Just days before New York City’s schools were set to reopen, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he would be delaying students’ in-person start date once again — not because parents were hesitant to return, or because health officials deemed it unsafe, but because de Blasio was unprepared and ill-equipped to do his job.
De Blasio, like every other government official, has known since the beginning of the coronavirus shutdown that reopening safely and efficiently would be a challenge, especially in a city of New York’s size. But instead of crafting a realistic plan that would accommodate both teachers’ and students’ needs, de Blasio has spent the past few months kicking the can down the road. In May, he dismissed questions about school reopening altogether, saying it was too soon to start even thinking about it. And in August, he refused to listen to criticism of the city’s back-to-school plan, insisting that it was as detailed and extensive as it needed to be.
“It’s certainly not the number of pages that matter. It’s what the content is. It’s what it says. For months and months, folks at the Department of Education have been working nonstop to get ready for something we’ve never dealt with before,” de Blasio told NY1 in August.
Clearly, de Blasio’s plan was not fool-proof, because it was this plan that ultimately prevented New York City’s public schools from reopening this week. The plan provided too little direction regarding additional safety measures, and too little information about what teachers should do if a coronavirus outbreak occurs in their school, according to the city’s teachers union. Because de Blasio’s plan did not address these concerns, hundreds of teachers, led by the United Federation of Teachers, decided that they would not show up to work. The resulting staffing shortages led New York City into the present debacle.
De Blasio had a simple choice: He could have caved to the UFT’s demands, which were many, and release a plan that pleased the teachers union, or he could have stood up to the teachers union when this debate first began instead of letting it walk all over him and his administration. The latter option would have been much easier had de Blasio released a comprehensive reopening plan that wasn’t filled with holes.
But de Blasio did neither. So not only is he indebted to the teachers union to govern effectively, but he is also too lazy to make and stick with a plan that will actually work.
When confronted about this failure, de Blasio claimed that restarting in-person learning was a “greater challenge than anyone foresaw.” This is not true, and he knows it. Everyone foresaw this — that’s why New Yorkers were asking about next steps back in May, and why thousands of school districts across the country have successfully reopened with only minor hiccups. They expected the challenge, and they were prepared to meet it.
Unfortunately, de Blasio can’t say the same. But when could he ever?
