Chancellor Banks on the New School Year

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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. On today's show, we'll take a closer look at one of the topics that came up in Tuesday night's presidential debate, abortion rights. We touched on the topic yesterday in our more general debate review, but the abortion rights section of the debate was substantial and multi-layered, so we'll take a closer look. I'm also going to read you Taylor Swift's entire endorsement post from Instagram. So many people are talking about that she did it. But the text is interesting and we have the luxury in this long-form show of reading the whole thing.

We will do that in our election segment, which is coming up later this hour. Also today, the messaging site Telegram and the problem of deep fake videos sexualizing teenage girls and others there. Also, the debate over the CEO of Telegram being arrested in France over allegations of the app being used for things like child porn and drug trafficking. Not everybody is a fan of that arrest and a call-in at the end of the show about having lots of friends but never actually seeing them. First, New York City public schools started classes for the year one week ago today, and we are happy now to welcome schools Chancellor David Banks back to the program to answer some questions from me and some questions from you.

Issues in the news right now include the return to a phonics-based approach to teaching kids how to read and how that went in year one and adjustments they're making for year two, many families leaving the system since the start of the pandemic and many migrant families arriving. The chancellor recently called the flux of new families a godsend. That's so interesting in how opposite it is from the way people talk about the arrivals, usually. School security, with Americans anxious and grieving yet again after the school shooting in Georgia, the recent law mandating smaller class sizes in New York City, and the now delayed plan to ban smartphones during the school day.

There are longer-term or perennial questions that we might be able to touch on, too, like about tracking, how to reduce the stubborn race and class disparities and educational outcomes, and the pros and cons of charter schools. We could talk from now until Monday and barely scratch the surface, so we'll try to use our time well to talk about things that matter to the extent that we can. Chancellor Banks, always good to have you on. Welcome back to WNYC.

Chancellor Banks: Thank you so much, Brian. Appreciate being here.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we can take some questions or comments or stories for the chancellor at 212-433 WNYC. Public school parents, you'll get first priority at 212-433-9692. What should the chancellor know about anything in your children's schools or ask any relevant question? Call or text 212-433 WNYC 433-9692. Chancellor Banks, before we get started on education, maybe we should acknowledge the elephant in the room for people who are following the news that you were in the news, along with other members of the administration for having your home searched and your phone seized, along with your partner, first deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, who you live with as part of an FBI investigation.

Also, your brother, Phil Banks, who is deputy mayor for public safety, and your other brother, Terrence Banks, a consultant who sometimes represents clients doing business with the city. Now, to be clear for our listeners, and not overstate, the FBI has not said you are a target of this investigation. We really don't know much about what they're looking for. Can you shed any light on the situation because right now what the public has heard is that multiple members of the administration, multiple ones in or are connected to your family, are being raided by the FBI?

Chancellor Banks: What I can tell you, Brian, is that the FBI did, in fact, come to my home and they took my phones. I can't speak about what anybody else has done or any other aspects of the investigation. I have been told by my lawyers that I'm absolutely not a target in this investigation, and I'm going to do everything I can to cooperate with the investigation. Outside of that, it would be inappropriate for me to speak about any other additional details beyond that. They did come to my home, they did take my phones. They did not search my home, and that was about it.

Brian Lehrer: There's nothing you can or will say about what they might be looking for or what they may have told you they're looking for?

Chancellor Banks: No, I certainly wouldn't speak to that. When you're engaged in any aspect of a federal investigation, you are strongly advised not to share any details around it. I think any of those questions really have to be asked of the US attorney office themselves, certainly not me.

Brian Lehrer: I know that is the answer that almost anybody under these circumstances would give, so I understand not commenting on an ongoing investigation. We're going to leave that for now. Time will tell what this is all about, but we did need to acknowledge it, and now we're going to go on to your job running the school system.

Chancellor Banks: [laughs] That's right.

Brian Lehrer: Let's talk about seizing other people's cell phones. Those are the students during the school day so they can learn better. It was going to happen. Now it's delayed. The mayor says it, so when you do it, you do it right. Is it still the plan, though, for some time in the current school year?

