Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced this morning that the city’s public schools would remain closed for the rest of the academic year, but lessons online would continue.
Governor Andrew Cuomo promptly contradicted the mayor and asserted the decision was his, not the mayor’s.
Parents were outraged by the childish food fight.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Natasha Capers, 347.610.2754, ncapers@nyccej.org
PRESS STATEMENT:
Parent Groups Respond to School Closure Decisions:
During a Health Crisis, Leaders Demonstrate a Lack of Leadership
New York City, NY (April 11th, 2020)- Early today, Mayor Bill DeBlasio under the advice of public health experts, announced that schools would be closed for the remainder of the school year due to the raging coronavirus pandemic. At the epicenter of the decision is the crippling impact the virus has had on our city and people. Later today, Governor Cuomo announced that there was no decision to close schools yet and that as governor it was legally his sole decision to make.
This squabbling between the mayor and the governor is embarrassing and causing tremendous stress for families, students, and educators. Their inability to come together, and make decisions informed by the well being of students and families, is immoral and will continue to have disastrous consequences for our communities, especially those so deeply impacted by the inequity in healthcare and testing. Parents need clarity in this moment, but Governor Cuomo’s constant need to have control once again takes precedence over him making the right decision for families.
Delayed decision making has led New York City and the surrounding suburbs to become the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, with far more cases than many countries have. It is time for Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio to end their narcissistic feud and start working together for the benefit of all of New York’s students and families.
We need leaders to put aside egos during this crisis and prioritize the well-being of students and their families. We need them to show leadership and to be on one accord for the health and safety of New York State and City. The consequence is unnecessary confusion and additional stress in a time when school communities are already traumatized.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is not “squabbling”. I’m no fan of DeBlasio, but he made the right decision here. This is Andrew Cuomo being a childish control freak. And this is the guy some people should swoop in and “save” us at the Democratic Convention and become the Dem nominee.
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I agree with you. Andrew Cuomo wanted to humiliate DeBlasio, and he did. No way schools in NYC will reopen this semester.
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Perhaps Cuomo remains angry that DeBlasio endorsed Bernie Sanders, who poses a greater threat than Joe Biden does to the Kingdom of School Charterdom. This is the same Cuomo who just signed a budget containing $2 billion in Medicaid cuts.
Lord Michael Bloomberg approves.
So does “Count” Jamie Dimon.
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Cuomo is just milking the pandemic for PR purposes, just like Giuliani did with 911.
That’s all this is.
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What do you expect from the man who arbitrarily decided to cancel Spring Break–a much needed break that would have given teachers and students alike the chance to rest, regroup and revise plans. At least those of us who teach college classes got that much time plus an extra week–I for one had to work furiously for two weeks just to be ready for that first week online. I have no idea how K-12 teachers are surviving this.
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Have to agree.
Also, when city schools are under mayoral control, doesn’t the decision of the mayor and the school board (when there is one) trump the governor’s?
It seems like suddenly, we’ve got a number of neoliberal Democrats who want to come across as Progressive when that’s not in their history and their track record is as being economically conservatives, who occasionally throw a (mostly socially) liberal bone to the base of the party.
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Can someone give us a legal opinion. This is not a matter of opinion. Of course you have a right to your opinion. But it would be nice to know what the law actually says. Then we can see who was right this morning and who was playing political grandstanding. A legal opinion please.
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There are times when morality trumps legality. It’s perfectly legal, for instance, to cheat on your spouse. It is, however, a disgusting thing to do to another human being, especially one you are supposed to care for.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s “legal” for Cuomo to override DeBlasio. Morally, it’s monstrous to force millions of people to put their own and their children’s lives in danger, especially in the state with the highest infection and death rates. Further, even if there were legitimate grounds for Cuomo to disagree with DeBlasio (in this case, there are not), he should do so privately and try to come to an agreement with DeBlasio, not publicly undermine him in such a dangerous way.
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Well said, Dienne.
Cuomo must know that there’s zero chance that schools in NYC will reopen this academic year. The reference to regional decision making is not serious, especially as we know that Cuomo likes to control all decision making.
