Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks on Phones in Schools at NYSUT's “Disconnected” Conference

Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks on Phones in Schools at NYSUT's "Disconnected" Conference

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered remarks on phones in schools at NYSUT's "Disconnected" Conference in Albany.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

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

Thank you. Yes, this is an extraordinary gathering of people that we could not have foreseen. When we started to talk about this a year ago, a few enlightened people came forward, people like Melinda, but others were not so sure we could take on something so bold and audacious. But that's right up my alley. I like to do that. The issues that others say are too hard to tackle and move on, I say, bring them on.

But when I have allies like NYSUT and Melinda Person, and all the others gathered here, our school board members, our PTA, our school superintendents, our districts, our principals, parents - I can say there's no stopping us.

We could not have imagined, just a year ago, a day like today. Absolutely not. And to have so many people here willing to stand up and do what is right - I want to acknowledge some of my colleagues in government. I notice that Senator Shelley Mayer has joined us here, Senator Mayer. Assemblymember Pat Fahy has joined us, Pat Fahy. I saw Harvey Epstein here coming up from the city, Harvey, great to see you as well.

The easiest thing in life is doing nothing. But when it comes to our kids on an issue like we're talking about today, doing nothing is simply not an option. When I took office, I vowed change. I had seen that our mental health system here in the State of New York had languished from neglect. Forgotten. No one talked about it. But yet, New Yorkers were suffering. And you know who was suffering the most? Our kids.

I can guarantee that every adult in this room does not wake up thinking about the pandemic anymore. COVID is in the rearview mirror for you. My friends, after listening to countless young people, it is still having an effect on their mental health today. What they went through for a year, a year and a half, two years, has profoundly impacted their quality of life and their well-being. We have to acknowledge that. We have to acknowledge that these kids are suffering.

And I made a commitment to transform New York's mental health system. And we do it, we don't go halfway. We boosted funding by $1 billion to show our commitment. Investing in more psychiatric beds and services, and setting aside millions of dollars to help kids with programs: suicide prevention efforts, eating disorder care, peer to peer programs. But you know what was so important to me? Was the school-based mental health clinics that - when I was growing up, or my kids who are now adults were growing up - you wouldn't have thought you needed. But today, we need them.

And we listened to the kids, we listened to parents, and I could not ignore the trends that were emerging beyond the pandemic. What else was having such a detrimental effect on our kids' mental health? And we learned that coinciding with the pandemic was the rise in addictive algorithms, intentionally designed by social media companies to grab your child, your student, and hold them - hold them captive.

Every generation has struggles. I'm a former teenage girl. I know it's not the easiest time in life. I raised a teenage girl. I'm still around to talk about it. And we're very close now, okay? And none of this is news to you, but the parents and teachers of today are wrestling with something that is unprecedented. And you see this. All of you.

I'm not telling you something that those of you who are in constant communication with our kids, our teachers, our administrators, our school boards, you know what I'm talking about. You are on the front lines. And I'm proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with NYSUT and educators to say that, first of all, we have to make sure there's sufficient funding for our schools overall.

We have increased school aid. We have increased school aid by over $5 billion in two years, the largest funding increase in history and fully funding Foundation Aid for the first time ever. Tier 6 retirement benefits there to help our teachers. Overhauling the reading curriculum.

I listened to Melinda, I listened to Randi Weingarten, I listened to Mike Mulgrew about how we're teaching in our schools, why we're teaching reading, and phonics based on a system that was put in place 20 years ago and is not successful. So, I don't mind reaching into the world and saying we can do better.

All these investments have been made with one sole purpose: to do what's best for our kids. But listen, there's something else going on. What we had to do was address these algorithms aggressively because I'll never forget one of the round tables I did locally with a number of high school students. They were describing to me what they were going through, and I felt as a mom, more than anything. My heart was breaking, because this young woman said to me, "We can't put down the phones in schools. We can't do it. You have to save us from ourselves."

This was a cry for help. It hits you right here when you're a mom, you're a parent, you're a teacher who cares. You can't ignore that. What she was referring to was the fact that she'd be ostracized. That she had to know that the kids were talking about what she was wearing that day or what she was saying, what she was doing in school or their meeting in the lavatory - she needed to be connected because if you weren't, you were a social outcast. But just imagine a world where no one has the phone with them. No one is an outcast. No one has to worry about being bullied when they should be paying attention to their teacher in the front of the classroom. This is the world we're talking about. The anxiety, the depression, the sadness that never seems to go away. I have close family members, I'm watching them, spiraling. They need help.

