REIMAGINING PUBLIC EDUCATION EQUITY AFTER COVID-19: WILL PUBLIC VOICES FROM NEW YORK'S EPICENTER BE HEARD OVER THE SIREN SONG OF BILLIONAIRES?

• Author: Gomez-Velez, Natalie

Introduction 315 I. New York City Public School Inequities and COVID-19's Impact 317 A. Existing Inequities in New York City Public Schools 317 B. The COVID-19 Pandemic Caused School Closures Across New York City 319 C. COVID-19 Exposes and Exacerbates Inequities Among New York City Public School Students 319 i. Digital Divide 320 ii. Home Environment--from Homelessness to Doubling Up to Second Homes 324 iii. Teacher-Student Relationships to Support Students' Social and Emotional Health 326 iv. English Language Learners 328 v. Students with Disabilities 330 vi. Intersecting Challenges and the Quest for Reopening Guidelines 333 II. Public Health and Safety, Education, Equity, Economics, and Governance--Who Decides Reopening? 334 A. Public Officials' Response to COVID-19 and Public Schools: Rhetoric, Responsibility, and Governance 335 B. The Constitutional Structure of Education and Public Health Governance in the United States 338 C. The Federal COVID-19 Response: Federalism, Public Health, and Public Education 341 D. The New York State Board of Regents's Education Governance Role 345 E. The New York State Governor's Role in Education and Public Health 346 F. New York City and the Mayor's Role in Public Education and Public Health 351 III. School Governance Models and Equity Implications Amid COVID-19 353 A. Single-Purpose Versus General-Purpose Public Education Governance 355 B. Centralized Versus Decentralized Structures 356 C. The Relationship Between Governance and Market-Based Versus Democratic Visions of Public Education 359 D. The Overlay of Public Health Emergency Governance During COVID-19 361 IV. Re-opening and Re-imagining Proposals: Law, Governance, Grandstanding, and Public and Private Power 362 A. Regents's Reopening Plan 363 i. Education-Focused Task Force on Reopening to Develop Rules and Guidance 363 ii. Regents Approach--Single Purpose, De-Centralized, and Inclusive 366 B. Governor's Reopening and Reimagining Plans 366 i. Reimagining Education While Managing the Pandemic 366 ii. Governor's Approach--General Purpose, Centralized Power, Economic Focus, and Private Influence 371 C. New York City Mayor's Plan 373 i. Planning School Reopening with the Entire City in Mind in an Education-Focused System 373 ii. New York City Mayor's Approach--General Purpose, Centralized, and Local Under State Control 375 D. Education Governance for Equity--Observations from New York's COVID-19 Experience Thus Far 376 Conclusion 378 INTRODUCTION

COVID-19's impact has drawn calls for renewing and re-thinking public education in New York and elsewhere. On May 5, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a plan to "reimagine education" (1) with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (2) The announcement drew a swift and largely negative reaction from parents, teachers, education advocates, and local elected officials (3) who viewed it as an especially thoughtless approach, given the stark and deadly inequities the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed. (4) A few days earlier, on April 29, 2020, Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents Betty Rosa announced the establishment of a task force of educational leaders to guide the reopening of the State's schools. (5) Her announcement noted "how schools across the state serve as the cornerstone of our communities" and emphasized the importance of including school-based stakeholders and emphasizing equity in any plan for re-opening or re-thinking public education. (6)

The stark disparate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color and low-income communities is well documented. (7) These disparities mirror deep, longstanding structural inequity along the lines of race, ethnicity, and class. (8) To reimagine public education in light of the experience and lessons of COVID-19, policymakers must meaningfully include the voices and perspectives of marginalized communities most impacted from the start. This must occur within and beyond appropriate public education governance structures.

