Hochul to kick off “listening tour” as she mulls statewide ban on phones in schools
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday kicked off a “listening tour” on how to combat harmful smartphone use in schools as she mulls a statewide ban on kids having the devices in class.
Hochul said leaving it up to each school district to decide whether to ban phones wasn’t working, and that her administration would be developing a policy to be announced later this year.
“Sometimes it’s just easier to blame the governor in the state of New York, when you want something done,” she said speaking with reporters after a roundtable discussion with educators at Guilderland High School in the Albany suburbs Monday morning.
Hochul said restricting pupils’ phone use in school was the “next frontier” after she signed first-in-the-nation legislation to give parents more control over their kids social media usage last month.
“It’s instigating more fights and they’re setting up activities that they want to capture so they can become a social media star themselves, so it’s feeding itself and the constant pull of attention away from their studies,” Hochul added Monday.
“I’m not blaming the kids, I’m not blaming the parents, I’m not blaming the administrators,” she said. “It’s hard enough for adults to pull themselves away from cell phones, I can’t imagine how hard it is for these young people as well.”
The governor first publicly floated restrictions on phones in school earlier this year, but has yet to delve into many specifics including when or how they would be implemented.
She has previously noted that any policy would be mindful of parents who want to have a way of contacting their kids, especially in emergency situations.
Hochul cited a recent Pew Research survey where 72% of high school teachers polled reported cell phone use amongst their students as a “major problem.”
In that same survey, 60% of high school teachers said they found it was somewhat or very difficult to enforce their school’s policies on cell phone use.
New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks said last month that he’s “very much leaning towards banning cell phones” in Big Apple schools, though he has yet to specify further.
