Governor Hochul: “Let's let them be students, which is their number one purpose of sitting in school, letting them absorb the information, let them learn how to have person to person human contact. So eventually when they graduate, it won't be strange for them to make eye contact with someone or to collaborate on a project in the workplace.”

Hochul: “The teachers don't want to be the phone police. They want to teach. They want to get these kids back.”

Earlier on Sep 18th, Governor Kathy Hochul was a guest on Vox Media’s latest episode of “Today, Explained” with Sean Rameswarm.

AUDIO of the episode is available here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Sean Rameswarm, Vox Media: ?Governor Kathy Hochul, in the first half of the show, our reporter at Today Explained, Miles Bryan, spoke to the principal of Science Leadership Academy, which is a high school in Philadelphia. The principal there restricted cell phone use in classrooms, but importantly, he let kids use their phones in the hallways at lunch, and it was kind of, put your phone in this little purgatory, get it back at the end of the class.

And his argument in doing that was that smartphones are a fact of life now, and we need to help kids learn how to manage using them, not just how to not use them. What do you think of that approach? Would you advocate at this point for something similar for New York?

Governor Hochul: You know the people who don't want that approach, are the teachers who have to be the enforcers. It is easier to have a - “Lock them up at the beginning of the school day,” “Get them out at the end of the school day.” Instead of “Oh, who's going to make sure they have them locked up again when they come back from recess?” “Who's going to make sure they're locked up after lunch?” They go to the restroom.Who's going to make – The teachers don't want to be the phone police. They want to teach. They want to get these kids back.

And the other observation I'll have is this. One of the school districts that implemented a full ban said they heard something that was so unique they hadn't heard in the longest time when they did that.

Young people talking to each other in the hallways, kids communicating during lunch, talking during physical education class. So you're denying them, because they're going to get all caught up in the stresses that this puts kids under – the FOMO feelings, the – people that are being bullied and mocked online and teased because they're wearing something funny or the kids that are trying out for drama class and someone videoed it and posted it and now they're all embarrassed. So they're not trying out for drama class. I heard that from the drama teacher.

They're not going to be any better off if it's still available throughout the day. Let's let them be students, which is their number one purpose of sitting in school, letting them absorb the information, let them learn how to have person to person human contact.

So eventually when they graduate, it won't be strange for them to make eye contact with someone or to collaborate on a project in the workplace. This is also building the next generation of workers and adults. Our job is not to raise kids, it's to raise adults. And I –letting them be kids again when they're supposed to be, letting them be in a learning environment, I think is going to go a long way toward their own mental health, because their mental health is not in a good place right now.

Sean Rameswarm, Vox Media: An unfortunate fact of school life in the United States, as we just saw in Georgia, is that we have shootings in our schools, right? And I can see this becoming a very emotional issue for you in New York State. And, you know, it's hard to argue with a parent who's scared they won't be able to connect with their child during a school shooting.

Do you think that might end up leading to some sort of compromise here? Where, yeah, the phone's somewhere in the classroom, but you know, we are putting the burden on teachers to get the phones at the beginning of class and give them back at the end of class. Do you think that might be the middle ground where you end up in in New York on this issue?

Governor Hochul: I'm willing to have conversations about any angle of this. I just know what I've seen. I've done, in every corner of the state, I've done roundtables, pulling together people who have different opinions on this and listening to the superintendents, the teachers — the New York State Association that represents teachers wants this to happen because they want to get the kids back and have some influence on them again.

I know the opposition and what they're going to say. They're going to tell me that they need to be able to reach their children if there's a crisis or a school shooting. And I'll tell you right now, that was my first reaction. Like, “Okay, they may not need to have access to the internet or social media during the day, but they certainly need a cell phone to contact their parents if there's a mass shooting — every parent's nightmare.” But I heard from law enforcement and they disabused me of that notion because they said, “If there is a crisis on campus, no matter what it is, the last thing you want are your kids reaching for their cell phone, trying to communicate with them, taking pictures, getting video of it. You want them to pay attention to the head of the classroom — their teacher — to lead them to safety.” And I was persuaded the second I heard that from law enforcement.

Sean Rameswaram, Vox Media: Where do you think we’ll end up as a country? I mean, it seems sort of surprising that we're just now figuring out that this is an issue, but we heard in the first half of the show that the pandemic really changed kids’ relationships to the classroom, to their phones, to each other. But do you think we'll end up in a place where every school will be doing some version of this?

Governor Hochul: My view is that, if we never start out with an expectation that they're allowed in schools – this will be the first generation we liberate from that. I'm trying to help these kids get help, get support now, before they end up with a lifetime of needing professional help. That’s how urgent this is right now.

It's all about listening to the kids. They want us to save them and I'm the adult who's going to be willing to do that.

Sean Rameswaram, Vox Media: New York Governor Kathy Hochul, adult. Of course, banning phones in school is not the issue she's best known for, at least not yet. She's most associated with congestion pricing.

About a year ago, we made an episode titled “Taxing Traffic,” at Today, Explained all about New York City's first in the nation plan to charge cars $15 to drive through the city during peak hours. But then, in the 11th hour, the Governor put that plan on ice this June. So, we had to ask her, why?

Governor Hochul: It is still alive, except I had to be the one who acknowledged the fact that at this moment, $15 is a hard hit for working families in New York and particularly New York City.

So, we can fund the subway system, we can reduce congestion pricing, we can find a path through congestion pricing. But $15 right now is just too much.