Parents Slam School Budget Cuts
Thousands showed up to a protest in front of City Hall yesterday to decry budget cuts to city schools, according to The Times. In January the city and state forced schools to slash 1.75 percent of their current budgets, and bigger cuts are expected next year. Last year, however, the Department of Education pledged to…
Thousands showed up to a protest in front of City Hall yesterday to decry budget cuts to city schools, according to The Times. In January the city and state forced schools to slash 1.75 percent of their current budgets, and bigger cuts are expected next year. Last year, however, the Department of Education pledged to dramatically increase school funding, a promise it appears to be reneging on. 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. We have been getting better for a while, and we thought there was a way to progress, and then all of the sudden there’s these cuts. You can’t cut off people’s legs and then expect them to succeed. The Bloomberg administration, however, is quick to point out that it has increased education spending 72 percent since 2002. Many Brooklynites are protesting the cuts, including The Windsor Terrace Alliance, which has put sample letters to elected officials on its website so parents can easily write to officeholders to express their displeasure with the funding measures.
Thousands Protest Budget Cuts Aimed at City Schools [NY Times]
Sample Protest Letters [Windsor Terrace Alliance]
Photo by wallyg.
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.
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.
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.
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.
So the students are still stupid and it costs less money to the tax payer. What’s the problem?
“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.
nice try, 2:10 McTrollington.
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).
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.