Ready to take the Cuomo Challenge?

An Open Letter to NYS Gov. Andrew Cuomo

RE: Taking the Cuomo Challenge - Transforming NY Schools

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Dear Gov. Cuomo,

On April 17, you challenged us all to transform, to look at things differently. Now, I challenge you to follow your own words as you make the choice on reopening New York schools this fall.

I am a National Board Certified high school teacher in Schenectady, with a wife who teaches in Averill Park and two daughters who are AP students. I  know that every teacher wants more than anything to return to school with their students - when it is safe. While the likelihood of students or staff dying from COVID-19 may be small, the only acceptable number of deaths is 𝟬.

It seems clear from early comments on local school plans for reopening that there is not a single answer that will satisfy everyone. Not so long as we must change our pre-pandemic norm of in-person schooling. So let us take the opportunity to radically transform education for the time being with a full scale virtual model.

Will this be easy? Absolutely not. 

Will a new wave of COVID-19 infections force us to do this at some point this year? All indicators points to yes.

One of the things that made virtual teaching so challenging for everyone last spring is that we were thrown into it and adjusted as we went. It was “crisis teaching,” and everyone did their best. But now, rather than dilute our efforts with working on different reopening models (in-person, hybrid, virtual, virtual/hybrid mix), I suggest focusing our efforts on how best to do remote learning. After all, we saw how poorly unfocused efforts by different states worked to make things worse for public safety.

Building a transformative virtual model would:

     * allow students to learn 21 Century skills that many of them are lacking, better preparing all students for college and careers

     * allow teachers to study, share and perfect best practices in virtual learning models

     * allow school districts to target their limited funding to long-term solutions (e,g, 1-to-1 computers, Internet access) rather than pouring money into temporary health and safety measures that one day we hope we will no longer need

     * allow parent-groups and communities time to focus on safe child care alternatives 

     * allow the state to help schools in this effort to become a model for the educational system across the country and the world.

Most importantly, this model would allow every student and school staff to remain safer at home in the deadliest pandemic of our time.

You challenged us to transform, I used your words in an assignment for my 12th graders last spring to Try Something New. They stepped up to the plate, as they usually do. They are very resilient. They want to do well. Consistency works best for students, and in this time there is so much out of their control. Let’s build that consistency from Day 1. It would help focus students, teachers, district leaders, everyone on addressing the only problem that they can: learning in a pandemic. Safely.

You said that this was a window of opportunity to change things for the better, and “shame on us” if we did not. I have accepted your challenge. Will you?

Roger Gaboury, NBCT

Freedom Writer teacher

ELA teacher, Schenectady High School