At a February 2 press conference outside of P.S 244 in Flushing, Queens, on Chinese New Year's Eve, State Assemblywoman Grace Meng, along with President of the Chinese American Parents Association Pauline Chu, and Asian-American students, urged that the New York City Department of Education designate Chinese New Year an official school holiday, allowing Asian-American students to celebrate this meaningful traditional holiday.
Meng recently sent Schools Chancellor Cathleen Black a letter requesting that they announce Chinese New Year as a public school holiday. She hopes that the students themselves will send letters to the Mayor and the Schools Chancellor to explain their request. This was the third time that Meng called for this request. She and Assemblyman Daniel Squadron (D-District 25) introduced a bill asking that New York, which has more than one million Asian residents – 7.5 percent of the state population – designate Chinese New Year as a holiday.
According to Meng, Asian residents make up about 12 percent of the New York City population. In New York City public schools, 12.7 percent of the students are Asians, and 55 percent of the residents in Flushing, Queens are Asians. Although Chinese New Year is an official day of commemoration in New York City, it is not a holiday in New York City. Students need to submit a note explaining that they will not attend school on Chinese New Year, but it still counts as absence. Meng said this is not fair to Asian-American students.
Meng believes that designating Chinese New Year as a holiday would benefit Asian communities and help increase awareness about them. Moreover, the United States and New York City are multicultural; therefore, designating Chinese New Year as a holiday is very reasonable. Barbara Baruch, a spokesperson for City Comptroller John Liu, also attended the press conference to support the proposal. Baruch pointed out that there are many holidays in New York City public schools and suggested a review of these to eliminate unnecessary ones would prevent having to increase the number of holidays to accommodate the Chinese New Year.
Students who are interested in participating in this initiative should call (718) 939-0195 or email mengg@assembly.state.ny.us.
