Flunking out

It’s embarrassing that three weeks before the nation’s largest school system is set to reopen, an all-eyes-on-NewYork test we support, the teachers’ union head is still reminding the chancellor and the mayor that they owe remedial coronavirus mitigation homework.

Wednesday, UFT President Michael Mulgrew said he’d urge his members not to return to buildings if they lack ample personal protective equipment, and cleaning supplies and instructions, and nurses with proper spaces to do their jobs. Reasonable demands to which the city has agreed, but which in many cases have yet to materialize.

Mulgrew also wants well-ventilated classrooms and soap and paper towels in all bathrooms. And pressing practical questions answered, including how lunches will get delivered to classrooms and how older students will move between classes. Again, reasonable demands.

Systemwide, he’s rightly calling for a test-and-trace system for coronavirus better than the current one, which is essentially to encourage teachers to get tested, and, for kids, to say that if one gets tested on their own and tells the school they’re positive, shutdowns will ensue.

To which Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza basically say: Trust us, we’re working on it.

Trust them? Why?

We don’t like unions pushing city leaders around. But the UFT has lost 73 members to COVID, in part because the mayor and governor took so long to shut down schools in March (for the record, we weren’t agitating for a shutdown then either).

Once bitten, twice shy. Once dead, no coming back to life.