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The Lafayette Educational Complex in Bensonhurt, Brooklyn, flooded last fall during a day of heavy rains. (Adi Talwar\/City Limits)<\/p>\n\u201cGreen Schools were actually part of Mayor Mamdani\u2019s campaign platform. They connect so many of the mayor\u2019s priorities: child care, safe work, good jobs, and fixing what\u2019s broken in our day-to-day. But so far, we\u2019ve seen no action.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lafayette Educational Complex in Bensonhurt, Brooklyn, flooded last fall during a day of heavy rains. (Adi Talwar\/City Limits)<\/p>\n
Nine months into his term, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is popular. His approval rating is 69 percent among New York City residents, and he\u2019s become known for the novel work of keeping campaign promises, from freezing the rent <\/a>to delivering a path to universal childcare. <\/p>\n But he\u2019s also doing the less flashy work of making the city run better day to day\u2014fixing a tricky bump at the end of the Williamsburg Bridge bike path, repairing playgrounds, and filling over 200,000 potholes citywide. Reporting on his first 100 days in office back in April, the Mamdani administration gave this competence an apt name: pothole politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n But there is one area the mayor has surprisingly neglected: our public schools. Nearly 1.2 million New Yorkers step foot in one of the city\u2019s 1,200 school buildings five days a week, for 180 or more days a year. Our schools are also essential community resources, serving as cooling centers, emergency shelters, election poll sites, and meeting spaces for all five boroughs. And yet, they\u2019ve fallen into disrepair. It\u2019s time for pothole politics to mean fixing our schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n The average<\/a> New York City public school is 75 years old\u2014nearly double<\/a> the age of the average school nationwide. That means they have all kinds of problems: mold, lead, and asbestos. Broken and leaking facilities with outdated infrastructure that\u2019s never been replaced. Classrooms, gyms, and cafeterias that overheat in the summer<\/a> and get drafty in the winter. Buildings filled with stale air and no ventilation that become breeding grounds for sickness and worsening health conditions like asthma. In neighborhoods with higher pollution rates, often in Black, Brown, and immigrant communities, these conditions are far worse due to decades of neglect.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In Gowanus<\/a>, students have been attending school in a basement contaminated with toxic fumes including the human carcinogen benzene. Long term exposure can have severe health impacts including causing cancer. Just days before the start of the school year, classes were finally moved to a different floor in the same building. In Flatbush<\/a>, window air conditioners have failed to keep up with record heat waves, leaving teachers and students lethargic and struggling to focus on lessons in sweltering classrooms. And in the Bronx<\/a>, a child was diagnosed with severe lead poisoning this year when a school was behind on inspections and updates. Are these the conditions our students deserve?<\/p>\n Our schools should be safe and functional, no exceptions. Instead, they\u2019re not only dangerous, but they\u2019re ruining the ability to learn, too\u2014deteriorating conditions are proven<\/a> to lower test scores, increase absences, and affect student performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s why ALIGN<\/a> and the Climate Works for All<\/a> coalition have been fighting for Green, Healthy Schools. New Yorkers deserve classrooms that are updated for the 21st century, with working facilities that give students, teachers, and school workers the healthy and safe environments they need to thrive. We want classrooms with clean, chemical-free airflow and comfortable temperatures, where kids can focus on their lessons instead of getting sick and missing classes; cafeterias and custodial basements with working air conditioning for hot days in the spring and summer; windows and doors that are properly sealed to keep temperatures comfortable inside; and solar panels across rooftops to power the city with clean energy.<\/p>\n Green Schools were actually part of Mayor Mamdani\u2019s campaign platform. They connect so many of the mayor\u2019s priorities: child care, safe work, good jobs, and fixing what\u2019s broken in our day-to-day. But so far, we\u2019ve seen no action.\u00a0<\/p>\n Our schools are falling apart and our kids are falling behind. Mamdani\u2019s pothole politics means showing New Yorkers how municipal government can work for them, building trust by making our public services run smoothly. But it\u2019s time for pothole politics to mean more than patching a hole here and a hole there. It\u2019s time to fix our schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scott is the climate director for ALIGN: The Alliance for a Greater New York.<\/p>\n \tWe want to hear from you!<\/p>\n Take a short anonymous survey to help us deliver content to empower our community.<\/p>\n![\"CityViews](\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/trx_addons\/components\/lazy-load\/images\/placeholder.png\")
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