Chancellor Banks: First of all, let me just say this. I don't see any good use of cell phones in our schools currently. I've been studying this issue for months now. I've talked to hundreds and hundreds of school principals. I've spoken to parents. I've spoken to groups of students who most of them want to be able to keep their phones, but we don't see any particular academic reason why kids should have their phones in schools. In fact, to the contrary, there's a lot of research that's out now that talks about the harmful effects of the phones and the access to the Internet, cyberbullying that takes place, all kind of safety incidents that we have at our schools, all being really experienced through the phones.

One of the things in our schools, I can tell you, Brian, the number of incidents in our school buildings dropped last year, but most of the incidents that we did have happened around the school, around the corner, up the block, where kids would gather and have fights and the like. Much of that was because they were all communicating through their phones. The phones, we think, are a real distraction in schools, don't have any real good place in the schools. Now, listen, the parents have said they want to be able to be in touch with their kids, and I certainly appreciate that.

On the way to school, and the moment that school is over and their kids are making their way home through the streets, they want to be able to have access. We've certainly said to every school, you should not have a policy in place where the kids can't even bring their phones to the building at all. That we think would be completely inappropriate. Together, working with the mayor, we made a decision that this is such a complex issue, we didn't want to rush into a full-on ban just yet. You should know that we've got over 350 schools that already had their own ban in place and another 500 schools around the city that planned on implementing some kind of a ban or restriction this year.

I put out a message to all of our schools that I think that we should absolutely be looking at how to have a level of cell phone restriction. I think we're going to wind up having over 1,000 schools this year that are already doing it, even without an official bandaid. That'll give us a chance to study it together with Doctor Vasan, the city's health doctor, we're doing some research on it. We're going to study it extensively this year. Maybe there'll be a full-on band next year. The mayor will ultimately be the one who will make that decision, but that's where we are at this point.

Brian Lehrer: Here's a caller we got immediately who is actually interested in the timeline, I think because of her own family situation. Leah in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hello, Leah.

Leah: Hi. First time, long time. Thank you. I love your show. My daughter is in 8th grade. She's in a middle school that does not allow cell phones, and my son is actually in a high school that also takes them away, and they don't have them the full day, which is pretty unusual. It's been a godsend, and I'm just really hoping that by the time she gets to high school next year, there will be a ban. I appreciate that you're studying it and that you wanted to be intentional about how it rolls out. I'm really hoping.

Chancellor Banks: If I can respond, Brian,-

Brian Lehrer: Of course.

Chancellor Banks: -I will show you that this is an example of one of the many parents that I have spoken to who have expressed the same desire. Many of the schools that are already doing this, the parents have said it has been a tremendous benefit, the kids themselves. I remember speaking to a group of kids at a school in Brooklyn, and that school also already has restriction. They can't bring their phones into the school. I said to the kids, "How's it working out?" They said for the first two weeks, they hated it, but after two weeks, they settled into a norm. They said it's been the best thing ever.

I said, "Why?" They said, "It gave our brains a chance to get a break. We're all addicted to these phones. We're on the phones all the time." Another young man said to me, "We actually talk to each other now." Just imagine that. The phones have become such an imposing force on our kids, they don't even talk to each other anymore. Everybody's on their phones at every free moment that they have. I agree with what this parent is saying, but your next parent might say, "Absolutely not. I want to make sure my child has their phone."

Brian Lehrer: And we invite those parents, too. 212-433 WNYC or anyone else with a question for school Chancellor David Banks. Leah, but what he's saying is consistent with your daughter's experience or your anticipation of high school?

Leah: Definitely. My son, he's made really good friends, and I'm not sure if they're allowed to be on their phones during lunch. You know, I just think the socialization, he's in a school where the other schools in the school did have a ban, but then during COVID they took it back, and this was the one school that actually kept it throughout.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you for chiming in. Very valuable to have the firsthand experience. You talk chancellor, about so many of the schools. Sounds like heading toward a large majority of schools this term doing this on their own. We had a caller recently who asked, why not just let the teacher say, "Put your phone away?" If a student takes it out and is being distracted by it during a class period, and then if they don't take the phone from them just for the rest of the period. Is there that little compliance with teachers' authority today that that wouldn't work?

