[music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We want to do a call in now on something related to some breaking news this morning. Mayor de Blasio just announced a short time ago that roughly 50,000 students across all grades pre-K through 12 have opted to attend school via the hybrid model. That is, they're opting back in to some in-person learning, after Friday's deadline for parents to make that decision for the rest of the school year.

Those kids, those 50,000 will join the roughly 315,000 students who had already opted in before that. That means still, that about 650,000 kids, in other words, almost two to one will continue to learn remotely, all remotely, only remotely for the rest of the school year. This is according to New York Times education reporter, Eliza Shapiro, who's been publishing these stats this morning.

What we want to do now is open the phones for parents who have decided to remain fully remote. There's so much conversation in the media about the fact that the family should have the choice, this is a debate all over the country. New York has been a leader on that, no matter what you think about how Mayor de Blasio has handled aspects of it or the transparency or the last-minute changes. There are many criticisms that people could legitimately level, but New York has been a leader in terms of having the choice available for not full-time in-person school, but part-time, what they call the hybrid model, in-person school. Hybrid so that kids can be socially distanced.

The classes can be smaller, and they're not all packed in shoulder to shoulder, nose to nose. It's the hybrid model, but most kids in New York City are still choosing not to do it at all. To be all remote or their parents are choosing for them. This call-in is for parents who even with everything we've been through, and as tough as remote learning must be on most of your kids, I know some kids flourish with remote learning, but I think most don't find it ideal. Why did you continue to choose remote learning for your kids?

Give us a call, 646-435-7280. Help us report this story. Help us humanize the story. It's not just numbers, it's about you. As an individual, it's about your child as an individual. It's about your family. 646-435-7280.

A recent school survey from the Federal Education Department showed that 7 in 10 Asian American K through 12 students were fully remote. 7 in 10, in the Asian American community, that's 12 percentage points higher than Hispanic students, 15 points higher than Black students, and 45 points higher than white students.

I wonder if there's a little breakout conversation here of parents in different racial or ethnic groups that we might even be able to have in this call-in. It depends who happens to be listening right now with kids in the school system and who wants to call in, but particularly for Asian American parents, why do you think your group and I realize it's such a huge group, there are so many different Asian American nationalities of origin, totally get that, but why do you think as a large group, Asian

American parents are opting out your kids more than others? 646-435-7280.

The opposite of that. White parents. Why do you think white parents are opting their kids in more than others? Same thing for Black or Latino parents? Is there something in your group's experience writ large, that informs your decision on this? 646-435-7280. Schools in Newark just reopened today for the first time since the pandemic began. Newark parents, you can chime in too. What are you deciding for your kids? Let me play a clip of the Mayor, who is hopeful that parents will come back. This is the Mayor on this show on Friday.

Mayor de Blasio: The recovery is going to move very quickly. The economy is going to come back. We're seeing amazing facts about the economic comeback already, thanks in large measure to the stimulus. A year obviously seeing the vaccination rate is astoundingly fast now and I think you're going to see case levels go down. I expect Brian, a lot of people have been away are coming back. I expect a lot of people who are not sure what they wanted to do in terms of their kids education will solidify their plans, and of course, families can sign up for kindergarten all through the spring, all through the summer.

Brian: That's for kindergarten, but the numbers are now in. Out of the 700,000 students who were going all remote in New York City, up until the deadline on Friday, only 50,000 opted in. That's still a lot of people. 50,000 people, but it's 50,000 students. Out of 700,000, 650,000 are choosing to remain all remote. Parents we'll take your stories after this.

[music]

Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC and now with parents who have chosen to keep their kids all remote for the rest of the school year in New York City. Dorothy on Staten Island, you're on WNYC. Hi, Dorothy. Thanks for calling in.

Dorothy: Hi, Brian.

Brian: How old's your kid?

Dorothy: My daughter is a ninth-grader. She's a brand new high school freshman here on the island at one of the high schools.