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Just to be clear, there isn’t “squabbling”, which assumes that both sides are equally causing this. There is Andrew Cuomo using any opportunity to prove his “I’m not a progressive” profile by undermining Bill de Blasio.
I thought de Blasio has been very respectful of Andrew Cuomo when Cuomo has demanded he do something different. de Blasio may make mistakes, but he is trying to do the right thing and not act just to prove he is better than someone else. Back when de Blasio was handling the Ebola crisis with admirable aplomb, he didn’t try to embarrass Andrew Cuomo. In the case of this virus, de Blasio was absolutely wrong at first. But once he recognized his mistake, he has tried his best to do what is right.
Cuomo acted correctly during this crisis. But sadly, deep down he is clearly the same mean-spirited “what’s in it for Andrew Cuomo” little man he always was. He thinks acting this way will get him some political gain, but it only makes him look like the small little man he always was.
Like Trump, men who are very insecure cannot feel good unless they are making someone else look bad. It is a terrible quality for a politician to have. Cuomo has more of a moral core than Trump, which is why I would vote for Cuomo in a heartbeat over Trump, despite how much I dislike Cuomo.
It still seems there are people who would rather have Trump for 4 more years than any Democrat. Anyone who feels that way is far worse than Andrew Cuomo, in every way that matters.
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Putting aside my negative feelings regarding Governor Cuomo’s support for education policies that promote disrupting of public education by his long history of supporting privately managed charter schools, New York Governor Cuomo is right; education is a power of the state government not local government.
The 10th Amendment proclaims that anything not included in the U.S. Constitution is reserved for the States. … No mention is made of education in any of the amendments. However the 10th Amendment states that powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states or to the people.
Should Governor Cuomo provided the Mayor of New York City a public civics lesson? I don’t think it was called for during this time of crisis.
This coronavirus pandemic attack has taxed our government’s Federalism structure as to what level of government has–and should have–the power and responsibility to act.
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This is not about education. It’s about the safety of the largest U.S. city. Maybe – I doubt it, but maybe – it makes sense for some of the smaller towns and rural areas to go back to school in May, but it’s a whole different ball game for a city of 8.4 million very densely packed people.
For that matter, New York State has far and away the highest rate of infection and death in the country. 180,000 confirmed cases and 8,600 deaths. That’s over three times the number of the next highest state (New Jersey) and nearly nine times the rate of California, which has twice the population (including the country’s second largest city). Maybe Cuomo could take a second to look at those numbers, think about his responsibility for the carnage, and sober the f— up before he goes telling the people of NYC to endanger their children and themselves.
If Cuomo insists on proceeding with this back to school nightmare, there will never be a better time for a general strike.
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If Cuomo orders the schools to reopen before The end of June, anticipate widespread absences among students and teachers.
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These are two grown men….supposedly on the same side of the issue – what is best for the people (students and their families) of NYC. How about a conversation between the two of them to discuss the issue and then show a united front with one decision. Is that too much to ask? With NYC having the Covid-19 numbers it has, it would seem to me that “one size fits all” wouldn’t necessarily apply here.
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Ok, this just begs for a repost of The Mywayman”
“It’s myway or the highway!” — Little Andy Cuomo
“The Mywayman” (after “The
Highwayman”, by Alfred Noyes)
PART ONE
THE VAM was a torrent of darkness
among reformy goals
The school was a ghostly galleon tossed
upon rocky shoals
The Test was a ribbon of Pearson tying
the Common Core,
And the Mywayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The Mywayman came riding, up to the
school-house door.
He’d a half-cocked plan in his forehead,
a shill of Gates for his spin,
A coat of the cleanest whitewash, and
breaches of law within;
Though served with a Lederman wrinkle
(the suits were up to his thigh!)
He rode with a jeweled twinkle,
His ed-u-bots a-twinkle,
His Tests and VAMs a twinkle, under the
New York sky.
Over the cobbles he clattered and
clashed in the dark school-yard,
And he tapped with his Test on the
shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and
who should be waiting there
But the Test Lord’s VAM-eyed Super,
Elia, the New York Super
Planting a bright red “Opt Not!!” inside
the “Opt out” lair.
