No apple for Yang
Goes on defensive at teachers mayoral forum
Four leading candidates for mayor voiced support for many teachers’ union priorities, aired ideas on addressing learning loss from the pandemic and even took a pop quiz of sorts on Wednesday.
Members of the United Federation of Teachers and their President Michael Mulgrew kept Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, city Comptroller Scott Stringer, exde Blasio aide Maya Wiley and entrepreneur Andrew Yang on their toes during the forum, the last one before the union issues its coveted endorsement ahead of the June 22 Democratic primary.
The candidates unanimously agreed that every school should have a gifted-and-talented program, the number of charter schools should remain capped and the current system for families to pick high schools should be scrapped.
Yang, who’s been leading in the polls but is least likely to get the UFT’s support after he blamed it for the sloppy fall reopening of class, was the outlier on several issues.
He was the only one who said wealthy PTAs should not be required to share funds they raise with less fortunate schools, explaining, “it should be voluntary.” Yang also voiced qualified support of the controversial SHSAT test to get into the city’s eight specialized high schools, explaining that he’d keep it but “add other criteria” for admissions.
Adams pressed Yang on his controversial January comments voicing disbelief that some New Yorkers stayed in small apartments with their families during the COVID-19 pandemic while he made for upstate New Paltz, N.Y. for a long stretch. Adams also cited Yang’s March remarks saying the UFT was a “significant factor” when school reopenings were delayed in fall 2020.
“I just need to understand why you felt as though these teachers didn’t put their lives on the line and those who are living in difficult surroundings did not leave the city and why you felt it was okay to do so,” the Brooklyn beep said.
“I care deeply about what families of every circumstance are going through every day,”
Yang replied, then getting in a dig: “You’ve been in this a long time, so you understand what one quote pulled out of context in an interview actually is.”
Teachers who asked questions during the forum repeatedly brought up learning loss, lack of technology for remote classes and the psychological trauma of COVID.
Both Adams and Wiley envisioned schools as offering services beyond education, with Wiley saying each school should be a “center of community.” She also promised to hire 1,000 new teachers.
Adams cast schools as providing services on everything from eyeglasses to nutrition, though he did not go into detail. He added that he’d use the NYPD to deliver tech to students.
Mulgrew grilled candidates on the UFT’s five-point plan on recovering from the pandemic. Adams and Stringer said they’d read it; Wiley admitted she’d used a “Cliff’s Notes” version; and Yang said, “I confess I have not read it.”
“Now it’s a pop quiz!” Mulgrew said before quizzing the candidates.