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.
I don’t blame newcomers/yuppies, etc. for not working with the public schools of some neighborhoods. A child’s education is far too important to waste on a social experiment. With some exceptions, most NYC public schools are poorly run and do an abysmal job of educating children. Many alumni can barely read or write a coherent sentence. While 11:24 makes some valid points, I think it is unrealistic to expect newcomers to care all that much about other people’s children. In fact, the pathetic state of public education is a principal reason why so many young parents leave NYC once their children reach a certain age.
12:04 &12:11,
Please do not refer to those of us who send our kids to a public school as “sacrificing” their education. It is derogatory comments like this that maintain segregation and only cause to hurt people.
As long as affluent, recent buyers with families stay in these gentrifying fringe neighborhoods, they will demand and receive quality education whether private or public. But it won’t happen overnight. I say within five years. Park Slope is a good model, no?
Wouldn’t a private school venture do well in these times? How difficult is it to start and run a new private school?
PS 31 and PS 34 in Greenpiont are excellent school. Their snandardized test scores are higher than PS 321’s in the Slope.
Unfortunately, middle schools fall off the map in Greenpoint and Williamsburg.
As an alternative, the local Catholic schools are very good.
I for one am unwilling to sacrifice my child’s education or put him on the frontline of a cause that I choose to fight. The last posters comments are great and get right to the point.
11:24 & 11:25 do you have children?
School funding has ZERO to do with the relative failings of certain NYC public Schools over other NYC public schools – it has to do with management of the schools and the parenting of the current and future students, period!
Rather then take, take, take – the reality is that these parents are being TAKEN – they pay massively high taxes (Fed, State, Local, RE, Sales etc..) that fund a school system and then because of no fault of their own – they are forced (if they want there kids to have a quality education) to spend massive amounts more on private school.
While it is certainly unfair that parents of less means who are determined to have their kids be similarly educated have significantly less options – it is definetly not the fault of those who feel they must pay for private school. And you indignation that people arent willing to sacrifice their own kids to some god of public education (with no realistic expectation that it will benefit anyone) is why being liberal has come to have such a bad connotation in this country.
If people want to send their kids to public school great, if people want to get involved in improving their public school even better – but people arent bad citizens if they are unwilling to sacrifice their own childrens education to make up for the deficiencies in others parenting or the wholesale mismangement of a core government function.
Many of the newer residents have tried to work with the schools in the neighborhood. There are two obstacles that get in the way. Many of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg families that were born and raised in the neighborhood are unreceptive to new ideas and are suspicious of the new residents who want to work to improve things. Secondly, the facilities in all the schools need big improvements. These are just two reasons why many families have opted out of the local schools. Many have tried but have been let down. That is why I have pulled both of my kids from a local elementary school in Williamsburg.
My thinking is along the line of that stated by 11:24. I believe the turn-around at PS 8, in Brooklyn Heights, serves as a good model. If chan is correct, I suggest that those parents get involved in the local schools now so they can reap the personal benefit when their children are school-age.
This does not surprise me. People in Williamsburg do not seem actively involved with their neighborhood as they do in Park Slope, for instance where schools are above average.
The younger generation of parents are entitled and think the world should provide, and they are there to take, take, take.