After Nikole Hannah-Jones’ essay, Mamdani says NYC schools need ‘urgent’ change but offers few specifics
Did you know search engines like Google are changing the way you see news? Keep Chalkbeat’s valuable education coverage at the top of your feeds by clicking here and checking the box next to our name. A day after New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones publicly challenged Mayor Zohran Mamdani to confront school segregation, the mayor offered his first response to her account of the harm her…
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani acknowledged that his administration is developing plans to address school segregation, following an essay from New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. Hannah-Jones criticized Mamdani for failing to confront school segregation in a recent essay, describing her daughter's experiences in segregated schools as "devastating."
Mamdani acknowledged that other families have faced similar problems, and his administration is working with local working groups to tackle issues like school segregation and underenrollment. However, Mamdani did not provide any concrete policies to promote racial or socioeconomic integration or improve struggling schools. Hannah-Jones praised the mayor's commitment to releasing a plan to address segregation but expressed concerns that momentum on the issue may have "gone completely dormant" in the wake of the pandemic.
She also warned that deference to task forces could be a stalling tactic and emphasized the need for strong leadership from the mayor.
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