Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels faced a frustrated, impatient crowd Tuesday as he insisted the Mamdani administration is committed to integrating New York City public schools, even as he declined to share a specific plan.<\/p>\n
In the auditorium of the Washington Irving Campus near Union Square, Samuels was met with groans from the audience while facing tough questions from New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones.<\/p>\n
Her recent article<\/a> on her daughter\u2019s experience in public schools has fueled urgent discussions<\/a> about addressing one of the most segregated systems in the country. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has faced mounting criticism<\/a> that he hasn\u2019t delivered a clear education platform \u2014 including how to address segregation.<\/p>\n Samuels insisted he and Hannah-Jones agree on the goal of integration.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will address segregation,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are disagreeing in some ways on the how.\u201d<\/p>\n He touted working groups<\/a> he\u2019s launched in a handful of communities across the city, with more to come, saying local communities \u201cneed to be primed\u201d for the fraught process of implementing new policies to advance integration. Samuels launched the working groups last summer to address intertwined challenges of declining enrollment, class size and segregation<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Hannah-Jones insisted that the Mamdani administration, already 10 months into its term, should be executing policies integration advocates have been promoting for years. She, along with many audience members, made clear they felt Samuels was not meeting the moment.<\/p>\n \u201cI know you were coached not to actually answer my question,\u201d Hannah-Jones said. \u201cYou keep talking about what you did. I want to talk about what you\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n