Chancellor Banks: I think in too many issues, we're asking the teachers to take on too much of that responsibility. That really shouldn't be the responsibility of the classroom teacher. They want to stay focused on teaching their subjects and engaging the kids in that way. I can tell you, somebody, who's worked in the classroom and been a teacher, that becomes a real hassle if you leave it up to every teacher. Some teachers are more strict than others. some teachers have absolutely pushed back about the fact that they would now have to be engaged with some disciplinary situations, with certain kids who refuse to put it away.

Now you've created a whole scene in the classroom unnecessarily. We really think if we're going to do this, it should be done at an administrative level through the principal, working together with the parents. It shouldn't have to be left to the teachers. We've also heard that very clearly from our partners at the U of T. They do not believe that this should be left to the discretion of teachers to have to enforce a policy and I actually agree with that.

Brian Lehrer: Understandable why the union wouldn't want that to fall on the backs of the teachers from their point of view. One more call on this, and then we're going to move on to other issues. John, who says he's a teacher in a New York City public school. John, you're on WNYC with the chancellor, your boss.

John: Hello. Thank you for taking my call. As luck would have it, I'm on my prep period right now.

Chancellor Banks: I hope you're on your prep period.

John: I deal with cell phones in my-- you know, I am, of course. [laughter] I deal with cell phones in my classroom--

Brian Lehrer: Can I just jump in on this for a second because I love when teachers call in on their prep periods. Chancellor, just so you know, we do a lot of call-ins during the summer specifically for teachers because we know they're on there on summer break and then during the school year. I love it because it means we're doing something useful for somebody because we do from time to time get calls from teachers, say, "I'm in a school, I'm on my prep period, but I want to chime in on this," John-

Chancellor Banks: I love this.

Brian Lehrer: -glad to have you, and I love this. Go ahead.

John: That's right. [chuckles] I clean my classroom on my prep and that radio goes on every single time. We deal with phones in our classrooms every day as teachers. I think that to counter your point, chancellor, we also understand as teachers that we are part of the disciplinary spectrum, that we need to be in collaboration with school leaders. The question that I have and the reason I'm calling in today is why did it take so long for a cell phone policy to be solidified. I worked a lot this summer and we were waiting and waiting and waiting for a cell phone policy because it could have helped us to plan better for the start of the school year.

Now we're going to launch Yondr pretty soon in our school, and so that will help, but we already started school and we've lost some critical days in setting that up [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: That's a technology that holds phones during the day. Chancellor, what's your response to teacher John about the timing?

Chancellor Banks: I certainly appreciate that. I think what has taken so long, and think about this, we're still not all the way there yet. It's because of the complexity of this. We heard from one parent prior to you who said, "I'm all for it. We should absolutely be doing this." I've heard from many parents who have said, absolutely not. They're watching tragedies unfold at schools. We just saw something a week or so ago in Georgia, and that scares parents. I certainly understand that. They've said, "No way do I want to see you take that phone away from my child because if an emergency happens, I need to be in touch with them.

We've got to figure out how we balance all of these kinds of things, but recognize this, your school certainly did not have to wait for us. Many schools have not waited for us. They've already done it themselves. What we were looking at was to say should there, in fact, be a full-on system-wide ban, taking away any autonomy from the school leadership and saying, "We're going to mandate this," we're not there yet. Your school could absolutely have done it and put you right in a great place now. If they chose not to do that, that was certainly their decision.

If we do a mandate, the city will have to pay for all the pieces that are connected to a mandate. Right now, when schools make this decision, they can use their own budget and they can do it. The moment I say that it's a mandate, I have to pay for those Yondr Pouches. I've got to pay for the extra personnel that has to monitor this system. You're talking about millions of dollars as well. These are not small decisions. What we want to do is to study because different schools are doing it different ways and we want to figure out what's the best practice to do this and then ultimately make a different direction, give the system a different direction for next year.

Brian Lehrer: Just as a follow-up, and then we really will segue to other things. John, thank you for your call. Good luck. The rest of the school day. Equity issues. One is, there's a likelihood probably that students of color will get in bigger trouble than other kids for the same behavior as has happened so many ways in the past unless you dispute that. A listener in a text message writes," I understand the need to stop children from socializing and playing games, but for some, it is their only computer. It's their calculator and research library." They raise that as an equity issue.