So, we took on the social media companies. Not an easy task. I'll tell you that right now, not for the faint of heart. But I said to them, with all these threats of litigation against us, you're going to lose in court. Get out of the courtroom, and get into my conference room. We can work on this together. We don't have to be adversarial, because I guarantee your corporate leadership, your CEOs, your employees also see what's going on with the product you're creating. And there must be limitations on this. Leave our children alone. Let them get some sleep at night. Don't be bombarding them 24 hours a day with messaging that they did not ask for.

That's the whole nature of this. They're taking information about your child, your student, and monetizing their mental health by bombarding them with advertising and messaging over and over again. They can go to social media sites if they want to. They can go to support groups. They can go where they want to go. But this is about them being on the receiving end of something they did not ask for.

We changed the law. I thank our legislators. I thank Nily Rozic, I thank Andrew Gounardes, those two leaders for being champions and for standing with me and our Attorney General, Tish James. Last October we did a press conference with our teachers and everybody. And we said, we are going to make sure that New York leads. We're going to be number one in the nation in terms of how far we are willing to go because the costs are so high if we do nothing. Online privacy - you should not be capturing information about our kids and selling it. You should not be hitting them during nighttime hours and parents should be able to be aware and turn off the addictive algorithms. You cannot send them this information anymore. And we got it through.

The regulations being worked on and the rest of the nation is paying attention. Look at Instagram this past week. I'm not saying they went all the way. They have some more to do, but at least they took that step that everybody told me a year ago was impossible. "Wait, how will we ever know whether it's someone under 18 or not? We don't have the ability to do that. So, we cannot limit our activity with kids under 18." I said, "Really? You're tech companies, you know how to figure this out." Surprise. They figured it out. And that's what they did this week. I need others to do that.

So, we're looking at this. We're looking at the Surgeon General report on how children are held captive. Three hours is dangerous, the average is five. I'm listening to teachers, 72 percent who say across the country this is a huge distraction. The teachers I met in person who said, "I'm in competition. I'm trying to teach, I'm trying to engage, make eye contact, have a relationship with these kids because that's how I can create a bond. And they're not even looking at me. I'm tired of this, this is getting too hard."

Those are direct quotes from teachers who want to do their jobs. We have to help them as well. So let me say this. We are doing something. We're taking on the tech giants. They're starting to come around. We need Washington to do more. You'll hear more about that. And I thank Randi Weingarten for being a national leader on this and being our champion in Washington, D.C. Thank you, Randi. Thank you.

But the cell phone in schools issue: I will tell you this, this has been an evolution for me personally. My kids were in middle school during Columbine, right? This is when you have that sense of security shaken to the core that something could happen to your child when they're out of your watch. Something devastating. A shooting. A mass shooting. I was listening to a lot of people who thought that you need to have that connection all day long, just in case something happens. And I realized my first thought was wrong.

When I listened to law enforcement who said, if there is a crisis on the school grounds, there is a shooter running loose. The last thing you want happening is for your child to be looking at their cell phone, maybe videoing, sending messages, trying to go viral, and not paying attention to the adult in the room who is trained to get them to safety.

All I needed to hear was that from multiple members of law enforcement, and I said, you know what, you're right. And I also want our kids to grow up free from this influence throughout the day. I can't help what happens after hours, Mom and Dad, that's up to all of you. We need to do more. We need to set the example as well. Let's set the example as well.

When it comes to the school day, I want our kids to be kids again. I want them to talk to each other in the hallways. I want them to yell and talk to each other in the schoolyard, I want them to communicate during lunchtime. I want them to develop the interpersonal relationships that are not occurring right now, because I've said this many times, our number one job is to raise adults, not raise kids. Our job is to raise adults, fully functioning adults who emerge from childhood with the social skills that they develop in school settings. They're being denied that now, because the cell phone has taken over human interaction.

We can stop this now. We can work with the kids who've already had to deal with the stress and the anxiety and all those pressures. We can help them, but wouldn't it be fantastic to know that their younger siblings will enter a very different world, closer to our childhoods, when you went out and kicked a ball, you talked to someone on the phone for fun, you got together and went to the movies.

Your world was not taken into a device. We owe that to our kids, my friends. We owe that to them. Let's right the wrongs of the past, when nobody had the courage to stand up and say, this has gone too far. We do not have leaders, like Melinda Person and everybody in this room, say enough is enough. Let's let our kids have a childhood free from this interference, this disruption.

I guarantee they'll be able to emerge fully functioning in technology, go to the tech jobs, all the opposition I'm hearing, I can find an answer and say, no, this is more important. My question is this: are you with me when it comes to saving our children right here and right now? Are you with me?

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