The public school system of New York City, once the most envied and successful educational factory in the country, is now struggling to satisfy even the bare minimum educational needs to its students. And they continue to fail…the system and students. Years back, the city’s schools had the burden of teaching English, history, mathematics and other basics to newly arrived immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe who came to this country without even the knowledge of our spoken or written word, and yet the schools and their teachers somehow successfully took these willing learners and churned out of them scores of Nobel Prize winners, doctors, lawyers educators, professionals, writers and entrepreneurs, the likes of which the world has never seen. Nor, will it again, if our inept current crew of educational leaders continue to ravage the system. And in NYC, they are going at the pace of demolition of public education, full speed ahead.
There are many factors to blame for the decline in the product the NYC Department of Education (DOE) pumps out to colleges and in most instances, to the streets, where they’re forced to seek low level employment due to their poor educational preparations. When you consider the DOE’s budget derived from taxpayers is $25 billion and the number of students is now less than one million, the cost to “educate” a student is $25,000. We shuddered at the thought of this amount once we checked to learn that to attend NYU as an undergraduate, the costs are about equal. Of course, the options are parochial (religious) and Charter Schools, which offer a much better education, can toss out disruptive students, don’t have the requirements of hiring union members and have much smaller classes. But why even have these alternatives? What’s wrong with the system?
The failing system itself admits to losing more than 4% of its students since last year. And since the advent of the pandemic, more than 8% total. Why? Mayor Eric Adams tried to address the problem this way: “We’re doing the things that parents were troubled about (Whatever that means). Gifted and talented programs in every district; we’re going to ensure our schools are safe (Let’s see the figures) and we’re also going to create a better experience in our schools.” Nonsense. His predecessor, DeBlasio, threatened to shut down three elite high schools because they did not represent the racial composition of the city. Racism, personified.
And we also are troubled by the DOE’s statement regarding the selection and hiring of teaching personnel based on race. They state: “We are committed to recruiting a teaching force that reflects the diversity of students in New York City public schools. In our 2019 Summer Cohort (program for recruitment of teachers) 68% of Fellows self identified as a person of color.” And most of these future teachers were graduates of NYC schools. So, as in the selection of our latest Supreme Court Justice, race plays the major factor in the selection of teachers. We demand the best and most qualified teachers whatever race, color, height, weight or whatever. Let’s choose teachers as they do for athletic teams: The best qualified with the best skills. Our schools are reeling from the effects of the pandemic, with many students lost in the shuffle and inadequacies of remote instruction. Our political and educational leaders must get on the ball to totally revamp our failing school system to make it again as it once was, the best in the nation. And parents must speak out to make this happen. Voices, vision an votes will accomplish this end.. Speak up!