And dark in the dark old school-yard a
rusty swing-set creaked
Where Diane the Blogger listened; her
curiosity piqued;
Her eyes were filled with sadness, her
worry was plain as day,
For she loved the public schoolhouse,
The American public schoolhouse
Alert as can be she listened, and she
heard the Governor say—
“Hear this, my well-paid Super, I’m after a prize to-night,
And I shall make Opt-out parents fold
before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry
me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though
parents should bar the way.”
He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce
could hide his rage ,
He tried to mask what the case meant,
but face read like a page
As the franks and beans from the dinner
were mingling with his bile
He cursed its taste in the moonlight,
(Oh, putrid taste in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his reign in the
moonlight, and galloped away to Long
Isle.
PART TWO
He did not come in the dawning; he did
not come at noon;
And out o’ the tawny sunset, before the
rise o’ the moon,
When the Test was a Möbius ribbon,
looping the Coleman lore,
An Opt-out troop came marching—
Marching—marching—
The parents all came marching, up to
the Governor’s door.
They said no word to the Test Lord, they
mocked the test instead,
And they nagged the Super and grilled
her about everything she’d said;
All of them knew what the case meant,
with Lederman at their side!
There were parents at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
Elia could see, through the window, the
road that he would ride.
They had tried to get her attention,
‘bout many an invalid test;
They had written a letter to meet her, to
discuss the VAMs and the rest!
“Now, keep good watch!” and they
dissed her.
She heard the Governor say—
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though
parents should bar the way!
She twisted her claims for the parents;
but all their Not!s held good!
She waved her hands at the figures, she
said were “misunderstood!”
She stretched and strained credibility,
and the hours crawled by like years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The
statute at least was hers!
The tip of one finger touched it; she
strove no more for the Test!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the
statute above the rest ,
She would not risk a hearing; she would
not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the
moonlight throbbed to the Gov’s refrain
.
The quote of laws! Had he heard it? Her quote of NY laws?;
Her quote of laws — from the distance?
The “Rights of Parents” clause?
Down the ribbon of Möbius, over the
brow with his bill,
The Mywayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The parents looked to their stymying!
She stood up, straight and still!
Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot,
in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face
was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; her
heart, it missed a beat
Then her fingers moved in the
moonlight,
Her pen-stroke shattered the moonlight,
Shattered the tests in the moonlight,
sealing the Gov’s defeat
He turned; he spurred to the West; he
did not know who blinked
Bowed, with her head o’er edict,
drenched with her own ink!
Not till the dawn he heard it, and his
face grew grey to hear
How Elia, the New York Super,
The Test Lord’s well-paid Super,
Had watched for the Gov in the
moonlight, determined his future there
Back, he spurred like a madman,
shrieking a curse to the sky,
With Elia caving behind him and his
testing vanquished nigh!
Wide-read- were his slurs on the
Twitter; wide-spread was the parents’
vote,
When they opted out on the test day,
In droves and droves on the test day,
And he lay in the flood on the test day,
with a bunch of ‘rents at his throat
And still of a winter’s night, they say,
when the VAMmers roam like trolls
When the school is a ghostly galleon
tossed upon rocky shoals,
When the Test is a ribbon of Pearson
tying the Common Core,
A Mywayman comes riding—
Riding—riding—
A Mywayman comes riding, up to the
school-house door.
Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs
in the dark school-yard,
And he taps with his Test on the
shutters, but all is locked and barred;
He whistles a tune to the window, and
who should be waiting there
But the Test Lord’s VAM-eyed Super,
Elia, the New York Super
Planting a bright red “Opt Not!!” inside
the “Opt out” lair.
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So glad you reposted this one, SomeDAM! You really outdid yourself here. Superb!!! Hilarious and depressing at the same time. LOL. So witty. Thank you.
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We can’t forget the bad Cuomo in the heat of the moment, the one who wanted to fire teachers and declared he was the charter champion.
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What heat of the moment? He’s still pro-charter.
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He called public education a “monopoly.” It’s a public service.
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Love, love, love this SDP. Is it because my cherished 5th-grade teacher read the original to us regularly? Or because it’s such a spot-on sendup? I can’t say.
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The hilarious thing is that when I first wrote that, I viewed the part about Elia quoting the ” Rights of Parents clause” as unlikely and therefore pretty contrived.
