New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Saturday public schools will remain closed for the rest of the school year as the city battles the novel coronavirus outbreak.
A few hours later, New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed back on the mayor's announcement, saying there had been no decision on school closures.
Cuomo said de Blasio could not unilaterally close New York City's schools without coordinating with the rest of the metropolitan area, and insisted the decision to reopen New York schools rested with him.
"It is my legal authority in this situation," the governor said in response to a reporter's question about whether closing schools in New York City fell under his authority over the city's mayor.
The contrasting messages sowed confusion among some educators.
"So what’s going on?
NYC educators like myself were already notified by @UFT that school is closed for the remainder of the year," one teacher wrote in a Twitter post, referring to the United Federation of Teachers.
"This back and forth is infuriating." Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams took to Twitter to criticize what he called "petty back-and-forths." "Who has legal authority to close down @NYCSchools?
That’s a conversation for people with time for largely academic conversations," Adams said.
"I don’t have the time.
I don’t have patience for petty back-and-forths in the middle of a deadly pandemic."
The current plan to keep public school students from returning to the classroom this academic year has not been comforting news to..
