Student opportunities divided by race, class as New York had other priorities

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, who got into politics because of Yonkers' prominent desegregation case, said students in affluent districts are still surprised when she tells them that students in neighboring school systems don't have musical instruments or easy access to guidance counselors. "People don't realize how different things are when you go from district to district or even school to school," she said. "You have to have enough people who are willing to change the system. It's so hard. Everything is seen as a zero-sum game — 'If someone gets more, I get less.' I hope that during this COVID period, people have been forced to see things differently."