New York City has postponed the opening of schools until September 21, after teachers threatened to go on strike to protest unsafe work conditions due to the pandemic. New York City is the only major urban school district in the country planning to reopen classrooms in the fall, though many students have opted for remote learning. Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, praised the city’s new reopening plan.

Michael Mulgrew: “And I can say to you now, because we have our independent medical experts, have stamped this plan — and we now can say that New York City’s public school system has the most aggressive policies and greatest safeguards of any school system in the United States of America.”