Brian: She's been all remote this year?

Dorothy: We had opted for blended learning. She was looking forward to starting school, she had a rough time with the remote in the spring, last year, and we really wanted her to go back in-person. When she got there, they had school one or two days a week, depending on the week, alternating weeks, and there were no teachers in the room with them. It was essentially sitting in a room all day, Zooming with your teachers in the building.

Brian: Because the teacher was home? The teachers?

Dorothy: Yes, and most of our classes have two teachers assigned to them. I'm a

New York City public school teacher, in fact, I have to log on and teach my remote classes this afternoon. I teach both live and remote, and I just left my live students. Our school, we opted to teach both this teachers in my school, and in some ways, I feel bad because I don't entirely blame the schools or the city. I'm not too happy with my union. I feel like they've put up roadblocks and I understand that people have issues about their safety, but I also think that we're public servants, and we have a duty to be in school with the kids when they need us.

Brian: I didn't mention the option in my lead-in to opt out. I've only had these few windows during the school year to go back in to in-person learning, but you could opt out any time if you were in in-person learning, and so that's what you did. Your daughter went back at the beginning of the school year, but it wasn't working, so then you opted out.

Dorothy: Right. It's a really sad excuse for in-person because there's no interaction. You're not even in the room with other students who are in the same classes as you are. You're essentially sitting next to a stranger, Zooming with teachers who are in other places, and there's no live interaction, and it's a tremendous [unintelligible 00:08:31].

Brian: That's not the case in all cases, right? It's not like all high school teachers in the city are teaching remotely from their homes.

Dorothy: No, no. In fact, like I said, my school we put it to a vote, and that's something that the union discouraged at first, but we voted to agree to teach both live and remote so that we could deliver what the kids needed. I feel sad for her. She's really struggling, but she felt like what's the point of traveling all the way to school to sit in a room and Zoom with-

Brian: I hear you.

Dorothy: -teachers who can't even be bothered to be there, and it's really unfortunate.

Brian: Dorothy, thank you so much for your call. Good luck to you and your daughter. Tiffany in Lower Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Tiffany. Thanks for calling in.

Tiffany: Thank you. Good morning.

Brian: Tell us your story of you and your child or children.

Tiffany: Yes, so I have a daughter who is currently a third grader, and my partner and I, my husband, we did make the decision to continue on with the remote process. It was a couple of factors, but I must say from the very beginning when we were making a decision whether we were going to opt in for the hybrid model or do the remote, one of the factors that we took into consideration is that we "wanted to leave a seat for someone who truly needed to be in school for the hybrid option however many days a week the school would allow, just because we, at that

particular moment had the flexibility to do so". That was one of the factors that we took into consideration.

While the process has certainly not been perfect, we ran into tech issues [chuckles] along the way. I think overall, our remote experience has been a relatively good remote experience. I think it has to do with several factors. Number one, I will say that our school is a well-resourced school, so that certainly helps. The relationship that my daughter has developed with her teacher, as well as the other students who are doing remote, has been very helpful. Of course, the Spell Safe is our WhatsApp chat for all the remote parents, if we have any questions about assignments or we've run into a tech issue. That has been very helpful.

If this decision had been given to us in January to opt back in for the rest of the school year, we certainly would have taken that, but as we only have several more months left within the school year, we just decided to stay fully remote. We are committed to returning in September. We're excited for my daughter to return in September and as well as my rising pre-care who will be in school in September as well.

Brian: Interesting. Tiffany, do you think the quality of remote education has improved over the course of this year? Is that your experience with your daughter?

Tiffany: Oh, goodness. When everyone had to quickly pivot back in March and work remotely, there is certainly a big difference between the instruction that was given then versus what's given now. Yes, there certainly has been an improvement, but that doesn't mean that it is perfect. As you mentioned earlier, there are still a lot of what? Over 600,000 students who are learning remote, and I know that their needs aren't necessarily always being addressed to the best that they can be. Certainly, it could be better, but if we had to compare and contrast from what we were doing last March to what is being available now, there certainly has been improvement on the remote model. It could always be better.

