City Hall News

Brian Lehrer (0:10)

Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now we'll replay some clips from yesterday's Ask the Mayor call-in here with Mayor Mamdani and talk about them with WNYC City Hall reporter Elizabeth Kim and about some of her original reporting. Happy Wednesday, Liz. Always good to have you on the show.

Elizabeth Kim (0:27)

Thank you, Brian. Happy Wednesday.

Brian Lehrer (0:29)

So I started yesterday, some of our listeners will recall, by playing a clip of New York Times journalist Nicole Hannah Jones, who had been on the show the day before, discussing the city's persistently segregated schools. I had invited her to submit a question for the mayor after her heartbreaking and confessional article about her own choices for her own daughter in the New York City public schools. She said, quote, I would like the mayor to answer, when are we going to actually see a real and substantial plan to address the racial, social, and economic isolation of students? Here is part of his response. It's about a minute.

To her original question there, when will we see a plan? Can you answer that?

Zohran Mamdani (1:21)

Yes, that is one of our urgent priorities, and that is something that we are actively working on.

As an administration, something that the chancellor is leading on through the work he's been doing, but also through the plans that are being formulated. Now, what I would say is that this comes alongside the work that we have been doing to ensure that this school system is also one that's safe for students, whether it's developing and implementing out a ban on generative AI from students from the ages of 2K through eighth grade, limited implementation in high school with student being maximum able to access about 45 minutes of that per week, while also actually being equipped with the knowledge about what this technology will mean for the world around them and for the industries that they hope to be a part of. Similarly, beyond the most expansive student facing a moratorium in the nation, we are also ensuring that there's actually restricted screen time. Now, I know these are issues that are not as much present in the incredible piece that Nicole Hannah Jones wrote. However, they are also part and parcel of what many parents have raised as concerns that they have about their students in our public school system at this time.

Brian Lehrer (2:30)

The mayor here yesterday. So Liz, did the mayor make any news there? He didn't give a date for a plan to come out or commit to any specific reforms even when I followed up on Nicole's specific questions.

Did you hear anything there that you didn't already know?

Elizabeth Kim (2:46)

No, Brian. To be honest, I was a little surprised.

I read on social media, there was an education critic who pointed out that this story has been out, I think over a week now, right? And this story has been one of the most talked about stories, as far as I know in New York City and possibly across the country. This is written by Nicole Hannah Jones, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist at the New York Times. The mayor himself calls it an incredible piece. You had to think that the mayor would have known or guessed that he was going to be asked about it at some point. You know, I was a little-

Brian Lehrer (3:29)

And he did know. I mean, I don't mind saying-

Elizabeth Kim (3:31)

Yeah.

Brian Lehrer (3:31)

We told the mayor, the mayor's office, that we had invited Nicole to pose a question to the mayor in her segment. There's no reason to ambush him with this, you know? So they knew it was coming, just to say.

Elizabeth Kim (3:46)

Well, that's even more surprising than Brian. I mean, I thought, you know, sometimes it could be difficult to get a question to the mayor during his daily press conferences because, you know, the custom is, is that the mayor, first he takes on-topic questions, and that are questions that pertain to whatever he's announcing that day. You know, it could be affordable housing, it could be some transit policy, and then they move to the off-topic. This would certainly have been an off-topic, you know, in the past week because, in my mind, I don't think he had an education presser, but I was definitely looking out for, to see if someone would ask him about this story. And I think one of the reasons that it is completely fair to press the mayor on this issue, and we did talk about it during the campaign, too, the fact that he had a very, very thin education agenda. But if you think about it, his whole campaign was built on this idea of equity and also promoting the interests of the working class. And if I remember correctly, Brian, the way that Nicole Hannah Jones framed her question was, if you care about the working class, schools are the way to start tackling inequity.