What NYC’s next mayor must do to keep public schools from failing

How important are schools to New York City? Does New York City want to be a place where families can stay and raise children? Will the teachers unions remain firmly in control of school policies — or will kids finally be a priority?

These are all questions the next mayor of New York City will have to answer. It’s been a needlessly tumultuous year for New York City children and their parents. Kids all over the country had returned to regular school, and with it their regular lives, while New York’s kids remained in a holding pattern meant to appease union bosses. Kids were the last priority and it showed. On Monday, New York City Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter sent a letter to parents announcing, “Based on available health indicators, we will return to full-time, in-person learning this September. This means that all students in grades 3-K through 12 will be learning in-person this fall.”