School Admissions Changes Causing 'Chaos'
This year the Department of Education changed its admissions process for pre-K’ers, according to the Brooklyn Eagle, and the shift means a lot of parents are grappling with the fact that their kids have been placed in schools far from home. About 3,000 parents, “including those in large swaths of Brownstone Brooklyn,” recently found out…
This year the Department of Education changed its admissions process for pre-K’ers, according to the Brooklyn Eagle, and the shift means a lot of parents are grappling with the fact that their kids have been placed in schools far from home. About 3,000 parents, “including those in large swaths of Brownstone Brooklyn,” recently found out their kids didn’t get into any of the schools they’d put down on application forms. Yesterday Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and Councilman Bill de Blasio held a press conference to decry the new pre-K placement system, and Gotbaum said the changes “have had some chaotic consequences for parents.” The new admissions process is apparently affecting older kids, too. Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn has been writing about how her child didn’t get in to any middle schools, apparently because of a DOE computer glitch. The blogger is describing the experience as traumatic: “And then [my daughter] heard me talking on the phone to the New York Times. She doesn’t know who I was talking to but she can tell that I am agitated, annoyed, on edge, shakey, not happy and so on.”
Pre-K Snafu Leads Brooklyn Parents To Protest at Tweed [Brooklyn Eagle]
Middle School SNAFU: My Daughter Isn’t On The List [OTBKB]
Photo by Kit & I.
For those that have dog in the middle school fight, OTBKB has an update which indicates that the DOE told elementary school administrators not to share the placement lists with parents until the letters have been mailed. Unbelievable. Fortunately, my child’s school did not adhere to this edict and I also received an acceptance letter directly from the middle school. It is now 6/4 and I have received nothing from the DOE.
12:49, thanks. I meant 10:30/11:53. We need login IDs! (kidding)
there is no 11:43
11:43, thanks for the follow up. I just thought your initial post was a bit narrow and extreme in your opinion of private school parents, but you’ve given some helpful additional perspective. We’re united in our belief that good public schools help everyone: the child, the community and ultimately the country and I’m happy to see lots of support for it here, despite the DOE’s blunders.
Who needs Jerry Springer when we have Brownstoner?
does anyone here happen to know whether the public schools in prospect heights are actually improving, or is it just a pipe dream?
11:42 when we keep hearing “I’m pretty sure that mommy and daddy came through and helped you with the down payment costs or gave you job on Wall Street, where you make $1 M a year” we know that you haven’t been able to save anything and are just bitter
“My question is, why should the taxpayers be funding pre-K, which is just glorified baby sitting and proven to be not necessary.”
So that all the mommies can work to pay all the extra taxes required by all the income support and health care that today’s senior citizens get, which they didn’t get back in the 1960s.
Huh. So, 11:33, these people you are renting to who help to pay part of your mortgage while you live paycheck to paycheck, would those be “scum of the Earth,” “moron,” “bitter renters?” The ones whose checks are “due on the first of the month” (and thank G-d, cause it sounds like you’d be in hot water if they weren’t).
I rent (and not in “prime” Brooklyn, but in Kensington). I do not live paycheck to paycheck. I’m also not bitter. I’m comfortable, because I live within my means and put my money where my values are. Renting, while not a perfect thing, has some benefits. You, on the other hand, sound pretty pissed off.
And I send my kid to one of the finest Montessori schools in the city. That was the choice I made. I attended NYC public schools from K-8th grade, during the 1970s-80s, and attended a SUNY school. I turned out fine, but I can tell you that when I entered the workforce I had an ACCUTE sense of the camaraderie between those who attended private institutions (one place where I worked early in my career was famous for interviewing and hiring only Yale grads, as the boss was a Yale graduate. I basically snuck in there.) Providing my child with the absolute best education I can afford is more important to me than wainscoting. Providing her with the best opportunities will continue to be my priority until she’s ready to go out and make her own opportunities.
I believe in Public Education in principle, but let’s face it, attending one of the top public schools in NYC — the ones located in “prime” or prestigious neighborhoods — carries the cachet of private school. I pay tuition. You pay a hefty mortgage to live in the “right” neighborhood. I would say we’re more alike than not, except that my kid is going to the school I chose for her in the Fall.
Am I a good neighbor, invested in my community? Well, I shop local, check on my elderly neighbors, bring cookies to my firehouse when I bake, pay my taxes, called to have trees planted in front of our building as part of the Bloomberg plan, take my kid to the local playgrounds, donate toys and contribute to Greenwood. I do what I can.
I am truly sorry for those of you who now have to alter your commutes and childcare plans to accommodate this, or who didn’t get a place in the school that drew you to your neighborhood, or who are worried about your home losing value.