Parents Slam School Budget Cuts

The budget cuts will be a lot bigger if taxes go up and drive out the rich.

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 9:56 AM

No budget cuts at the private school our children attend ;-)

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 10:10 AM

Yes, and I bet there are no budget cuts in that nice little trust fund your daddy gave you either.

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 10:25 AM

The RE tax shortfall has nothing to do with downzoning, height limitation, and anti-development "activism." NOTHING!

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 11:03 AM

yea right, cos theres a housing shortage....

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 11:30 AM

10:10 that's tacky and smug. Sure, there's a topic to bring up regarding the possibility more people will choose private school over public, thereby making public schools even less supported by parents and the community. But to actually gloat over that shows a very weak character. We ourselves will choose private school b/c of where we live and other reasons, but to do that then simply not care about the public schools in your community is horrible.

But in the same respect, those who gloat over the prestige of their own public school and make fun of another neighborhood's school, those people really lack character and morals too.

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 12:09 PM

Separate private school patronizer. No trust fund here - just hard work. Don't rush to judgement - many private schoolers do not have TFs. Just sacrifice and good fiscal and life planning. My money, my choice and no tax break for not using the resources of the massive bureaucracy.

If all private including parachoial school children went to PS, the situation would be far worse.

My main point is that your anger is misguided and unhealthy.

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 12:12 PM

This is the 3rd budget cut since the fall and cuts now top 10%. Factor in the money also going to support ridiculous testing, politicized and misleading "progress" reports (using dubious metrics) there has been a significant misappropriation of monies away from the classroom, away from supporting teachers and students, directed away from the process of learning and into the pockets of private corporate coffers offering dubious consulting services and data processing. Bloomberg and Klein spin numbers, cut services and demean and isolate educators and claim to be holding teachers and principals "accountable."

There is real need for support for an educational system that has been a political football since before I was a child growing up here in the city. Our world is facing what could well be an insurmountable environmental collapse. The seas are becoming deserts, global warming will exacerbate political strife globally (we are already seeing this in the countries surrounding the Sahara experiencing genocide and humanitarian crises). If we, as a society and as a community, don't shift priorities soon we're all going to be playing on the losing side. The place to start is in the schools.

There is no reason schools cannot be funded more generously. The measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable. Our children are among our most vulnerable. They deserve better. We deserve better.

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 12:16 PM

Crime's going up, school budgets are getting slashed, soon the police budget will get slashed and property taxes will go up. The financial sector provided the biggest portion of tax revenue for NYC, and now that the financial bubble has burst, expect more and more budget cuts for the next ... well, years.

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 12:30 PM

and to those of you new to New York City, when there's no money, trust me, the city does not give a shit about you or your problems. Expect to hear this more and more often: "So what do you want me to do about it?" That's the old motto of the NYPD.

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 12:35 PM

it is now time for Bloomberg to muscle up and take back the hundreds of millions of NYC tax dollars he's trying to slip into Ratner's pockets and put it back where it belongs: put it back into school funding and use it to aleviate the looming cuts in police funding. if Bloomberg doesn't do this then he should be fired immediately. there is no excuse for enriching millionaire friends with tax money while real taxpayer services are being cut.

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 1:21 PM

As a public school parent I want to be upset about the cuts, but I think the financial situation of NYC is only going to get worse. We will look back on these present cuts as insignificant.

Still, it is insulting to place all these demands on schools and then yank the monies necessary to accomplish them. Since many schools had to *give back* money to the BoE in January, they have had to immediately cut tutoring and other academic support programs. This will in turn lower the school's test scores, which under NCLB will potentially lead to financial penalties.

Some elementary schools are threatening to cut their pre-kindergarten classes. The state only pays for 2.5 hours of pre-K, and the schools have been paying for the remaining 3.5 hours out of their own budgets. Many schools now have to choose between full-day pre-K programs, which prepare young children for school success, and academic support for older children who probably weren't prepared for school. Since the test is in 2nd grade, the pre-Ks are gonna get whacked.

Terrible, eh?

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 1:27 PM

Let's great real here. If we don't have strong public schools in New York City those who believe in public edcuation will move to the suburbs, those who have afforded or are willed to afford independent schools will enroll their children there and there will be people who choose parochial schools.