Brian: Tiffany, thank you so much for your call. Carolyn in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Carolyn.

Carolyn: Hi, Brian, thank you so much for taking my call. A super long-time listener.

Brian: Glad you're on. I see you have a son. Your son is--

Carolyn: He's in pre-K currently.

Brian: Oh, and you're choosing?

Carolyn: We are back in-person, and we have been since January, but we originally chose 100% remote in September. I wanted to speak a little bit to the point you raised about how the Asian community and the Asian American community have been shown to be choosing 100% remote at such greatly increased percentages compared to other communities.

Brian: What's your take?

Carolyn: I think there's a couple of different aspects. First of all, from experience, for those of Asian heritage, we all know, we have family and friends from Asia that we're in touch with. We know this is not Asia's first experience with this kind of pandemic exposure to mask-wearing practices. There was that exposure before, there was that memory.

I think those in the Asian community were much faster to take COVID much more seriously. My friends who are Asian, who had strong ties in their countries of origin, they were the very first to start talking about COVID to me and telling me to wear a mask. This was back in early January when it really wasn't part of the popular culture as of yet. I think that's one huge element, taking what we're going through right now much more seriously because of previous experience happening in their countries with their families.

I think second of it is, for me, at least, when you're a person of color in this country, when you're a minority, I don't think-- I have to say just personally and anecdotally, but I've heard enough of this to know that my experience is not solitary by any means. There's not this strong trust in the healthcare system that you will be treated equitably, that you will be given care, that someone will be taking care of you.

I think when you come here as an immigrant and you have another culture and you're a person of color, there is 100% an extra layer of fear that if something happens to you, you will not get taken care of, that you will be put back to the end of the line because this has been our experience our entire life. Our entire life we've experienced that level of prejudice.

I think for communities of color, Asians, Asian Americans, all communities of color, Black, Latinx folks, we all have an extra layer of fear that were we to get exposed and to get sick, we would not receive equitable treatment, we would not have access to resources. I think there's increased fear in our community for that reason as well for the realities of societal injustice.

Brian: Thank you so much for your call, Carolyn. Very, very, very illuminating for a lot of people, I'm sure. We're going to have time for one more here, I think. Jane, you're on WNYC. Jane, are you there?

Jane: Hi, can you hear me?

Brian: I can hear you just fine.

Jane: Okay, great. Thanks for taking my call. I'm Asian American. I have a daughter who's actually half Asian, half African American, and in eighth grade. We've been fully remote from the beginning. Originally, it was just because of the issue around safety, so that's why we kept her home. Over time, I just didn't feel that what was happening changed, and so we never opted for her to go back in. I will say that remote learning has utterly failed my daughter. It's not the fault of her school. I think she has a great school, great administration, and teachers.

I just think that the way in which remote learning has played out for her, she has an

IEP, it just really failed her. It's been a horrible experience for her and as her parent who works full time. Another reason why she's not going back is-- two reasons. One, I'm fully remote in terms of my work. The disruption of me having to take her to school and then pick her up, not having-- Hello?

Brian: I'm listening.

Jane: That's really hard for me to handle because I am working full time. Then the other thing is that there's been this spike of the anti-Asian violence incidences. I have to say that I have another layer of-- It takes a lot more energy and effort to be very careful being outside and to going on public transportation with her during this time [crosstalk].

Brian: We're out of time in this segment, except, are you worried for her safety too, being out in the world as an Asian American kid?

Jane: Absolutely.

Brian: Thank you so much for your call. What a horrible way to have to live your life, and what a horrible way to have to end the show. Asian Americans now afraid for their children's safety to even send them to in-person school. Thanks, all of you, parents who called in for what I think was an important call-in. Thank you very much.

Copyright © 2021 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.