Chancellor Banks: There are many other issues here, but equity issues, particularly around how it's implemented and what the disciplinary responses are at schools, is something that we've got to look at. These are the things that we are actually studying this year so that we can make the best-informed decision as we go forward. In most cases here, from what we've been able to look at preliminary, we're not seeing that kids are really using their phones for strong academic purposes in schools. In a handful of situations, we've seen it, but for the most part, that's not what we're dealing with.

We're dealing with kids who just have their phones pinging all day. Unfortunately, Brian, a lot of the pinging that is coming on their phones are coming from their parents throughout the school day. The kids are in the middle of their math and English class, and they've got mom or auntie or grandma or somebody saying, "Don't forget to pick up something from the store for me on your way home." This is the kind of thing that serves as just complete distractions for kids and it's not helpful to teachers like who just called in when kids can barely focus on their work because they're so connected to their phones.

Here's a news flash, Brian, it's not just the kids. Many of us as adults, we are completely addicted to these phones. Even if you're away from them for ten minutes, your body just starts going through changes. It's a huge issue for us. That's why we don't want to jump into it. We're studying it deeply this year and we think we'll be better informed as we move forward. It's a very large school system.

Brian Lehrer: All right, we're going to take a short break right here. Then we're going to go on to other little things like teaching kids to read and do math and keeping schools safe from school shooters. As you mentioned, that's on a lot of people's minds, even more than usual because of the Georgia shooting just as the school year was beginning. Listeners, more of your calls and texts, know more about cell phones. If you're holding on to talk about cell phones, we've done that part of the segment and we don't want it to be completely overwhelmed by that. On anything else for Chancellor Banks, 212-433 WNYC. Call or text as we continue.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC with New York City schools Chancellor David Banks one week after school opened for the year in New York City. Last year, as you know, Chancellor was the start of the new reading initiative NYC Reads, a switch in how reading is taught in kindergarten and elementary schools from what was called balanced literacy, which was a progressive approach in the last few decades out of Columbia Teachers College to the science of reading, or phonics, a more traditional approach. Half the school switched to the new curriculum last year and the rest will start this year I see. Reading scores dipped a little. How should we interpret that in year one?

Chancellor Banks: I think we should interpret that as a blip on the road. What we know is this, when you're implementing something as significant as this, it won't necessarily reflect itself in test scores immediately. Last year we bumped up a couple of points, this year bumped down a couple of points. What we are betting on is a long-term strategy here that you will see significant increases in test scores over a period of years. The reason we know, Brian, that it works, if you look at the state of Tennessee, and you look at Mississippi, both of those states, as an entire state, not just a school district, but the entire state went to the science of reading a number of years ago.

Mississippi was for decades the worst state in the entire nation around literacy. Other states that were doing poorly would always say, "At least we're not as bad as Mississippi." Mississippi has leapfrogged most of the nation now, and it didn't happen in its first two or three years, but after that. By the time they hit the fourth and the fifth year, that's when you started to see it kick in. Our school system is huge. It's the largest in the whole nation. It takes a minute. We're still getting everybody fully trained, but we are absolutely on the right track. When you look at what we're doing with 3-K and Pre-K, every 3-K and Pre-K child in the city is getting exposed to the same curriculum.

I can take you to a school in Staten Island and then leave there and go right to Brooklyn, the kids are studying this exact same material. What you're going to see over the years is how that is going to benefit-- three-year-olds and four-year-olds are going to be coming out of that age group already reading before they even get to kindergarten. It's going to just really rocket power what we're trying to do with reading. We're just getting started. I think you can't be guided in the first couple of years around the discourse go up a point or two. That's really beside the point. You will see the real impact in this over the next several years.

Brian Lehrer: Here's a caller on this. Lacey in Forest Hills. You're on WNYC with Chancellor David Banks. Hi, Lacy.

Lacey: Yes, hi. Hi, Brian, and hi, Chancellor Banks. Thanks so much for your time. I'm actually a professor at Hunter College and I teach in the early childhood program there. I know you had made these comments about kids learning to read before kindergarten a few months ago at a PEP meeting. It's actually quite shocking to hear you say something like that because a lot of research tells us that it's really developmentally inappropriate to be doing something like teaching children to read, although they are readers, but maybe in a different sense. Anyway, I know you mentioned this curriculum as well, the creative curriculum and how it's been universally adopted in the 3-K and Pre-K programs.