In case you've forgotten, this is America. In America one should be able to rise to the best of their ability. Our children need quality education in order to this. It's every child's right and every adult's obligation.

WE NEED STRONG PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Taking the money the city receives for education and earmarking it for things other than instruction and instruction enrichment continues to undermine the school.

Oh and in case you're wondering. I grew up and live in brownstone Brooklyn and received a quality public school education. My sibling and I attended "most selective" colleges. She made the same choice for her children.

NCLB is now being exposed for the farce that it is. The only way that we will accomplish quality schools in NYC is to have the means (teachers, curriculm and instructional materials) that our children need. WE have to be involved as constituted the Department of Education continually places obstacles in the way of parents and concerned citizens who have the wherewithal to insist that the Department of Education appropriately educate our children.

Our kids are not experiments. It's our job to make the investment.

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 1:59 PM

I think that money is better spent by going to Ratner. He is far more likely to build AY than most of these students are to ever graduate from high school, let alone to read and figure at grade level. The NYC public school system has been a drain for decades, inhaling money while producing substandard results (look no further than The What's grammar as illustration).

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 2:10 PM

nice try, 2:10 McTrollington.

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 3:00 PM

“This is all parents talk about,” said Alicia Cortes, the parent coordinator at Intermediate School 302 in Cypress Hills, which had to reduce the scope of its after-school programs after it lost $107,000. “

They could make up a good chunk of that money just by firing the Parent Coordinator. That position is a totally worthless patronage job, and money that could be better spent in the classroom.

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 4:33 PM

So the students are still stupid and it costs less money to the tax payer. What's the problem?

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 7:40 PM

10:10, that comment was SO inappropriate. Even on a blog where off the cuff comments are so often mad. My son (African American) speaks, reads and writes fluent Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin) because he was in a Chinese immersion class at his PUBLIC elementary school in Chinatown. He then went to Stuyvesant and graduated from Princeton last year. Unlike some of his prep-school counterparts, he had no problem securing employment because of his language skills and his history of volunteer work. He loves his job and the salary. I have been to visit him in Singapore and Indonesia and will soon make a trip to China. I am so proud of him because he is a good kid and just an overall good person. I doubt that he could have gotten the same education in a private school. Our markets have gone global and the center of economic power is about to shift to Asai and Africa. Both kids in public and private schools need to be able to compete in this new marketplace. It is my wish that every kid, whether in public school or private school, has the opportunities that my child had. I know that he may be the exception and not the rule and that pains me. So, I don't gloat because others didn't have or can't get what he had. I do what I can in my community to help.

Posted by: guest at March 20, 2008 9:44 PM

Nice story, 9:44, but judging from data and viewing the system as a whole, your son is an obvious exception. Very few children in NYC public school wind up in one of the three elite high schools (BTech, BxScience, Stuy) and for every success story, there are 20 cases where children graduate with subpar skills and struggle to compete in the job market as adults. Citing an anecdotal case does nothing to disprove this.

Posted by: guest at March 21, 2008 12:49 PM

If you want good public schools, move to the suburbs. Why do you think people go there? because they're not as cool as you, and are afraid of the big bad Brooklyn you personally tamed?

Not quite.

Posted by: guest at March 21, 2008 6:03 PM

12:49,

Do you have reading comprehension issues?

"I know that he may be the exception and not the rule and that pains me." - 9:44

9:44 stated that a parent gloating because their kid's private school wasn't getting budget cuts was not nice. They also stated that their son would not have obtained the same type of education in a private school which is very true. When public schools get it right, they really do a better job than the most elite private school. Problem is they don't get it right often. With the increase in the number of upper middle class to plain old rich professionals with school aged children now living in Brooklyn, there aren't enough seats in the private schools for all of the kids seeking those spots even when their parents can afford to pay the outrageous tuition.
So that brings us back to improving the public schools. One thing for sure, China is rising and will be the next superpower. This is why we ignore their human rights and environmental atrocities and why American business is working at full speed to break into this market. Our kids, whether educated in private school, public school or suburban schools just can not compete. They are all as a whole being outdone by their "third world" educated collegiate counterparts.

Posted by: guest at March 22, 2008 11:31 AM