Mayor Bill de Blasio blamed the media Wednesday for the ongoing decrease in the number of families opting for classroom instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

De Blasio complained that what he calls “good news stories” about the quality of in-person instruction are “often not going to be spread in the mainstream media.”

“They’ll spread at the grass roots, it’ll be word of mouth,” he claimed.

Hizzoner said at his daily press briefing that parents will take “the opportunity to send their kids back into school buildings,” despite the lack of uplifting classroom vignettes from the press.

Two months ago, 28 percent of city families placed their kids in a remote-only format.

As of last Friday, that figure had jumped to 52 percent — the first time distance learners outnumbered those enrolled in the blended model.

Many city residents — especially single parents — have credited de Blasio for pushing to at least partially reopen schools to the point that they can host children one to three times a week.

That relief, parents have told The Post, has allowed them to resume some employment while merging their kids back into a classroom environment.

But others have charged that classroom learning has been marred by haphazard teaching models, complicated schedules, and a lack of true in-person instruction. Those deficits, they argue, have fueled migrations to full remote learning.

De Blasio said Wednesday that he expected classroom operations to stabilize as the year progresses and said that skittish parents will become comfortable enough to have their kids back in their buildings.

“So over we these next weeks we’re going to show parents exactly what’s going on in the schools and why we are really pleased with what we’re seeing in terms of the health and safety levels,” he said.

Share this article:

Source: Read Full Article