« Here’s where the can-do spirit of this city comes in. »
Let’s see if we get this straight. New York City’s schools can’t fully reopen because of the continuing high risk of transmission of COVID-19 in classrooms. However, that traps parents — especially economically vulnerable single parents and two-income families — from being able to earn a living. NYC mayor Bill de Blasio has an idea to solve that conundrum (via Twitchy):
New York’s public schools plan to offer a mix of in-person classes and remote learning when a new school year starts — with students going to school one to three days a week, in order to cut the number of people in buildings and prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
That’s expected to create a major crunch for working parents with no one to watch their kids on the days they’re not in school.
The mayor rolled out plans to expand city-sponsored child care programs so 100,000 children from preschool through eighth grade will have a place to go on their off days. There are 1.1 million students in the city’s public school system, the largest in the nation.
“So many parents have also said they can’t make it work if they don’t get more child care,” de Blasio said. “We’ve been trying to find every way to create new child care — and to build it from scratch, honestly, because we’re having to create something that didn’t exist before on this scale.
