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.
It never fails to gall me how Brownstoner commenters pat themselves on the back for their community spirit, yet yanking your kids out of the public school system and into private is considered not just OK but–judging by 10:12 a.m.–a moral obligation.
I have kids in a good but not most-sought-after public school in Brooklyn; but the school is getting better by leaps and bounds precisely because parents in the neighborhood (who have spare time to invest and extra money to donate) are not fleeing to private schools but staying and getting involved.
If you take your kids to private, you’re not a fully involved member of your community. It doesn’t matter how “diverse” your neighbors are or how smug that makes you feel if you’re too good to let your kids go to school with their kids. Do you think your neighbors believe you’re making a wonderful contribution to the community because you’re restoring your freaking wainscoting? Spare me.
Either you’re dedicated to supporting and helping your neighborhood’s institutions–with your involvement, not just your taxes–or you’re a parasite like anyone else. It doesn’t matter if you live in Cobble Hill or Crown Heights. You’re not a neighbor.
Hey, 10:12,
Do you ever use a park? Ride the subway? Walk on a busy sidewalk? If so, thanks a lot for making those public amenities more overcrowded, too. And by the way, don’t borrow any books from the Brooklyn Public Library. I want to read those.
10:10 — private school tuition is close to $30,000 per year per child. Most of the schools are pretty parsimonious about giving financial aid, and if your HHI is over $150,000 a year you don’t qualify for any.
The only real issue here is that the bumblf@ck beureaucrats at DOE are typical of bumblef@ck beureaucrats at all levels of government.
One thing for sure.
All you brokers out there will no longer be able to write,
” Zoned for PS _____” because families no longer are guaranteed their zoned school. Some people buy homes -based- on the school zone. Doesnt make a difference any more, I guess.
What I’ve heard is that there is a chance the same process of applications will happen next year for K, which is when the -real- grumbling will begin.
The fundamental problem is that there are insufficient pre-K spots in “good” schools in Brownstone Brooklyn. In the next year or two there will be insufficient kindergarten spots. Re-zoning is needed, but it is extremely difficult to do politically. In the meantime, there will be lotteries for pre-K and kindergarten spots, with some children send to poorly performing schools relatively far from home.
Naturally, people are furious about this. It is a nasty surprise, at best.
Putnamdenizen,
The pre-K applications were sent to a Pennsylvania company for processing.
10:12
No, I send my kid to public school because I -believe- in public school education.
Just because some parents can afford private school doesn’t mean that their children will be accepted or that the privates have enough space. I do know of families who should have been guaranteed Pre-K slots based on sibling preference but due to DOE errors such as the DOE neglecting to update their database with current addresses, their application was bounced.
The middle school process is another mess. Where are those placement letters? Rumors are starting circulate that they were sent to a “vendor” to be mailed from there. Some families have been notified since placement rosters were sent to the elementary schools and so far I know of two children that were placed in a SURR school even though they didn’t select that school. I am sure OTBKB isn’t the only parent with a child not on the list.