A parent came to our CEC mtg tonight FURIOUS about the #OnlyWhenItsSafe space from which we operate because it does not work for her family.She is not wrong.And I want to talk about how fucked up it is that our demands for safety & equity are being framed as ‘anti school opening’

We would love nothing more than to be reunited with our teachers, students and colleagues. We are exhausted. In addition to working and learning or teaching remotely, many of us have also been organizing ALL SUMMER around the things many people are JUST waking up to re: Ed equity

We acknowledge that our most vulnerable learners have more to lose because Black, Brown, low income, IEP, & ELL students are forsaken by our education system on a good day. That is why we are asking for more than a couple masks &empty promises lest we go back to business as usual

How are our so called leaders not advocating for full funding of our public schools? Why do we have to ask about details regarding testing & Tracing? Why are we pretending a handful of custodians should or could be responsible for disinfecting an entire multiple story bldg daily?

Unlike our leaders, we developed valid answers to the questions we could & we know that the ones we don’t mean we can’t FULLY open.

This administrations commitment to sending 1.1 million youth into generationally under funded & unsafe buildings instead of fine tuning remote learning & prioritizing vulnerable youth for in person WHEN FUNDS, STAFFING & HEALTH CONSCUS PLANNING is in place is mindboggling

That being said, it doesn’t mean low income, single parent & essential worker families don’t need an option so they can work or that tech disconnected, non English Speaking & parents of IEP students don’t need a more reliable system than remote has provided thus far.

May I introduce you to the concept of a P H A S E D and D E L A Y E D reopening a la: @UAMakerNYC @council_14 @EducationCounc1 @MarkTreyger718 @nycpa This would both center collective safety AND meet the needs of our most marginalized students & families.

Instead @NYCMayor balanced our budget on the backs of the same Black,Brown &disabled children he now tokenizes to push for an unsafe reopening while @NYGovCuomo refuses to #TaxTheRich & @DOEChancellor ‘health is the 1st priority!’s us to death without actually PRIORITIZING HEALTH