New York Mayor Bill de Blasio will officially announce Wednesday that the city’s public schools will observe the two major Muslim holidays.
The schools will be off for one day during Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
According to a 2008 Columbia University study, 10 percent of New York’s public school students are Muslim.
In a Twitter post revealing the new policy, de Blasio described adding the holidays as a “a change that respects the diversity of our city.”
“This is monumental as New York City has the largest public school system in the country with well over one million students,” wrote activist Linda Sarsour on Facebook. “Muslim children will never have to choose again between their faith and their education.”
In 2009, then-Mayor Micheal Bloomberg blocked a move by city council to make Muslim holidays officially observed, arguing that children need more, not less, school time.
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