As a researcher, I am really curious to know what research base you all are using at the Department of ED or the DECE to justify how this adoption of creative curriculum is actually going to support children in learning language and literacy. Where we can find such literature so we can learn more about your approach and how it could be potentially useful. For the most part, we see it as being really detrimental and putting a lot of pressure on young children to do things too fast and too soon.

Brian Lehrer: Chancellor Banks.

Chancellor Banks: I'm quite sure where to begin with that. We don't have kids, three-year-olds, and four-year-olds who are just sitting down and test-prepping all day. That's certainly not what we mean. The curricular approach that we're talking about engages kids in all of the developmentally fundamental ways in which good learning takes place and how the brain does in fact develop at three years old and at four years old, which also engages lots of play. If I take you right now to any of our 3-K and Pre-K programs, you will see kids engage in a lot of independent work, movement, building, a lot of hands-on activities that are creating all the kinds of things that are necessary building blocks for reading.

I don't mean to suggest that they are doing what you might see in a third or fourth-grade class, but they are doing age-appropriate activities that lay the foundations for kids to be ready to take off and read. We're already seeing these kids who are actually reading. I don't know if the suggestion was that they shouldn't be reading at three years old or four years old and somehow we're doing something to harm them. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you want more details about the specific science-based approaches that we're taking here, you certainly feel free to reach out to me. We can provide any of that information for you.

Brian Lehrer: As a transition to the new math curriculum for middle and high schools, we're going to take Craig in Marlboro, New Jersey, who has a question about math ed. Craig, you're on WNYC with Chancellor Banks.

Craig: How are you doing, chancellor?

Chancellor Banks: I'm doing great,

Craig: From what I understand, my wife's friend who's a teacher in the New York City Board of Ed is saying that they are instituting more of a computer program for math teachers or having less math teachers to help kids to deal with math. Is this true? I don't know if exactly that's the best way. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. Chancellor Banks.

Chancellor Banks: Our NYC Solves program is much more focused on experimental learning. Kids really understanding practical applications of how you apply math.

Brian Lehrer: Just for context for the listeners, that's the name of the new curriculum for math. New York City Solves.

Chancellor Banks: NYC Solves, yes. It's like we had NYC Reads was our approach to reading. NYC Solves is our approach to math. One of the reasons, kids very early on, developed a phobia around math. What we're trying to do here is to help kids understand how math really connects in the real world, because math, for too many years has been taught almost like in a silo. We don't connect it to real things where kids get a chance to really apply their math skills to things that are happening around them every day. That's a huge part of what NYC Solves is all about. I'm not quite sure the teacher that you're referencing or the person who's saying it's just a computer application of some sort. I don't know.

Brian Lehrer: I don't know if this is related or unrelated, but I did see in a profile of you in The Times that you're excited about the potential for AI in the classroom. Does that relate to teaching math?

Chancellor Banks: AI, to me, can connect to a wide range of things, including math, but it's not math-specific. When you think about the average New York City teacher, even if they're in a classroom that's not overcrowded, you've got a group of kids in middle school, and you got 23, 24 kids in your class. It's not a large class size, but you've got some kids who are accelerated learners. You've got some kids who really struggle at the other end, but most of the kids are somewhere in a range in the middle. It always presents a challenge for the teachers to meet the needs of every single student in that class.

We think that AI, and we don't have all the answers here just yet, Briant. AI is this emerging industry, but we think AI can ultimately provide a deeper level of support for that teacher to help meet the needs of every one of those kids. Lots of kids still get left. A teacher generally will teach to the middle, and the kids who struggle the most sometimes get overlooked. The kids who are really accelerated learners, sometimes they get overlooked as well. It's very difficult for a teacher to meet the needs of a wide range of kids.

We do think that AI has the potential to provide a level of individual support for kids that could be very helpful to teachers. That and a number of other things that we think AI will really be able to do. We're excited about its possibilities.

