New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks says the federal investigation does not affect his job, “not even in the slightest”

NEW YORK — The first day of school came with an unexpected surprise for New York School Chancellor Banks, whose cell phones arrested, along with several other high-ranking officials, as part of a federal investigation.

He met with CBS News New York political reporter Marcia Kramer for a conversation at The Point.

Banks discusses federal investigation

Banks spoke publicly about the investigation He told reporters on Friday that FBI agents had seized his personal cellphone and the Department of Energy cellphone, as well as that of his fiancée, Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright.

“When someone wakes up at 5:30 in the morning and FBI agents come to their house, that’s not a good start to the day,” Banks told Kramer.

When asked by Kramer whether the situation had distracted him from opening schools for the city’s nearly one million students, he replied: “Not in the slightest.”

And what would he say to the students and parents who are wondering what is going on?

“In life, there are challenges, but you should always hold your head up, live your life and have integrity,” Banks replied. “That’s what I’ve always done and I would encourage all of our children, all of our teachers and everyone else to do the same.”

Regulation for smaller classes

Banks continued to discuss a state mandate to reduce class sizes over five years, saying the city needs more financial support.

He said they will need Hundreds of new schools and 10,000 to 12,000 new teachers. Additionally, the DOE typically hires more than 4,000 new teachers per year, so that number would triple.

“There is a national teacher shortage and it will not be easy to find more teachers. Just to pay for that, we have to spend over a billion dollars a year,” he said.

One solution, Banks said, could be to limit enrollment at popular high schools, such as special education schools.

No mobile phone ban yet

Another topic for the start of school is the city’s attitude towards Mobile phone ban in classroomsThe mayor and the school chancellor refused to issue a ban for this school year.

After speaking with teachers, parents and even students across the city, Banks said, “No one has explained to me why cell phones are beneficial in our classrooms.”

“Overall, they serve as a real distraction and sometimes worse. They pose a safety risk to our children who use their cell phones to communicate when fights break out after school, up the block or around the corner,” he continued.

He said more than 350 schools already have some form of cellphone ban in place, with another 500 set to join this year. But he called it a “complicated issue” and acknowledged that parents want to be able to contact their children in an emergency.

“We want to investigate this. We want to see how best to implement it and how best to involve our parents,” he said.

Her The conversation continued about the status of Weapon detection systems in schoolswhat he does to Addressing hate in schoolsespecially now that the world is marking one year since the October 7 attack, the need for more bilingual teachers and the new curricula for reading and mathematics.

You can also Kramers Analysis of the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump with political experts JC Polanco and O’Brien Murray here.