Cuomo: Slashing and Privatizing Education is “The New Normal”

While the working class is increasingly expected by big businesses and the government to absorb all the hardships caused by the coronavirus, the pandemic is now being used to attack one of few social services offered to working-class children in the United States — their right to an education.

NYC Coronavirus Response Exploits Teachers and Leaves Kids Out in the Cold

Governor Cuomo cancelled spring break for NYC teachers and students on Tuesday in order, he says, to distract students and keep them indoors to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. Mayor De Blasio announced last night that teachers and students will be expected to work during Passover and on the Easter holidays. Yet low-income students continue to languish at home without technology even as the city pours money into Apple’s pockets, buying hundreds of thousands of iPads with city money. And the United Federation of Teachers’ response is almost complete silence and capitulation.

The Crisis of Care: Domestic Labor in Times of the Coronavirus

The current crisis has laid bare the importance of social reproduction for capitalism. The care economy is now more important than ever.

NYC Throws Students and Teachers Under the Bus To Protect Economy During Pandemic

On Friday evening, Mayor Bill De Blasio explained his decision not to shut down NYC schools despite how many other municipalities have done so. Between the political maneuvering, he made it very clear why the center of capital and the most segregated school system in the nation refuses to close schools: capitalist politicians see teachers as highly replaceable daycare for other workers, and schools as necessary for the health of the economy.