Brian Lehrer: On this whole idea of changing how we teach reading, changing how we teach math, I know we've had some callers in the past, mostly older callers, who say, 'What is all this theorizing and academic intellectualizing and maybe over-intellectualizing about how to teach?" They'll say, typically, "I grew up and I was taught how to read, and I was taught how to do math. The issue isn't changing how to teach, we know how to teach. The issue is getting it done." What would you say to people like that?

Chancellor Banks: I would say that while I agree that we know in far too many cases, we've forgotten. When I was coming up, I learned how to read through the phonetic approach to reading. About 30 years ago, not only in New York City but all across the country, we got away from that. I didn't do that. I'm just talking about as a system, we got away from that. We went into this more progressive approach, a balanced literacy, where the fundamental approach to how you teach kids to read was changed very significantly. The question really would have been better asked at that time, why did we change? We knew it was working, and yet we changed. Listen, for some--

Brian Lehrer: Why are you changing the math curriculum now?

Chancellor Banks: For many of the same reasons. We got less than half of the kids across the school system are even on grade level in math.

Brian Lehrer: Is that also a kind of going back to an older, more traditional way?

Chancellor Banks: Yes, and I think that's what it is. I think many of the old timers who I've spoken to as well, basically, I'm saying we're going back to the future. We're trying to put in place the things that we knew worked, and that will put us in a much better position for our kids to be successful because what we have been doing for the last 25 and 30 years has not worked, not in New York City. All across the nation, there have been very few places that have gotten it right, and we're trying to get it back on the right track.

Brian Lehrer: Here is George in Manhattan, a retired math teacher. He says, George, you're on WNYC with Chancellor Banks.

George: Yes, exactly. I remember Chancellor Banks from my time teaching at Health Opportunities High School. He was the adjoining school next, but I'm retired. The problem with this computerized system is that you have kids who can't multiply six times four in their head, they turn to their calculator to do it. The more they become reliant on their calculator or this computer system that they have now, the less they are able to do things which we could otherwise do mentally. I strongly disapprove of this process. You have to have a chalkboard approach to teaching math. This is not a literature class. This is a math class.

Even though I taught upper levels, it has to be done on a chalkboard. You have to hold these kids' hands, literally, and say, "This is the way you do X, Y, and Z." You just can't do it the way he's describing. That's all I have to say.

Brian Lehrer: George. Thank you very much. Avi in Flatbush. You're on WNYC with Chancellor. Hi, Avi.

Avi: Hi. Chancellor Banks and Brian. Hi. I had a question. I have a, a child who just started middle school, sixth grade, and I had a question about the literacy program. Their school assigned them over the summer, reading an actual book, and gave them some questions to answer. In elementary school, I also have a second grader. The literacy program seems to be well with HMH, which is Houghton Mifflin. It's based entirely on these workbooks where they read transcripts and things like that, but there aren't really books assigned.

I wanted to know citywide if there's an initiative or a push to try to get kids and try to assign kids actual books and not just base the literacy programs in these vendors who provide workbooks and excerpts.

Chancellor Banks: I certainly appreciate that. Any school where kids are not actually reading books, that should not be the case. What we've been focused on is certainly establishing some fundamental approaches to kids being able to learn how to decode, how to understand the vocabulary, the comprehension because I can give you a book all day, if you can't read it, it won't make a difference. We're trying to get back to the basic mechanics of reading, first and foremost. You're absolutely right. It should not just be a worksheet that we're handing out, which has some specific skill development. That's part of it. Also reading books is critical to that work.

That's why I said, this is a huge body of work. It's a huge system. I'm certainly not sending out a message that kids don't need to read books. All they need to do is do some skill sets from skill development, from a worksheet. That's not the message that we're sending. You may see it look a little bit different in school to school during these early stages. That's why we're saying this is still very much a work in progress, trying to get it right for a very large system.

We're just rolling out the other half of the school. It was just this year, just literally started two weeks ago. We've got a long way to go, but I fully agree with you. You've got to read. You've got to read often, you've got to read books, you've got to turn pages. It's not just looking at something on a computer or on a phone. That won't get it done. I'm in full agreement with you, and that's not what we're doing.

Brian Lehrer: Christine in the Bronx, you're on WNYC with Chancellor Banks. Hello.

