School's Out in Williamsburg
Williamsburg and Greenpoint may be filling up with affluent families lured by the recent condo boom, but the well-heeled new residents are hardly beating a path to local schools. According to an article in this week’s Crain’s (sub. req’d), enrollment is plummeting in the neighborhoods’ public schools–it’s down 12 percent in elementary schools over the…
Williamsburg and Greenpoint may be filling up with affluent families lured by the recent condo boom, but the well-heeled new residents are hardly beating a path to local schools. According to an article in this week’s Crain’s (sub. req’d), enrollment is plummeting in the neighborhoods’ public schools–it’s down 12 percent in elementary schools over the past two years, with middle schools operating at 56 percent capacity, on average. The classrooms are emptying as older residents priced out of the neighborhoods are forced to leave and newer residents put off by what they consider to be conservative education practices decide to send their kids to schools farther afield. The trend is exposing chinks in the armor of the Bloomberg administration’s rezoning of northern Brooklyn, which was supposed to create a community where rich and poor (and their offspring) rubbed shoulders. On top of that, it could spell trouble ahead for developers who are marketing Williamsburg and Greenpoint buildings to young professionals with families. And developers are keenly aware of the areas’ lack of pull on the education front. “We have thought about it,” said Ron Moelis, a principal with L&M Equities, which is developing Schaefer Landing. “I don’t have an answer for you. There’s talk of a charter school, a new magnet school or maybe even a new private school. It would be great if that occurs.”
Photo by specmotors.
The post here assumes that lots of families are movining in b/c lots of housing is being built. Actually, most of the smaller developments that have already come on-line in the area that was rezoned and the surrounding neighborhood have only studios and 1BRs. These are not the type of units that people with school-age children buy. So we may see more enrollment as the larger developments around No. 10th to No. 12th and along the waterfront get CofOs.
In response to 12:54 Whats beautiful about growing up in NYC is that you can apply to any public school that you want to. There are more choices out there for us. If you don’t like your local public school you can try another. We are not confined to our zoned schools like people are in rural and suburban American.
Chances are you won’t have to explain to your kids why they aren’t playing with the locals because alot of them will probably already be at what ever school they go to across the river. I live on a block in Greenpoint and some of the kids go to the local public school, some go to other public schools some go to Catholic School and some go to private school. They all play together regardless.
1:01 here, you’d think I didn’t go to school with the spelling mistakes. Sorry.
The attitude that other people’s children are not your concern as a parent of a school aged child is part of the larger problem of failing public ed. While I understand not making your child “part of an experiment”, I cannot help but think that this myoptic approach aids in dooming somebody else’s kids to a life of failure.
We all pay for failing kids, one way or another, usually in taxes to support the police, courts, drug programs, single parent programs, welfare and the prison system. We pay for it by higher insurance premiums, and higher retail prices.
Most of the parents of these failing kids were failing kids from a failing school system themselves. If we don’t draw a line in the sand, and say “it stops here”, we are only letting the system perpetuate till eternity. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that simply exiting yourself from the problem is not it.
I sympathise with non-affluent parents in this situation. Your kid’s safety and education cannot be trifled with. We are all smart people. Can’t we come up with a better solution?
there are enough yuppies in williamsburg now that if everyone sent their kids to public school they would have the critical mass to make a difference. and frankly I think they will start sending them. it’s good if the schools are going down in enrollment. that just means the tipping point to making them majority educated middle class parents will be attained more quickly. sorry to sound like an elitist, but that is simply the reality with education.
I.S. 318 on Lorimer St. in Williamsburg is among the best junior high schools in the city. The administration has been at the school for 30+ years, as have many teachers there. The school was great before Williamsburg started to change and will be great long after. By the way, I.S. 318 has almost 1,500 students, up from close to 1,000 in 2004. Also, be careful about using DOE stats about a school’s capacity. There numbers assume using every inch of space in a building for classrooms- eliminating bathrooms, teachers’ cafeteria, meeting rooms, supply rooms, etc.
There are many exceptional public schools in New York City. Unfortunately the exceptional ones that are on par with or better than some private schools are not in our district. I send my children to public schools but none in our district because I DO feel that I would be “sacrificing” their education if I did so. I just want to do the best for them that I can possibly do. What is wrong with that? Thats just my feeling about it. Feelings aren’t facts. Whats good for one family isn’t necessarily good for another. If anyone feels hurt by someone else stating their feelings and opinions then they are insecure with their own convictions to begin with.
I plan on sending my daughter to PS 17 when she’s old enough in a few years. I went to an inner city public school and I think it was fine. Elementary education is not rocket science, and from what I’ve read the local schools aren’t that bad.
Besides, an uncrowded school seems to be to be a good thing. As does not dragging a five-year old across the river and then explaining to her how she’s better than the kids on her block, who have to go to the local school because their parents don’t care.
No, seriously. How do you explain it to your kids? Do you let them play with the locals? What message do you think they’re learning?
problem is, 12:47…people don’t want to leave the city anymore.
parents need to step up to the plate and contribute to their community. that’s the whole point of living in an urban environment.
the suburbs are dying. they are not good for the environment. they are not good for many people’s soul.
parents with kids should be getting more actively involved in turning some of these schools around.