Up Close: NYC Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Tne New York City public school system involves more than 1.1 million students, and a yearly budget of about $26 billion, more than the annual government spending in 17 states.
The annual cost per student is more than $20,000, about twice the national average.
It is a huge, complicated system, with a diverse population and an incredible diversity of opinion on how to run it.
Joining us this week is the woman in charge: Carmen Farina, a former teacher, principal and deputy chancellor. Mayor de Blasio convinced her to come out of retirement a year and a half ago and become the chancellor.
After 9 African-Americans were shot and killed in a church in South Carolina, the Confederate flag is coming down everywhere from statehouses in the South, to shelves at Walmart, and websites of the biggest online merchants in the nation.
Are we experiencing a sea change over the issue of race? Or is this just a symbolic gesture that doesn't really change anything? Or somewhere in between.
Joining us is the Rev. Calvin Butts of the Abyssinian Baptist church in Harlem.
Also, from the Confederate flag to New York City politics and schools, we'll analyze what it means with our political experts: Hank Sheinkopf, a political consultant with a hankering towards Democratic party clients and Jeanne Zaino, a political analyst and a professor at Iona College and NYU.