Christine: Hi, Brian. Hi, Chancellor. I have a question about applying for the specialized high schools. My husband is a teacher, he's been a teacher in the system for 22 years. I went to public schools myself, and my son is an eighth grader. He was in public schools for elementary, but he's in private school right now. I've been trying to set up a MySchools account, but I can't because I don't have a certain creation code with his OSIS number. When I went to the website, I spent a lot of time on the website and trying to navigate it, trying to find information or someone to call. It has family welcome centers that you can go, but they've been closed since the beginning of August in the Bronx, where I am.

They're not going to reopen until next week, I believe. I was wondering what kind of resources you could provide.

Chancellor Banks: I'm sorry to hear that because that's a failure of customer service for us. You shouldn't be going through that kind of a struggle. I'm going to ask you that you email me directly. If you send me something today, we'll get right back to you, and I'm going to figure out why you've been having those kinds of challenges. You can certainly reach me on my email at davidcbanks@schools.nyc.gov. That goes for any of your listeners, Brian. Folks can certainly be in touch. Let us know issues that you're seeing, problems that you may be having and we'll certainly have somebody get back to you.

I'm interested in hearing from you. Please make reference to the fact that we were in communication on Brian's show and I'll be sure to get back to you.

Brian Lehrer: Oh-oh. Watch out, inbox. I hope you have three or four staff appointed to monitor your email, but, Christine, there's that invitation. I know you got to go in about two minutes. Let me do a little bit of a lightning round. It's really inappropriate in a way, a lightning round of quick, almost yes or no answers on very big issues, but that I think people want to hear you on, even very briefly. Newly arrived migrant students, there is such a tendency to talk about the recently arrived families as a burden, but you recently told The Times, for some of the schools, the migrants coming here has been a godsend. Elaborate very briefly.

Chancellor Banks: New York City is a city of immigrants. When you understand the history of our city and the folks who have come here and just added to the richness and the overall diversity, they make New York what it is. This is just the latest wave of immigrants to the city. Others can argue the politics of it. To me, when kids show up at our door, our goal is to love them and to give them what they need. They bring their own sets of expectations. They bring their own sets of actual just benefit to the system. New York City public schools was losing kids. We used to have over a million kids. We no longer have over a million.

We've got 915,000. Last year, in large part because of the migrants who came, we had the first uptick in enrollment in over eight years. We now have about 45,000 migrant students who've entered since this wave has happened.

Brian Lehrer: Is that a good thing? A million kids to educate as opposed to 900,000?

Chancellor Banks: Yes, why not? I think we can educate a million kids. No matter what the number is, Brian, I get your points. No matter what the number is, when they show up here, my responsibility is to make sure that we educate them, and that's what we're doing. As we've done for many, many years here in our New York City public schools, no matter who the kids are, or where they come from, our job is to educate.

Brian Lehrer: It's the story of New York City just to digress over the many decades and even centuries, people move in. Very often a few generations later, those families move out, and new migrants move in and keep rejuvenating the city so much more than other places. Don't get me started, but last thing, school security. A new wave of anxiety after the Georgia school shooting. What's the approach in New York City?

Chancellor Banks: In New York City, thank God we've not had anything of that nature, and we certainly want to keep it that way. We continue to make sure every year we solidify our security procedures. All of our schools have been trained. Our school safety agents have been well-trained. We've got door locking systems where well over 50% of the schools in New York City now having camera and a door locking system where anybody that comes to the school can't get past the front door without properly identifying themselves. By the end of this school year, we'll have the entire system fully outfitted with that as well.

These are all the things that we're doing. That's physical safety, but then there's also the social emotional safety. Kids who are suffering through lots of mental health issues and challenges, spending a lot of time, effort and resources in those spaces as well, within the school and outside of school, connecting with mental health clinics and community-based organizations that are helping us here. Listen, we can't do this work by ourselves. It takes a village and engaging parents, engaging community-based organizations, elected officials. We're all in this together on behalf of our kids, and that's what we're doing and we're making it happen.

Brian Lehrer: As I said at the start of the show, we could keep talking from now until Monday and just scratch the surface, but education of our kids is so important that if you succeed, the city succeeds. Continued good luck, and let's keep talking.

Chancellor Banks: Thank you, Brian.

 

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