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The administration and PTA for P.S. 321 on 7th Avenue and 1st Street—widely considered one of the best and most progressive public elementary schools in Brooklyn, if not the entire city—are up in arms about the $125,000 in budget cuts the school is facing, and they’re calling on parents to march at the Department of Education offices tomorrow. (Principals all over the city have been slamming the slashed DOE budget.) P.S. 321’s principal sent a note home to parents saying the cuts mean the school won’t be able to buy new classroom furniture and certain school supplies (including new math books), and that there will be less money available for the professional development of teachers. On Monday, the PTA co-presidents sent home another letter (see copy on jump) about how the loss of funding will hurt the school; this communication asks parents to show up for the 4:00 p.m. rally in Lower Manhattan tomorrow to protest the cuts. (The rally is distinct from the meeting about the budget cuts that Councilman de Blasio is holding at Borough Hall tonight.) So how does all this circle back to real estate? This is no doubt overly simplistic, but is it possible for the budget cuts to make some would-be Slope buyers (who often move to the neighborhood because of schools like P.S. 321) reconsider, or think about shelling out for private school instead? Or do the strong voices of parents at P.S. 321 affirm the lure of the school and neighborhood? GMAP

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  1. Cant have it both ways – if poverty and racism means that you are so bogged down as a single parent trying to make ends meet that you can’t educate your children – then clearly you don’t have time for bbq’s and drinking.

  2. Is it any surprise that the ethnic group whose most religious object is a BOOK, equates a religious life with the study of BOOKS, and who has a major holiday simply for the express purpose of reading a BOOK is also the same ethnic group who is probably the most successful in our modern world which puts a premium on education above all else????

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