This Article considers the imperative to "reimagine education" in New York. It does so from the perspectives of equity and democratic governance, as reimagining public education is a quintessentially public and democratic endeavor. Part I of this Article describes COVID-19's impact on New York City public schools, and what the crisis revealed about the role of public schools in communities across the City. Part II examines the New York Governor's and Board of Regents's reopening and reimagining proposals, taking into account the history and structure of education law and policymaking in New York City. This Part includes the backdrop of education governance in New York and takes account of recent New York education reforms emphasizing privatization and market-based models that have failed to improve quality or equity in New York City public schools. It considers the interplay of education and public health governance involving federal, state, and local actors. Against these backdrops, this Article considers the Governor's and Board of Regents's approaches and proposals. Part III contends that to effectively combat deep inequities, any reexamination of public education, particularly in light of COVID-19, must begin with a careful examination of the facts and input from the people most affected--not from billionaires. Such reimagining also must take place within accessible, transparent, and inclusive public structures and spaces. It considers early responses to the COVID-19 pandemic as a lens through which to examine various school governance structures, including single purpose versus general purpose, centralized versus decentralized, as well as the impacts of privatization and federal involvement. This Article concludes with observations about the current proposals and recommendations for community-inclusive approaches that foreground equity and community inclusion as essential to the success of any public school innovation or reimagination.

This Article discusses how New York City public schools planned to reopen in the fall of 2020, given the COVID-19 crisis, and what educators and elected leaders charged with school governance consider when closing and reopening schools to support public health and address and alleviate the stark inequities the pandemic exposed and exacerbated. This Article also explores who should decide the terms and, moreover, what theories and methods of leadership and governance might best respond to the stark social and educational inequities that the pandemic revealed and worsened.

1. NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC SCHOOL INEQUITIES AND COVID-19'S IMPACT

   1. Existing Inequities in New York City Public Schools

      New York City public schools are separate and unequal; (9) indeed, they are among the most segregated in the country. (10) Despite New York City's reputation as a progressive city, stark socioeconomic inequality is longstanding and is reflected in the makeup and resources of its public and private schools. (11) Two-thirds of Black and Latinx students attend schools that are predominantly (80% or more) Black and Latinx. (12) "Half of NYC's schools are at least ninety percent Black or Latinx, while Black and Latinx students comprise only about sixtyseven percent of the City's public school population." (13)

      Segregation in New York City public schools tends to track socioeconomic inequality--significant disparities in educational quality and access exist based on race and class, (14) significantly impacting the education opportunity gap between Black and Latinx versus white (and some Asian-American) students. (15) Notably, school segregation in New York City worsened following the implementation of choice- and market-based school policies and practices during the Bloomberg Administration. (16)

      Segregated schools, particularly those in isolated areas of concentrated poverty, correlate with negative educational opportunities and outcomes. They tend to have higher teacher turnover, less experienced teachers, and less access to quality facilities, books, technology, and resources necessary for educational success. (17)

   2. The COVED-19 Pandemic Caused School Closures Across New York City

      In either late 2019 or early 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak arrived in the United States as it swept across the rest of the world. (18) New York City soon became a pandemic's epicenter, with cases rising sharply in March 2020. (19) This prompted Governor Cuomo to suddenly close the City's economy on March 22, 2020, and shut down New York City public schools--the nation's largest public school system--earlier on March 16, 2020. (20) New York City teachers and school leaders were given one week to prepare for distance learning. Online classes for New York City's 1.1 million public school students began on March 23, 2020, and continued through the end of the 2019-2020 school year.

   3. COVID-19 Exposes and Exacerbates Inequities Among New York City Public School Students

      Almost immediately following school closures and the shift to online learning, shortcomings and inequities emerged. (21) Concerns were not limited to struggles with ensuring teaching and learning in an online environment. The multivariate importance of public schools to communities and society quickly came to the fore. For example, school leaders immediately recognized the importance of public schools in supporting children facing food insecurity. (22) The New York City Department of Education (DOE) arranged for families to pick up meals at school buildings across the city. (23) The shift from in-person to online, remote teaching and learning depended on a technological infrastructure that many students and families lacked, exposing the extent of a pre-existing "digital divide." (24) This included not only access to computers, laptops, iPads, or other hardware but also internet and Wi-Fi access and home environments conducive to online classes and homework. (25) Despite significant adaptive efforts by teachers, principals, and...