Questions for the Chancellor

City schools Chancellor David Banks will testify Wednesday at a House hearing on antisemitism; expect it to get brutal. On the opposite page, Banks lays out what he wants to say, but he’ll surely also face questions on a host of public-school controversies in the months since Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7 attack on Israel:

The Jewish global-history teacher at Origins HS in Brooklyn, who was serially victimized by vicious antisemitic teens, complete with “death to Israel” chants — and then punished for speaking out.

The Hillcrest HS riot involving hundreds of kids, targeting a Queens Jewish teacher after she posted a photo of herself holding an “I Stand With Israel” sign.

A classroom map of the “Arab World” that renamed Israel as “Palestine” — in symbolic fulfillment of the Israel-haters odious “From the river to the sea.”

A Brooklyn parent advisory board that promoted and organized a student walkout for Palestinians.

He’ll need to admit that antisemitism — not Islamophobia— is huge a problem in the city’s public schools. And explain why his office’s response to rampant, mass hate at schools like Hillcrest (his alma mater!) and Origins looked so slow and weak.

“I wouldn’t say that I’m proud of what we’ve done” in response to the post-Oct. 7 school turmoil, Banks said last month.

Indeed, this mess is only one more sign that Banks exercises at best limited control of the vast bureaucracy he officially oversees. We fear his testimony is unlikely to come off looking much better than the disastrous performances from university presidents like Harvard’s now-ex-prez Claudine Gay.