No one can deny the extraordinary challenges facing the 62 New York City public schools the state has identified as “persistently struggling” or “struggling.” The state has threatened to bring in outside receivers to operate those schools if they do not improve in the next year or two. It is a threat that fails to take into account the large number of high-need students in those schools, which manifests in low test scores, low graduation rates and chronic absenteeism.

Anyone who believes that closing schools or firing teachers will solve the problem is not serious about finding a solution. As Janella Hinds, the UFT vice president for academic high schools recently testified at a hearing in Albany, “Receivership dances around the root of the problem. Local school districts and educators that serve high concentrations of students living in poverty must deliver better support programs. But they must have the resources to fund those programs.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio homed in on the problem last fall when he created his School Renewal Program, which provides extended learning time, additional professional learning opportunities and teacher leadership positions in 94 struggling schools. The city program transforms each renewal school into a community school that offers wraparound services — after-school programs, health services, job and housing referrals — that can help students and families living on the edge.

As Hinds says in her testimony, what is driving lower graduation rates and poorer results on state exams in the city’s struggling schools is poverty, homelessness, severe learning disabilities and a lack of proficiency in English.

Addressing these challenges is an arduous, long-term endeavor, but public school educators are committed to it.