Little did I suspect that she would later do just that and thereby undermine Cuomo’s testing policy.
Life indeed does imitate art.
Maybe Elia read the poem😀
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TRUMPTY DUMPTY: This “germ is so brilliant, antibiotics can’t keep up with it.”
First, like you, Mr. Trump, viruses don’t have brains, so, like you, they can’t think at all, much less be “brilliant.” Second, antibiotics treat bacteria, not viruses.
This is what happens when people elect a moron president of the United States.
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I’m curious what Trump has to do with Cuomo’s decision to publicly – and dangerously – undermine DeBlasio and try to force the largest city in the country – which is already building pop-up hospitals in public squares thanks in part to Cuomo’s consistent underfunding of hospitals – to endanger students, teachers and families by forcing schools to re-open?
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I’m not familiar with laws in NYC, but the schools in my city are under mayoral control, too, and our state has many education laws that differ for municipalities with a population over 500,000 (we have only ONE city that large),
For example, all school districts in my state must have democratically elected school boards, but my city is exempt from that and is only required to have a mayoral appointed board, so the mayor here is virtually omnipotent.
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Cuomo needs to review the 1st Rule of Management:
As soon as you say, “I am the boss,” you’re not.
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Bingo.
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What is the difference between Trump and Coronavirus? We can vote the former out in November.
What is the difference between Trump and SARS-CV-3? One is an extraordinarily lethal plague on our country. The other is a virus.
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What is the difference between Trump and the Hindenburg? One is a flaming Nazi gasbag. The other was a dirigible.
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cx: Both flaming Nazi gasbags. One a dirigible.
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What is the difference between Trump and SARS-CV-2? Both are plagues on our country. The former, alas, is not invisible to the naked eye.
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Time to quarantine the Moronavirus trumpinskii orangii in a prison cell.
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What is the difference between Trump and the Hindenburg? Both flaming Nazi gasbags. One looks like a dirigible but isn’t.
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The governor said he wanted to coordinate city schools’ reopening date with the rest of the state and, ideally, with New Jersey and Connecticut. He said a final call was “not going to be decided in the next few days.” Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey said on Saturday that “harmony in the region would be a good thing.”
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I’m not sure that makes sense.
NYC is the national epicenter of coronavirus.
Why should it reopen if NJ and CT reopen?
The circumstances are not the same.
Cuomo and DeBlasio have been on bad terms for a long time and this is Cuomo playing Top Dog.
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New Jersey – a state which has a population only slightly larger than New York City, has the second highest infection and death rate in the nation (58,000 and 2,200, respectively, which about twice as much as the next highest state, Michigan). There’s no way in hell New Jersey schools should be opening next month either. DeBlasio is simply stating the obvious.
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I’m not sure it makes sense even in normal times. Do we coordinate all school calendars in the state? We don’t in Illinois and never have. I can’t imagine trying to coordinate with surrounding states or wanting to. I know NY almost considers parts of NJ and CT as honorary NY with so many commuting into the city. We have quite a few commuters especially from Indiana and I suspect some from Wisconsin. Should we coordinate with them? Somehow I can’t imagine Pritzker ever suggesting such a scheme or Wisconsin or Indiana paying attention to him. Silly.
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If there was a decent education journalist left covering Andrew Cuomo (is there?) then I wish that journalist would put this question to Cuomo:
Is Cuomo claiming responsibility for the decision to leave NYC public schools open as late as they were? I thought that Cuomo was happy to pass the buck for the schools remaining open a week later than they should have been and blame Bill de Blasio entirely for that.
But since Andrew Cuomo has claimed only he has the right to make that decision, a reporter should ask him if he is now taking responsibility because if Cuomo believed that NYC public schools should be closed sooner, he would have ordered them closed, and the fact he did not makes that the fault of Andrew Cuomo, not Bill de Blasio.
Cuomo can’t have it both ways. Well, he can because journalists have become stenographers and can’t think independently, especially the education journalists who just adore charter schools and Andrew Cuomo.
There is a big disconnect here, but luckily, Cuomo will never be asked about it by the same journalists who dutifully report every charter success claim because a powerful charter CEO said it is true so therefore there is no need to check facts.
