across NYC schools in 2020. There are numerous sexual assault cases, rapes, offenses, and even racism taking place in schools, so the concern of safety has long been an issue before the wake of COVID-19. How can we truly ensure that students are safe, beyond just wearing masks and social distancing?

Due to the lost revenue from COVID-19, budget cuts have made educators question how schools would operate in a classroom environment. With after-school enrichment programs having budget cuts, such as Schools Out NYC (SONYC), an after-school program that exposes middle school students to leadership activities, sports, and the arts, as well as the reduction of arts education budgets, how would NYC schools even look like if it were to open?

Despite the MTA being its own corporation, it is crucial for the functioning of the DOE simply because it gets students to school. During the peak of COVID-19, the MTA offered a sympathetic gesture of free bus rides since unemployment rates intensified. Now, the corporation is experiencing a financial crisis without much federal aid. They are losing almost $200 million on a weekly basis and are considering raising fare prices. When reopening schools, the consideration of the MTA is crucial. How will students have access to free metro cards if fare prices increase?

​The DOE is currently conducting a survey for parents and students to determine their final decision on reopening schools. The options are either attending school virtually or having a blend of in-person and remote learning environments. Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to announce this heavily debated issue by September, leaving students and parents with unanswered questions during the time where they would prepare for the following school year.


Sources:

https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/reports/doe-data-at-a-glance https://nypost.com/2020/04/12/sex-misconduct-complaints-up-more-than-50-percent-acr oss-nyc-schools/ https://gothamist.com/news/mta-losing-200-million-every-week-thanks-fiscal-tsunami-ca used-pandemic