Chancellor Samuels Pressed on School Integration Plan

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels walked into an auditorium of roughly 800 people on Tuesday night and left without giving them the one thing many came for: a specific plan to integrate New York City’s public schools. According to Gothamist, which reported on the event, the crowd at the Washington Irving Campus near Union Square met several of his answers with groans.

The town hall, sponsored by the student journalism nonprofit The Bell and New York Appleseed, featured a pointed exchange between Samuels and New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. Her recent article about her daughter’s experience in the city’s public schools has fueled a fresh push to address what is widely described as one of the most segregated school systems in the country. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, now 10 months into his term, has faced criticism that he has not laid out a clear education platform, including on segregation.

Samuels insisted he and Hannah-Jones share the same destination. “We will address segregation,” he said. “We are disagreeing in some ways on the how.” He pointed to working groups he launched last summer in a handful of communities, with more planned, arguing that neighborhoods “need to be primed” for the fraught work of changing admissions and zoning policy. The groups were created to tackle intertwined problems: declining enrollment, class size and segregation.

Hannah-Jones was unmoved. The administration, she argued, should already be carrying out policies that integration advocates have promoted for years. “I know you were coached not to actually answer my question,” she told him. “You keep talking about what you did. I want to talk about what you’re going to do.”

She asked whether he would adopt the recommendations of a de Blasio-era diversity task force, which include replacing Gifted & Talented programs, reforming selective admissions policies that can act as barriers for Black and brown students, and redrawing school zones. Samuels did not commit. He noted that he had “really tackled” some of those issues as a superintendent in districts covering parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan, and promised more details on future efforts soon.

Afterward, Hannah-Jones said she had expected more. “I don’t think anyone left here convinced we’re going to see transformative change around this issue right now. I hope to be proven wrong,” she said. “This whole night can be redeemed if we see a real plan.”

Reactions in the audience split. Ayanna Behin, a former Community Education Council president, said Samuels was in a “tricky spot” and that Hannah-Jones “did not give him an inch.” She said she knew him from his time as a superintendent and trusted he would deliver, even as she understood why his answers frustrated parents. Parent Nadera Kaita was less patient. “Integration is not going to happen in my lifetime. I know that,” she said, urging leaders to “rip off the Band Aid and get it done.”

Before the interview, a panel of high school students described the mix of challenges and opportunities in under-resourced schools serving mostly Black and brown students, where electives, extracurriculars and Advanced Placement classes are often scarce. Senior Camilla Spillmann said the school a student attends “should not so sharply define what opportunities you have access to.” Hannah-Jones said hearing them speak about the gap between the education they want and the one they received made her want to “cry in shame.”

Samuels has promised specifics are coming. For the families who packed the auditorium, the question is how soon.