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Wow, whole lotta Cuomo-bashing here– could it be his terrible ed policies 😉
Or just his neoliberal politics 🙂
Sounds presidential to me 😀
Seriously folks wherever his political trajectory leads, as a New Jerseyan with two sons living even closer into the epicenter than we do, I’m grateful for his leadership. When NYC sneezes, NJ & CT catch cold. (Not to mention upstate NY where I grew up– whose delegation is trying to block the loan of any of its unused ventilators to the city!) His initiative in establishing interstate [& down/ upstate] cooperation when it’s most needed is a relief.
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This spat has zero impact on parents, who already assume schools will not reopen. The only question is the timing of the decision. Cuomo wants to synchronize the timing statewide with NJ and CT, rather than have individual school districts setting their own policies.
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As you acknowledge, schools will not reopen this semester. Cuomo’s claim that the reopening must synchronize with Ct and NJ is lame. There may be districts that can safely reopen (though I doubt it). But NYC is not one of them.
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I think the idea is not that some may safely reopen and others may not, but the opposite: that the governors want consistent policies for all three states, announced in coordination, rather than piecemeal district by district, based on the decisions of local districts.
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It’s a nutty idea. The conditions in districts across three states are not the same. Nowhere in the law of NY, Connecticut or New Jersey does it say that the schools in all three states must agree when or whether to open or close. Cuomo made that up to cover his reversion to bully behavior and petty squabbling with DeBlasio.
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The three states have been coordinating their actions on this well before this squabble. I suppose one can disagree with the idea that the metro-area states should have uniform responses — that some should have schools open and some should have schools closed, some should have “non-essential” businesses open for business and others should not, etc. — but that’s different from suggesting that idea was just “made up” by Cuomo so he could bully De Blasio. I tend to think it makes sense for the entire metro region to coordinate actions to some extent, given their mutual interests and close proximity. On the other hand, there are a lot of low-density rural areas in these states where it just seems downright cruel to lock down playgrounds for months. (Not that it’s not cruel in NYC — it’s crueler there than anywhere else, given the lack of outdoor space for kids.)
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You just made my point. States are sovereign entities. Conditions vary within states as much as between states. Intelligence indicates that responses will vary in relation to the facts on the ground.
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It’s touching that you credit Cuomo with a grand vision rather than acknowledging his well-documented penchant for belittling DeBlasio. I wonder what other powers he will cede to the governors of CT and NJ? So now the tiniest rural district in all three states will keep their schools closed until NYC, the national epicenter of the disease, is healthy? Makes no sense.
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They’ve been proceeding in coordination. It’s cooperative. This has been in the news for weeks.
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It seems presumptuous to assume that all parents “assume schools will not reopen.” Of course this has an impact on parents.
“Cuomo wants to synchronize the timing statewide with NJ and CT…”
Are you an insider? Given that NYC public schools have NEVER followed the same schedule as public schools in NJ and CT, I don’t understand what this means at all.
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There’s nothing in precedent that resembles this situation, or suggests what’s the wiest move here.
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What’s clear in NYC is that it’s the most at-risk city in the nation. Possibly because of density, many people in close quarters. Social distancing is crucial until the risk is eliminated.
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There is a big disconnect here…
Damning the (fill-in) “officials”, for the spread of the virus DOESN”T disconnect the
person-to-person contact that spreads the virus.
From the onset, Jan 24, 2020 · Coronaviruses “primarily spread through close contact with another individual, in particular through coughing and sneezing, similar to other respiratory illnesses, such as the flu.”
According to the CDC, spread from person to person of coronaviruses happens most often between people within about six feet apart, known as “close contacts.”
The principal mode of transmission is still thought to be respiratory droplets, which may travel up to six feet from someone who is sneezing or coughing. ”
Coronavirus spreads in the same way as influenza and other respiratory infections.
Is six feet apart or six feet under, that hard to figure out? Do we need the “officials”
to pound that into our heads?
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Yup. I would only tweak that a bit. Health officials subsequently have modified that to include “forceful speaking,” and suspect significant virus shedding before the onset of coughing/ sneezing, & by those who contract it but remain asymptomatic.
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